Awesome Film Crew-Bobby Speaking

MY FIRST FILM-WHAT A RIDE!

Well I know a lot of you out there are looking for the answer to the most important question, “How do I make a movie with No Money”. Now “NO MONEY” can mean a lot of things, but……

Well I know a lot of you out there are looking for the answer to the most important question, “How do I make a movie with No Money”.

Now “NO MONEY” can mean a lot of things, but nobody has no money, everybody has some money. You can always afford what is important to you. You pay rent – to keep a roof over your head, right, then that is important to you. Now I am not telling you to go live in a tree but here is a few things that I did to create a budget for my first film.

"My" Steps to Funding

1).First, I sold my car! (FYI: I loved my car). With today’s ride share services and bus lines you can get around anywhere you want pretty easy and the money you save on Gas and Insurance will really help. I took the money I made and bought the best camera, (and Bicycle) I could afford and a good (not great) computer and editing software. The software I used was Adobe Premiere Pro. I highly recommend it.

My 90 Mustang
By Mary (Mayr) from Southern California, U.S.A. _ Flickr, CC BY 2.0

2). I Gave up smoking….back in the late 90’s, I smoked and cigarettes were $3.50 a pack (cheap), now they are up to $10 dollars a pack, just think of all the money you will save. I then went and bought a cartoon of bubble gum. Lets say you smoke a pack a day, times 7 days a week, times 52 weeks a year. 

 10 x 7 x 52 = $3,640.00 a year! That is a big start to getting your project made.

3). Drinking and/or going to bars was a big no-no. Even when I just went to play a game of pool with friends it still cost $20 to $30 dollars, and that is cheap. Going out on the weekends to a club can cost hundreds. Remember you are on a mission and the mission is to create your vision. You can always celebrate after you finish your project, that is called a “Wrap Party“. 

Fragment of the pool billiard game in process. American pool billiard. Pool billiard game. Billiard sport concept.
RAMEN NOODLES SOUPS

4). NO MORE STEAKS! Yep, I took major steps and one of the hardest was to cut out all extras that I did not have to have. Spending money on groceries is a must and it is hard to cut back especially if you are married. Being single at the time, I was able to spend -now get this- $200 dollars on food for three months. That meant that I had to eat a lot of instant soups, drink a lot of cool aid and cut out bottled water & sodas’. I took drastic measures to ensure that I put every penny I had towards my film project.

..........YARD SALE..........

5).One of the biggest things I did was to have a Garage / Yard sale. I went through everything I owned and had a massive yard sale. I sold everything I did not really need.  I sold cloths, shoes, christmas decorations, I mean everything. You would be suprised at how much stuff you have laying around that you can do without.

"PAWN SHOP - HERE I COME"

$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

WEBSITE - A must...

As a filmmaker you want your film to be taken serious. Having a website for your film gives you opportunities to attract new audiences that are non-existing with other platforms. With a website you can set up a email subscription link to collect emails. With enough emails you can now be in direct contact with your audience and create a following. When I first started there wasn’t any WORLD FILM FEDERATION to help me so I had to learn on my own. Which took months and months and months.

On your film’s website you can have as many pages as needed. In addition to the obvious home page, you can have an about the film page, a press page, a press kit page, a cast page, production page, contact page, etc. By the time some films are released, they may already have several thousand interested subscribers who will start the buzz going which will help with the films success.

DO YOU REMEMBER “THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT”?

The Blair Witch Project

For those of you who either forgot or just don’t know, The Blair Witch Project was a micro-budget movie, ($60,000 budget-Grossed $248 Million), made with a few actors and handheld cameras. The marketers behind The Blair Witch Project saw the web as a great opportunity. Perhaps most importantly, the marketers used the website to lay the groundwork for this, so called  “true story”. They kept adding new information—from pictures and footage to journal entries and interviews with “family members”—to keep people coming back and spreading the word.

TRAILER

My First trailer, well lets just say I have learned a lot since then. A movie trailer is a marketing tool that showcases highlights from a movie to convince audiences to see the film. A trailer must captivate viewers in a condensed time frame. This is an item that will change as the film progresses but also can be shot cheaply at first to build up a audience. 

Learn more about trailers on our previous post;Movie Trailers

TIME LINE

The Cruise Time Line

MY FINAL THOUGHTS

This post is by no means the best way to get started in the film production business by no means. It is just the way I started my first film. I have over 44 years in the Film Industry so I was ready for whatever came my way; at least I thought I was. I learned a lot and have produced several films since then, some were even featured @ CANNES FILM FESTIVAL in Cannes France. The only way you are going to know if you are good at making films is to, “MAKE A FILM”.

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FEDERATION PRODUCERS & VENDORS

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