
Minimum Viable Movie: How I Made a Feature-Length Film for $0 - kadavy
http://www.kadavy.net/blog/posts/minimum-viable-movie-joe-avella/
======
anigbrowl
I have about a decade of experience in low- and no-budget filmmaking,
including 9 feature films and too many shorts to count. Technology is a
wonderful thing, as is the fact that people are willing to pitch in and led
equipment, talent, and locations for nothing. But...

a) if you work this way (with actors doubling up as crew and so on), then you
say goodbye to QA. Although there are clear improvements from project to
project the quality is...not good. I don't want to go through a laundry list
of critcisms. But I suggest ditching the DV camera, getting a DSLR, and
learning to shoot at 24p with a 1/50 shutter speed. The cost and time savings
of not using DV tapes _alone_ will cover the food bill for your shoot.

b) "I raised $2,000 using Kickstarter." That's a very small budget, but it's a
hell of a lot bigger than $0, no? This sort of bait-and-switch marketing
technique only works if you have a commercial release. Your budget is part of
your marketing plan, and you can only use this trick once. OK, so the point is
that the filmmaker did it with $0 of his own cash. There's a thin line between
creatively financing your project on a shoestring, and coming off as a
freeloader.

c) "If this is what I did with $2,000 imagine what I could do with
$2,000,000." Production companies in Hollywood hear this pitch approximately
weekly. The response (among themselves, not to you) is 'I'm perfectly capable
of wasting my own money.' What you need to focus on now is leveraging the
achievements so far into a $20,000 budget (enough to pay a minimum wage to a
small crew and cast), and having a plan to generate a similar amount of
revenue. _That_ will open doors to larger things.

~~~
lifeisstillgood
As someone interested in making documentaries on a shoestring - I think it is
an intereting educational and interview tool - are there specific products you
would point me at, community film groups - are they any good? Just basic
'mistakes not to make' list would be very appreciated - top of the list is
which camera to (not) get and whether OSS can handle non linear editing

edit : and, rude of me not to ask first time, do you have links to any of your
9(!) feature films - would be interested and the hackernewser links don't seem
to take me there.

~~~
anigbrowl
_are there specific products you would point me at, community film groups -
are they any good? Just basic 'mistakes not to make' list would be very
appreciated - top of the list is which camera to (not) get and whether OSS can
handle non linear editing_

I personally like Canon DSLRs. The current Digital Rebel series produce nice
images in combination with a tool like Magic Lantern for well under $100. If
you can afford a 7D or %d the image quality is marginally better, the
ergonomics significantly so. But products from Nikon are also good, as are the
Micro 4:3 units from Panasonic. Sony's I'm not familiar with, but have heard
others speak highly of them.

Certainly check out film production courses at commnity colleges in your area
- you may be able to learn a great deal for relatively few $, not to mention
making food contacts. Online, good resources are <http://prolost.com/> and
<http://www.dvxuser.com/V6/> are two of the best resources, but also check
<http://rebelsguide.com/forum/>. Stu Maschwitz's 'Rebel's Guide' is a really
excellent starting point in book form, I wish I'd had it when I got started:
<http://astore.amazon.com/prolost-20/detail/0321413644> The Guerilla
Filmmaker's handbook is also excellent: [http://www.amazon.com/Guerilla-
Makers-Handbook-American-Edit...](http://www.amazon.com/Guerilla-Makers-
Handbook-American-Edition/dp/0826414648) Join a film library or filmmaker
society if you are a decent sized city, as you'll save a fortune on seeking
out and buying books on technique, financing, contracts, etc.

I personally don't rate open source audio/video editing products very highly.
If you're on Mac, then you have to seriously consider final Cut, but Adobe
sells the most comprehensive suite of tools. (Disclosure: I test for them.)

You need to understand something about motion graphics even if all you're
doing is putting up titles and evening out lighting/color disparities in your
footage. You can pick up books on Adobe Premiere and After Effects for pennies
- no need for the most current version, learn the basics from a book that's a
version or two out of date. You can get demo versions of the Creative Suite
software for free, and get full working versions quite cheap if you are
enrolled somewhere as a student (same is true for competitors of course). If
you have a budget then treat them as a line-item expense. If not, then you can
go looking for an, ah, evaluation copy. Don't try to become expert in
everything, but become conversant with the basics so you can have meaningful
conversations with people who are more experienced.

BTW, as you're in the UK, shoot 25p rather than 24p. It's easy to convert
later for other markets if necessary, but naturally you want something that
works with your local TV standards. The Guerilla film guide has more of a UK
focus, which may be helpful for you.

 _edit : and, rude of me not to ask first time, do you have links to any of
your 9(!) feature films - would be interested and the hackernewser links don't
seem to take me there._

Sure, here's a few. Please note that they're not 'my' films; they're films on
which I worked as crew or cast, and/or in which I had a silent producer role.
Most of them are pretty bad :-)

<http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0491095/> <http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0460985/>
<http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0968738/> <http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0834904/>
<http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0860837/> <http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1762380/>

~~~
anigbrowl
Ooops, that should read 'for well under $1000' - for a camera like the T3i or
somesuch, plus a few SD cards.

