Zero-Budget Filmmaking: An Immense Opportunity.

When people ask me what I do, I usually say that I am a writer-director. A completely marginalized fact is that I am also an experienced producer. For everything that I have written and directed, I have also produced. I just never realized it. And as I set out to work on a new project-- I am feeling an immense amount of excitement at the prospect of not only doing something, but doing it for no money.

Is Zero-Budget filmmaking really zero-budget filmmaking? For me, to call a short film 'zero-budget' - is a film under, say, $400. And a zero-budget feature film would be something around $10,000. The idea being the short film is something that ANYONE could do merely by way of avoiding their cigarettes for a month, or cutting down on nights out, or by dumping their girlfriend. And the feature film version; I think if anyone is really passionate about making a feature film, they can find a way to save, borrow or steal a few thousand. I was just watching 'In Search Of A Midnight Kiss' - a wonderful film with a shooting budget of $2000 and a final budget of somewhere around $12,000. It's films like that which can really help inspire.

The great thing about zero-budget filmmaking is how cheap everything is. Locations: Free. Camera Equipment: Free. Actors: Free. Everything: Free. When you move from zero-budget to low-budget things get more expensive. The problem is that when you have a bit of money, you have to negotiate and barter. But when you shoot on a zero-budget the price you pay for things is anything not higher than zero.

KID
I want to film in your shop.

SHOP MAN
Pay me $500.

KID
No. I'll pay you $0.

SHOP MAN
Yes/No.

It's that simple. You do what you can, when you can, however you can to make it happen. You turn up on the day and you do what is possible. And usually a lot more is possible because of the freedom of having no money.

On The Set Of Avatar: Rumored To Not Be Zero-Budget.

When you have no money, you usually have no crew, and no big lights; which means you can change setups/locations, etc in an instant. Nothing is ever set in stone. As soon as you have a little bit of money and things are paid for, things tend to get a lot more static. There are little people running around saying "I just spent two hours wiring that!" or "There's no way I can move the crane in time..!".

Locations on a zero-budget are free. One of three things happen. One, you ask for a location and someone says yes. Two, you film without permission. Three, they tell you no and you still film with no permission. Most zero-budget filmmakers will have great tales of stealing the shot -- the act of getting in and doing the scene unnoticed. And when you do get noticed, you send someone over to discuss permission, whilst the rest of you keep getting the shot.

In the last few months I have gotten to know a filmmaker who does very exciting work, he's very talented-- but he says these big sweeping statements to me about how "You couldn't do that for less than $20,000" - and it's absolutely crazy to me. "We were lucky, we got that location for $3,000" he'd say.

Having said that-- I have been wonderfully privileged with the films I have made; to be supported by such incredible people. What I've lacked in money I have made up for with the generosity, talent, and hard work of people who've gone beyond the call of duty to make the films come together. On a short film last year; we finished shooting at 4am each night and the 1st AD would drive the actors home. She didn't get home until 7am. She did this for free, she never even let me give her travel expenses. Similar stories come to mind from my very early films - when old-school friends/work friends would take time out to pick things up, make food, steal a dog for a scene, and my best friend who risked getting sacked so that we could use his work's car park for a night shoot. So many examples of people just being outrageously selfless, enabling me to succeed. People are great-- and somehow, weirdly, you see this more in people when you're doing a film for nothing than when money gets involved.

My point is - if you are stuck at home mumbling to yourself about a lack of money, or a lack of people or a lack of a location--- then it's really time to get up and get out the door. The power to make a film lies with you. The opportunities are endless.

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He Ain't Heavy, He's My Brother.

Conversation with my Brother.

KID
You gotta watch this, it's a great film.
Meaning: You gotta watch this,
it's a great film.

MY BROTHER
But is it actually good?
Meaning: Is it good like 'normal'
good, or good in your artsy,
foreign, nothing-happens,
filmy-person type way?

To say our tastes differ is an understatement. Although, we both love 'Cool Runnings.'

