3 Ways to Produce an Independent Film on No Budget

After you have a screenplay and camera in hand it's now time to make an independent movie but what do you do when you're making an independent film on NO BUDGET! Producing an independent film is not an easy task and it can be 100 times more difficult than producing a film that has a budget but there are many things that you (as a producer) can do to make sure your film finishes principal photography and post production. Having been a filmmaker of films both on no budget and those with a budget, the one major thing that I've discovered is that if you take the time beforehand during preproduction to assess how much you want to spend (or not spend) then you will not have any problems when you actually get into principal photography or post production. In this article I will focus on how I produced several films with no budget.

1. Get to know other filmmakers.

Other filmmakers will be instrumental to getting your no budget screenplay produced. When you network with other filmmakers you can find people with camera equipment (who know how to use their equipment) and you can find people with lighting and sound equipment. These technical aspects make up 60% of what you'll need to get your screenplay produced. I don't own any of my own camera equipment but on my feature "House of Secrets" I hooked up with a young cameraman by the name of Vernon Mui who happened to have both the camera equipment (including dolly, tripod, and other accessories) and the sound equipment, so I now at least had the means from which to make a film. On the Rose M. Barron short film "Blood Raven" I provided the camera equipment (which I had also borrowed from Mui) to bring that no budget film to life. It's all about who you know and if you network with other filmmakers then you will get to know a lot of people who can be an asset to your production.

2. Get your locations for free.

You can't shoot a film if you don't have the locations to do so. After you've produced a screenplay with limited location requirements (which adds to the feasibility of shooting your film on no budget) you now must go out there find locations that you can't afford to spend money to film at. For minimalist films that require a simple bedroom or house this is an easy task as we all know people who have houses to use (it's convincing them to let a film crew come in and take over that is the hard part), but what about the films that seem to be just a bit bigger than life and need huge locations? What do you do then? On the Southlan-Films production of "Creatures of the Night" we were able to use a castle-like house in Northern, Georgia as our main location for the WWII period film. We managed this task by filming around the home owners' schedule and giving them a percentage (or points) in the final sale of the film. On my film "House of Secrets" which required a house on the lake I gave the home owner a similar deal and an "Associate Producer" credit. People like to have their names in a real film and as a filmmaker working with limited funds I don't mind the compensation to people who help out on the production.

You have to remember that your locations can make or break your film. Having good locations is a requirement to being able to sell the film to a distributor because if the locations aren't good then your film simply looks like a "no budget" film which is not the appearance that you want. You can bring in an art director to fix this problem, which brings me to the next element of this article.

3. Get cast and crew that you don't have to pay upfront (but will take a back end deal).

An independent film is only as good as the people in front of and behind the camera so make sure to get the best people possible - for the budget, of course. The great thing about low budget/no budget film making is that many of your cast and crew will be working for experience and screen credit and will trade upfront payment for deferred payment and points when the film is sold to a distributor. All of the cast and crew on my feature "House of Secrets" were on deferred payment as was the cast for the Southlan-Films production "Bad Land" (and more recently the company's film "And All Through the House"). Many of these films utilize very talented and well known Georgia based actors and crew members who were willing to work on the particular film for screen credit and points in the film's profits (once it finds a distributor).

With these three elements in place any producer can make a film for no budget. Although I don't always suggest this (because sometimes spending a little extra money on props, makeup and costumes can add a little more to the aesthetic of the film), there is no denying that it can be done as long as you are willing to do the work during preproduction in order to maximize all the elements to making a good film. I've produced several no budget films and worked on many more trading services and equipment with other filmmakers and trading favors as needed to simply get the film made and as long as you're willing to do that than anything is possible.