Make a No Budget Film - Park Your Ego At The Door

Actually the most important commodity a no budget film maker needs is goodwill.

Basically there are only two kinds of movies: movies made with cash and movies made with goodwill.

There is a direction relationship between goodwill and money. The less goodwill you have the more money you need to make your film.

It goes without saying that a $1000 film maker needs almost infinite amounts of goodwill.

I happen to believe that even a film with a budget needs stupendous amounts of goodwill — if you read enough about various film productions, both Hollywood and indie films, you soon realize some films seem blessed with good fortune — the people who work on the project enthuse about the experience, the film becomes a labour of love. On other projects, not even the massive budget can protect the film from the all round bad vibes.

For a micro-budget film maker it really helps to understand the things that increase goodwill and the things that piss goodwill away.

In truth it’s very simple — the more ego there is connected to a project, the less goodwill there is.

The biggest killer of any film is EGO: aloof, assuming, audacious, autocratic, biggety, bossy, bragging, cavalier, cheeky, cocky, cold shoulder, conceited, contemptuous, cool, disdainful, domineering, ego trip, egotistic, haughty, high-handed, imperious, insolent, know-it-all, lordly, overbearing, peremptory, pompous, presumptuous, pretentious, proud, puffed up, scornful, self-important, smarty, smug, sniffy, snippy, snooty, snotty, stuck up, supercilious, superior, swaggering, uppity, vain

Ego ruins projects from day one — the first thing it kills is the script.

As screenwriters we often carry around the idea that the film is our baby, after all we wrote it. But in order for the script to develop it has to challenged, developed, changed, rewritten. The only way that happens, is when the screenwriter lets go of their ego and allows input from outside.

Allowing others into the creative process is the key to creating goodwill. It doesn’t mean running the project by committee, it just means being open to other people’s ideas.

This attitude of creative inclusivity is what turns OK projects into great ones, because instead of trying to impose our single ego onto a film, it becomes about collecting the best ideas of everyone involved.

Some of the best ideas in my films have come from casual comments from crew members and other collaborators. I remember a time on a night shoot when the boom guy noticed the ways the shadows fell during a fight sequence, he felt comfortable in mentioning it and we picked up the shot. It turned out to be one of the best shots in the film — much stronger than the way we had it story boarded.

This attitude to film making, which includes everyone in the creative process, really pays off most when working with actors. If you give actors the opportunity to do work where they feel they are giving of their best, you get exceptional performances.

The job of the producer/director in this kind of project is to be able to facilitate this creative process. Like I said before, making film by committee doesn’t work, mainly because it becomes a clash of egos, each trying to take control of the project.

A good producer/director therefore listens, keeps an open mind but ultimately decides which direction the project moves in. This isn’t about imposing your ideas, but about inspiring the cast and crew with your choices.

Ultimately goodwill is created via inspiration: affect, animate, arouse, carry, cause, commove, elate, embolden, endue, enkindle, enliven, exalt, excite, exhilarate, fire up, galvanize, get, give impetus, hearten, imbue, impress, infect, inflame, influence, inform, infuse, inspirit, instill, invigorate, juice, motivate, occasion, produce, provoke, quicken, reassure, set aglow, set up, spark, spur, start off, stimulate, stir, strike, sway, touch, trigger, urge, work up

So, bottom line is this — if you want to make a successful no budget movie, ditch your ego at the door and inspire the people around you to join you in the process of creating a great movie.

Labels: $1000 Spielberg, action, general, industry

Posted by scribosphere @ 1:24 PM