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Life Is Just A Series Of Facebook Events, But Your Screenplay Can't be.

"Remember the time you drove all night
Just to meet me in the morning
And I thought it was strange you said everything changed
You felt as if you'd just woke up"
-Bright Eyes.

Life is basically just a bunch of appointments and Facebook events. You leave the house at 7am, you go to work. You have a 39 minute lunch break, you go to the doctors, then you go and meet your friend for a quick drink which ends sooner than it should because you need to be home to watch that thing on TV, then you go to bed because you have to be up at 7am.

When we write in this manner - it really kills our screenplays. Often when you're writing, you dream ahead in obvious, logical ways. For example, your characters are sitting in their apartment, and you need to get to the office scene. So after the INT. HOME scene, you have the EXT. HOME scene, followed by the INT./EXT. CAR scene, followed by the INT. OFFICE scene. It's logical. It's how life is. It's also very boring.

If you find yourself writing in this logical way, it's time to close the laptop and dream a bit further. Unless your story is about the mundanity of life, then it's important, I feel, to go in a different direction.

Don't write about the time you met a friend to go see a movie, don't write about two guys walking into a meeting, don't write about two stoners sitting playing Xbox. That might be a part of your life - but it's not the part of your life that is interesting.

Write about the time you showed a girl a part of her neighborhood she's never seen before. Write about the time you turned up at your friend's house at 4am to deliver a birthday cake, write about the time your girlfriend accidentally dropped a kitchen knife on your foot (okay, maybe that wasn't an accident), write about the time you stayed up all night singing songs with strangers, write about the time you stole something, ran from something, changed something.

Now, what is it which makes a scene interesting? If you see a man coming through a doorway, it means nothing. If you see him coming through a window - that is at once interesting.
-Billy Wilder.

If you have a scene where two friends are meeting by a parked car, you may be tempted to write this scene.

EXT. CAR
Katharine sees Will, standing by the car.

KATHARINE
Hey.

WILL
Hey.

KATHARINE
You ready to go?

WILL
Sure. If the car is working.

But by taking an extra nine seconds to think about the scene-- you can do it in a more original, and interesting way.

EXT. CAR
Katharine arrives. Will is nowhere to be scene.

WILL (O.S.)
I'm here.

Katharine looks around.

KATHARINE
Will?

WILL
I'm under the car.

KATHARINE
Why?

WILL
Trying to fix it.

KATHARINE
You don't know anything about cars.

WILL
I just snapped something.

Katharine looks around, panicked.

KATHARINE
Hold on, Will, this isn't even your car!

Or something else:

EXT. STREET - DAY
Katharine storms into view and throws her hands up in the air.

KATHARINE
Where is the car?

WILL
I thought we were going by bicycle?

KATHARINE
No.

WILL
Oh.

KATHARINE
You don't even have a bicycle.

WILL
I thought you would bring them.

Life is mostly boring. We meet our friends for coffee, we talk about our struggles, and then get home safely in time to watch our favorite TV shows. This is life. BAD writers write about this; lots of hispter people sitting around coffee houses talking. You know you're having a bad day when these are the scenes you are writing.

Instead, have the characters sitting on trees, making fires in the forest, making fires on 5th Avenue, have them dancing in offices, have them doing paperwork during dance class; do something different. It can still be realistic. Realism in film isn't about having characters who are home for dinner at 6pm. It's about having characters eat their dinner at 8am in the morning and having the audience believe that they would.

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Creatively Bankrupt.

I feel a really strong urge to write a blog post tonight, but have nothing to say. It's strange, feeling compelled to create something despite having absolutely nothing of interest to say.

This must be what it's like to be a Hollywood film producer.

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Thinking & Dreaming: In Search Of Me At 13.

There is a channel changing kind of process that happens in the mind. It's what happens when you're trying to get to sleep, and you're thinking about that hot girl who works in the shop near where you live, when suddenly-- without realising it, you start thinking about a dancing elephant who goes by the name of Dave, who keeps yelling "I want more turkey!". You snap out of it. You laugh to yourself about the fact you were just thinking about an elephant called Dave who demands more turkey.

