RESEARCH 1 - HOW TO PRODUCE YOUR OWN SHORT FILM

16 STEPS ON HOW TO CREATE YOUR OWN SHORT FILM

 

1. Watch short films - By watching short films you will be able to gain knowledge on what other short films consists before you start. By looking at short films from popular online sites or if they’ve been at a film festival you’re able to get a good quality understanding of short films. 
2. Write a script -  Before shooting you should be able to produce a good story. Include action and dialogue so when you’re filming you don’t need to improvise anything. Also ensure that your story has original characters and dialogue for it to really stand out. Make sure that you keep locations and actors to a minimum as this could increase your budget. Also by using daytime locations its cuts down on lighting which means you don’t need any artificial lighting for your film.
3.  Keep your film short - You need to make sure that your film covers your story and meets the requirements of a short film which should be 30 minutes. Film festivals usually allow a segment of 15 minutes, therefore having a shorter story increases the chance of your film being chosen.
4. Write a budget - Simply use a spreadsheet from Excel, write down what and how much money you want to spend on certain equipment’s, props, transportations, locations, actors, crew and food.   
5. Try to get everything for free - By asking friends and family or perhaps even the pubic for any equipment that you need such as lights or cameras you can cut down money on yours budget or even make offers with them such allow them to be in your film. Perhaps you could ask a family member to provide the food for your actors.
6. Begin fundraising - There are various websites who are interested in funding independent art work. By interviewing yourself discussing your films or producing a trailer you could put it online or email it to people causing an excitement for your film and this way more people will be aware about the film your producing. 
7. Gather your crew - Use anybody that you know to take part in your film this could be your friend, family, coworkers and classmates. A minimal crew should consist of a director, cameraman and sound person, although they may have to do other jobs such as continuity and producing in order for your budget to stay low. 
8. Schedule - On a calander which could be on your phone perhaps to make things more accessible work our when your cast and crew can make it to shoot, do this for a number of weeks just to be on the safe side. Work out what you hope to do on each day in order to be on top of everything. It should include things such as:  how long the day is, how many shots needed, location, timings, and weather cover etc. 
9.      Use social media - For every shoot or audition keep your audience updated to create more a of a hype for your short film. For instance get your cast and crew to update their socail media’ such as Facebook and Twitter.
   10.  Rehearse - Doing rehearsals is vital. Although it could waste your time it will help as this way you won’t need to keep repeating the scene on the actual filming day. Also if the cast and more prepared they will feel more confident to film leading to better performances.
   11. Film quickly and cheaply - Film on days where you’re whole cast and crew if free this could be on weekends and after business or school hours. Also if you use more than one camera it enables you to be able to shoot the film more quickly in a variety of angles so you don’t need to keep repeating the scene. Although this can be costly.
   12. Pay special attention to sound - The sound of your film is extremely important, so be willing to spend a large amount of your budget on sound as this is the making of your film!
   
   
   13. Take care of catering - You need to be able to feed your crew and cast otherwise they could lose their energy. Perhaps ask a friend or family member or even yourself to bring in a couple of sandwiches and a flask of tea or soup
   14. Continue fundraising - Keep making money for your post production area. You could do this by throwing dinner parties about your film or events discussing your film and showing snippets. This will make more people more interested in investing.
   15. Edit - Nowadays technology is rapidly getting more and more developed. There are cheap and effective software’s on both the Mac and P.C. Although downloading the equipment can be costly it will be effective as you can do it yourself.
   16. Send to film festivals - If you want to enter your film in competitions then you need to make DVD’s of your film and pay festival entry fees so you should consider this in your planning. Although you must ensure that you follow al the terms and conditions and make sure your film is appropriate. If you don’t want to then you can always upload on popular online sites if you don’t want to waste money for example YouTube.
   
   
   
   
   Source: http://www.wikihow.com/Make-a-Low-Budget-Short-Film