~~~
lifeisstillgood
That's a shame :-). But thanks for the great overview - will see how we go!

------
steffes
Really refreshing to see how people use their resources in another industry.
I'm glad to hear that he got inspiration from the hacker community at SXSW.I
haven't watched the movie yet, but I have it bookmarked for this weekend.

------
kfk
Could somebody take this further and build up a studio that seeds those kind
of movies?

I mean, look at Primer (posted here, thanks!): a budget of 7000$ and a 424000$
revenue. Even if they had a margin of 10% on that, 42000$ is still a great
payback.

I was reading on HN of a guy proposing budgets of 25k per movie. That means 4
movies with 100 k. Is somebody doing this? Why nothing like this comes up or
more mainstream?

Thoughts?

~~~
marquis
I think filmmaking and other pursuits like music will continue to bring great
authors without any community funding. Every great artist just got started
with limited means and their work shows for itself. A good artist doesn't need
a few thousand dollars to get started, they just get started, and that initial
work is either good enough for the artist to move forward or it isn't. Peter
Jackson started his first film in his backyard with his friends on the
weekend, and through sheer persistence just kept going with it long enough,
and with interesting enough ultra-low budget footage that he got a grant to
finish it, based on the quality of his work. Every other successful artist I
know just had the hustle built in: the act of producing. You can't pay people
to find out if they are going to make great work. It's there or it's not.

~~~
kfk
I don't agree with that. I mean, let's be practical here, movies are there to
make money. If a movie has a budget of 25 k, you need ~50 k people willing to
pay 1 euro to watch it to make already a decent margin. Then, after a while,
you sell downloads withouth DRM and you make another nice profit.

Other than that, a studio should offer: actors easy to reach to (maybe on a
wage?), shooting gear, special effects experts, etc. Lots of this things would
lower the entry barriers for movies a LOT.

~~~
marquis
If you're talking about movies as an industry then that's different, but if
you're talking about finding great work like Primer or Herzog's documentaries,
throwing money at filmmakers isn't going to make great work and kickstarter-
for-movies may just flood us with more mediocre product that doesn't follow
through on the director/writer's promise. You can't make a movie with a
community controlling the outcome: you need absolute creative control to make
a good film.

Shooting gear, special fx: these things are already so inexpensive compared to
10 years ago that having a nice HD camera and lenses and access to After
Effects isn't stopping anyone. I've got friends making films after hours and
on the weekends because they decided a long time ago it's what they wanted to
do, and they'll keep doing it until they make that one beautiful, promising
piece.

You just can't kick-starter this: good work happens serependitiously, not
because of a bigger budget.

------
iuguy
Action City Bathroom[1] is brilliantly funny (at least IMHO).

[1] - <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_fqC9iKpZns>

~~~
joeavella
Thanks iuguy! Glad you enjoyed it.

------
mikle
Whenever I see people claiming they did something for 0$ I find it
disingenuous. It reminds me of the old JWZ quote:

> Linux is only free if your time has no value

~~~
joeavella
JWZ?

~~~
billswift
Jamie Zawinski, one of the original Netscape developers.

------
finkin1
There's a great indie film making community in Fairfield, IA. Have you ever
been there? <http://theskyisfree.com> is an example of something out of
Fairfield - also made on basically 0 budget.

~~~
kephra
Tell me who I am

Tell me what to know and where to go

.. I'll follow

Lead us to the lie

You gave your gift now we believe

... its up there

The sky is free and we are free

~~~
finkin1
:D!

------
kephra
I have not seen this movie (yet) - But there is an other film that was made on
a shoestring budget (ca$5000) called Donkey.

<http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1595388/>

This film has the feeling and quality of early Quentin Tarantino films, and a
plot that is much better than 90% of major US films.

~~~
cpeterso
_Primer_ (2004) is surprisingly good indie film made for just $7000:

<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Primer_%28film%29>

~~~
trafficlight
Primer is probably my all-time favorite. I'm in love with the whole thing. The
story, the acting, the soundtrack, all phenomenal for what is basically the
work of one guy.

The best part, though, is the feeling that you could go out to your garage and
build something amazing.

~~~
joeavella
What ever happend to that dude? Shane Carruth? Form the looks of his imdb he
hasn't done much. Too bad :(

~~~
trafficlight
From what I've heard, he's working on a new movie called A Topiary. I assume
he's doing it the same way as Primer, so it'll probably be a while.

~~~
cpeterso
io9 has some (not _too_ spoiler-y) info about _A Topiary_ from 2010:

[http://io9.com/5569986/more-details-about-shane-carruths-
nex...](http://io9.com/5569986/more-details-about-shane-carruths-next-
mind+bending-film)

