This world does not have any shortage of inspiration and it sure as hell is not going to look for some from this thin end of the www where I walk on. But I write not with the hopes to be read. I write because, should it be read, I better have something written down! Now that I have successfully set an unclear tone for the content you’re about to read, let me sum up it for you. This is the story of how I, a nobody who has always dreamed of to be film maker, have raised funds from family and friends for a film, shot it and now going to do a preview release of it. And by extension, this is to tell you that it is possible, SO YOU CAN DO IT TOO!
Having done writing jobs for an always disappointed boss, myself – with my horribly self-critical cap – I have attempted to make this as short and snappy as possible. If I can say so myself, about me now – I have made 5 to 6 films with short duration oops sorry those were just kids play with toy but trust me those little works leads me to do more and more and ultimately came up with solemn note in my mind to myself that this time you have to be serious man and sand – the love without trust happened as a 50 minutes long film. It has got to be something; I hear individuals say it could have been made into full length film. So here goes, brief.
Write Truthfully and Believe in Your Work.
There will be a range of reasons for you to not type that first word down or for the pen tip to go drynow and next. Go on and write the damn craze down. And if it passes through your own vital judgment – which I am sure is so incredibly intolerant and cruel that you’re always back to square one – and over to someone else, YOU decide what you make of it. The important thing is to worry about whose criticisms matter and whose absolutely don’t. Stand by one cherished criticism from a unbiased source, if it helps – even if it means ignoring accepted idea or the fad. Trust your sense, introspect – but don’t surrender to popular culture without giving it a thought. More so if that deviates you from YOUR story! Listen to yourself and believe in your story. See if it moves people, the world could use one less story floating around in the video streaming universe with no purpose.
Ground a Dream Squad
You know that there are multiple departments that come together to make a film irrespective of its duration. And it is crucial that you pick a bright leader for the relevant department. Pick a compressed size depending upon the extent of the film. You do not want a lot of people too. Let the department heads decide how much of an backing they require and let them obtain it for themselves. There needs to be an unsaid chemistry and possession about the team. solid and sound. The story is what buys you that kind of magnificence. If you have written the screenplay and it made you laugh, cry and / or tear it apart – your team should experience it too! The feeling holds its holiness for actors too! And when you’ve grounded your dream team, you will just know it – till then keep looking but DO NOT COMPROMISE. Not only have you wasted a script on a wrong team, by engaging them, you’ve delayed various dream teams coming together away too!
Budget & Finance
You have story. Well now you need Finance! If you heard ever in your life that making film doesn’t require money. Yes it’s true but depends on your project only. Unsympathetic realism concerning making a really a worth film is it’s required plenty of bucks. It is quite costly matter. The debate on this topic could go in more than a few routes, let’s for now we are going to focus on low budget film. But don’t be offend I have four choices for you go with one of this your story can be transformed into a film.
CHOICE 1 – Make yourself for free. Assuming you do have some awareness of film, you can think of story, write down a script, find some people like friends and family who would concur to participate in your project and borrow a camera as well. The consequence of this option is that the quality of your film would suck but hey at least you didn’t spend any money and you told the story. Irony is I have done this many times. Trust me the quality was next to suck word.
CHOICE 2 – Simply slice some of your money from your monthly salary. If you are working somewhere and got salary then this option can work for you. Depending on your project in a couple of months may be you will make something happen. Drawback here is that would you spend your hard earned money on something that only you care about.
CHOICE 3 – Lend some money from people you know. Why not? Ask everyone. Don’t be shy. You can choose to be egocentric or a filmmaker. Ego has no room when you’re on a flight that’s with no money. You can offer them to be a part of your film (and of course promising them to perk and keep your promise later). How I did. You can do it. I borrowed from my family and friends. Show them your script; Convince them how your project will work. Ask them to help you.
CHOICE 4 – Crowd Funding. Funding the project online. This method actually need some clarification for those who have no idea what I am talking about. Well the definition for this is “The practice of funding a project or venture by raising many small amounts of money from a large number of people, typically via the Internet.” There are thousands of crowd funding websites you can use or you can do it by yourself by putting all the information on your film website add your budget , let people know about the rewards , put the account number and ask people to donate in exchange of rewards or perk. Hey go to Google search for crowd funding websites let yourself know about this. Or click here.
Pre-Production
You know what Lincoln said, right? About how if you had 9 hours to chop a tree, you’d rather spend the first six sharpening your axe! It couldn’t be more applicable for film making in comparison with pre-production. Though it was a short film, no stone was left unturned. We went through wide story-boarding sessions, shot division planning, shooting order and reading with the actors. The screenplay itself went through various changes/drafts, for conciseness and for enhancing the overall film experience. After finalizing the actors, rehearse rehearse rehearse!!! I have done that extravagance more than you can think. After such thorough planning also, things can go wrong on the day of the shoot, film making will never stop to surprise you. But lesser the injure the better, don’t you think?
Production
This part insanely rigid with fun as supplement but it is bumpier than those of your previous work. What matters more now is location. Start site seeing. Find places as your script required. Don’t forget to take permission for shooting. What now – hire everything as your dream team want to have on set? Command your squad to role camera, action and cut.
Post-Production
The third and final step in film making .This includes tasks such as the editing of raw footage to cut scenes, insert transition effects, working with voice and sound actors, and dubbing etc. Do it one by one.
Now your film is ready for screening! Congratulation.
Be patient – crisis is inevitable – we had our share
Despite methodic and relentless planning we had our share of crisis. Of course we managed to resolve them somehow, evidently now that the film is ready!
- The actor who was supposed to act as lead in the film first, had to quit. This was about 15 days before shooting. We then had Dev onboard. Another actor was supposed to play the anchor character had to quit then we had Archana onboard.
- Two of the locations we were supposed to shoot in, suddenly seemed difficult. This was 2 days before shooting
- First Day of shooting we were on the spot of shooting with junks of shooting equipments and the rain start pouring on us for 2 hours.
- First day was worst day, we started shooting in a flat previously we took permission but after 11 o’clock at night neighbours of that flat started to complain and finally the owner came up and we had to stop the shooting half away and that particular scene we had to manage some other flat next night and we shoot till 3 A.M of morning.
- The climax of the film was about to shot with crane but the location was in a kind of place where we could not take the crane! Drone was not in budget.
Package it!
Seal it with style! Package the whole experience. yell out – tell the world what you have done because nobody else will– thank people – give away perks as promised – give away perks that the contributors will love to flaunt! Use social media wisely.
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