Make A Successful No Budget Movie - Think S.A.N.T.A.

I’ve been trying to find a simple way for people to remember the basic principles of $1000 Movie making — the ideas we believe will allow us to make a commercially successful movie on a $1000 budget.

Then when I was busy hanging up my Christmas stocking, it hit me! Santa! Santa would help me explain.

S - Start with Story

The key to having a successful movie is about having a great idea for a story, a story people will want to see — so forget about genres, forget about what camera you’re going to shoot it on and concentrate on coming up with the perfect idea. When you’ve got that perfect idea — write a logline and test it out.

When you’ve got your story, make sure you write an outstanding Script.

A - Assess your resources — Before you start writing your script, start planning your production and this starts with a list of the resources you currently have — you’re going to need a camera, sound recording equipment, a way of controlling light, a few skilled people to operate the equipment, locations, actors, editing equipment and music for your sound track.

Your list will try to cover as many of those items as you can — and then will extend to people you know who may be able to fill in the holes.

Play to your strengths, you may not own any film making equipment or know any film makers, but maybe you know great musicians or your friends are great actors.

Then when you’ve worked out what you’ve got, Acquire the things you don’t have.

The way you do that is by inspiring the people who have the resources you need to make the film, to come on board and help. By far the best way to do this is to have a great story idea and a stunning script — nothing brings in resources faster than a hot project.

N - Never compromise, Never settle for second best, Never assume how much your film can achieve

The worst thing a $1000 film maker can do is assume that because of their budget, they’ll have to make a product which is substandard and that won’t be able to compete in the market place.

This is utter nonsense — There is absolutely no reason at all why a $1000 movie can’t achieve global cinema distribution or be the toast of Sundance.

But the only way to achieve that is to Never, ever make a decision to produce a lower quality film, based solely on financial necessity.

Which leads us neatly onto

T - Turn your disadvantages into advantages.

At the heart of $1000 movie making is this one simple idea, be creative and keep a positive attitude — and by this I don’t mean a Polly Anna “everything is rosy” kind of denial of the realities of a situation.

My experience is that every situation that occurs can be turned to a film makers advantage if they constantly ask themselves “How can I get this to work for me?”

When my first feature film bankrupted me, I thought it was the end of the my career as a film maker, instead I’ve managed to take being penniless and turned it into an advantage.

and finally

A - Advertise your movie and build an Audience

Don’t expect to be discovered, don’t expect to become an overnight success, don’t expect to get distribution for your no-name, no-budget movie if you can’t create a buzz about it.

Right from day one successful film makers think about how their movies is going to be sold — they create a demand for their movie.

So, there you have it — if you want to create a successful movie on $1000 just think S.A.N.T.A.

Story, Assess and Acquire, Never compromise, Turn adversity to your favour, Advertise to build your Audience.

//Clive Davies

Labels: $1000 Spielberg, action, ideas, plot, structure

Posted by scribosphere @ 4:44 AM