What’s Standing In Your Way?
A Minimalist Approach to Filmmaking
My first feature film Layover was born from a desire to make a feature film using whatever budget I could get. $6000? Well…I guess if that’s all we can get, how do we make a film that feels like it cost a lot more?
My latest film Negative was born from the same desire: to make a feature film using what budget we could get. In this case, we were able to secure $100,000. Though it was 16x the budget of Layover it still required a whole new approach to production in order to what shoot what was quite an ambitious script. Basically, we needed to make the movie using a minimalist approach to filmmaking. So what does that look like? And what does that mean?
Well, first of all, here’s the trailer for Negative.
So, that gives you some idea of what we were able to accomplish with the budget we had. First off, to nip a few things in the bud: yes, we paid our cast and our crew and that $100,000 includes creative post-production (i.e. editorial, color, sound and music) but we did not have to worry about anything on the technical side of delivery.
What Is Minimalism Filmmaking
Basically, it’s making a film using as few production resources as possible. Shooting natural light or using existing artificial sources as much as possible, limiting the amount of equipment you carry and thus limiting the size of the crew you need. Basically, as minimal a production footprint as possible.
I’ve written about the methods we used to make the film on other sites, specifically MovieMaker Magazine and No Film School. Things like:
- Designing the script to be shot on a low-budget using modular storytelling.
- Having a minimal crew (three people) for the majority of the film and then scaling up with more people for the days that required it.
- Using low-light sensitive cameras (like the Canon ME-20F-SH) to reduce the time spent redundantly lighting scenes (relighting because the existing light wasn’t powerful enough for a base ISO of 3200).
- Spreading out the schedule to allow for more flexibility with cast, locations and crew.
- Limiting wardrobe and giving the actors’ the responsibility of having it everyday.
- Requiring actors do their own make up.
- Purchasing equipment or using equipment we already owned to reduce costs of rental, insurance and more. (Man those Cooke lens look great but its too limiting to rent them so we’ll just use the Rokinon lenses I already own and have access to 24/7.
This is what a minimalist film shoot looks like:
What Does All This Add Up To?
For me, it adds up to freedom. Freedom to make the movie I want to make in the way I want to make it. No 12 or 15 day shooting schedules. No three takes and then moving on. No money wasted on trailers and other bullshit. No waiting on lighting.
Instead, I get to spend 90% of my days shooting takes with the actors, which in turn gives me better performances and more material to work with in the edit. I get to create a sense of scope and scale to the film because we’re not limited to a certain number of locations. It means I get to leave at the end of the day without feeling like I didn’t get something.
But really, what this type of approach means is this: there’s nothing standing in your way from making your film.
With both Layover and Negative my goal was to remove those obstacles that would get in the way of us not just making a great movie but making a movie at all. I purposely went to MarVista and asked for only $100,000 because I knew that it was enough to make the movie I wanted to make but so little that hopefully MarVista would let us go and make it however we wanted. And they did.
Think about something you’re working on now, a feature or a short film you’re wanting to make. What’s standing in your way? My guess is one of the big things is money or lack there of.
If that’s the case, two things to ask yourself:
- Is there another version of this film that could be made for a smaller budget?
- If not, is there another film entirely that I could make on a smaller budget in order to then get more money for this film?
While $100,000 seems like a lot of money, it’s really not. We certainly had to ask for favors and reductions in typical costs in order to make it happen but we were also able to spend money wisely because so much of the movie was made on the cheap.
But cutting crews and resources on those days when we didn’t really need them, we were able to afford to design, rehearse and shoot a kick ass fight scene. We were able to film a shootout sequence with blank fire weapons. We were able to take a road trip to Arizona and shoot on location in Sedona and Phoenix. We were able to buy a drone and shoot drone shots whenever we wanted. We were able to purchase a car mount which allowed us to go shoot the car scenes on our schedule, not someone else’s.
So what happens if you start rethinking your approach? What happens when you start removing those obstacles preventing you from making your film?
People are going to say that you need this and you need that. But you really don’t. What do you actually need? A camera with a lens, sound recording equipment (maybe) and an actor or two. Start with that and then build out around it using the resources you have available (Robert Rodriguez’s advice). Come up with a compelling story that can be shot inexpensively, limit your crew size, maximize your locations and the scope, spend the time to get great performances and then cut it all together.
At the end of the day, you might find yourself having made a film.
Negative is now available on Digital HD and OnDemand. Get Your Copy Today!
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Joshua Caldwell is a director, writer, producer, and MTV Movie Award Winner. His debut feature film LAYOVER was made for $6000 and had its World Premiere to sold out crowds at the 2014 Seattle International Film Festival where it was nominated for the prestigious FIPRESCI New American Cinema Award. In 2015, he directed the first season of Hulu’s SOUTH BEACHand the Paramount Pictures feature film BE SOMEBODY. In 2017 his latest film, the action-thriller NEGATIVE, had its World Premiere at the Newport Beach Film Festival and is now available on Digital HD and OnDemand.
For more visit Joshua-Caldwell.com!