The thing is, the place where you found the elephant --- that's the place where all your greatest ideas are. It's just so hard to get there.

When you open up FinalDraft and stare at the clean white page; you have a very specific job. To write stuff. So you start doing a very purposeful, conscious thing, you ask yourself; who are the character's? What are they doing? Why are they doing it? How will they do it? What is stopping them doing it? If you're lucky, you may at some point hit a button on the keyboard. But more often, you won't.

I love making my way home from the local train station-- knowing I have a fifteen minute walk with just me and the music in my ears. It allows me to dream and drift in ways I am not totally controlling. It is inevitable that during this process; it happens -- the magic genie presents, out of nowhere, a perfectly conceived idea for a film about a baseball team who tragically die in a train crash only to be reincarnated as expert sandwich makers. The idea, at this point, is at its most golden.

Getting back home and in front of the page; it's difficult to hold onto the spirit of that idea. And it's because you kind of clock-in as a writer, and the dreamer gets left behind.

The interesting thing about the moment when a good idea first gets delivered in a small envelope to the little imagination dump in your brain-- is that it is completely clear of any kind of critical voice. I think we've all had this moment-- the moment where you're laughing hysterically with a friend at 2am because you're certain that the incident where you fell over an ice cream cone and landed on a small lady called Mrs. Fudgebaker would make for a perfect movie. The idea is SO golden at this point of time.

If only we could stay there! Unfortunately, the minute you get into the idea; a little ugly man appears in your head saying "Pathetic! You're useless! Your ideas suck! You're not relevant! No-one will buy it! No-one will understand it! You're not a writer! You're not worthy! No wonder she dumped you! You are not allowed dinner tonight! Forget it! Give up!" And then you write nothing.

Your favorite movie is your favorite movie because it's your favorite movie. It is better than the movie that you just thought up - by virtue of the fact that it actually exists. Someone dared to make it. Before that, someone dared to write it. And as you count up the times you chickened out of writing a film, as you count up all the scattered 3-pages of notes that pop up in random corners of your home --- the realization dawns; the ugly voice in your head telling you that you suck is COMPLETELY RIGHT; up until the point you ignore him, or at least send him out for groceries and get on with writing. At some point, before the day you die; you may as well just at least attempt to write what is truly in your heart, or at least go in search of it. Because only then can you, or a producer, or anyone, do anything with it.

To do that, you need to access the dreaming part of yourself. The part that gets excited. The part of yourself that abandoned normal life, aged 13, and instead opted to watch films again and again and again. Where can you find this part of yourself? I don't know. I can only talk for myself. When I was younger; I loved making mix tapes for people, I loved getting lost in music, I loved watching all of Tom Hanks' films again and again and again. I loved watching really crappy movies on TV at 2am.

BUT WHEN WAS THE LAST TIME I DID THOSE THINGS AND DID THEM CONSISTENTLY? Do I do them enough -- or am I too caught up in trying to succeed? Trying to make a living? Trying to pay the bills? Trying to impress people around me? Trying to be what people expect of me? ------ What happens when I focus on them things?

When I worry about what people expect, or what script readers want, or what I need to do to succeed--- that is when Mr. Ugly pops up in my head and tells me my writing and life is a train wreck. But he never did that back when I used to excitedly discover dozens of amazing songs every night, or when I would go to the front porch and pick up a shiny new VHS copy of the Tom Hanks flop 'The Money Pit'.

There's a boxing fight taking place. In the red corner, are all my passions and joys; all the things that make this stuff amazing. In the blue corner, are all the pressures and assumptions and all the things that make this shit HARD. And the blue corner has been ruthlessly smashing the red side to pieces.

It's time to wake up. It's time to remember where I came from, remember how it felt; give myself an Al Pacino pep talk; and get on with business. I could be wrong, and I hate to assume - but my inclination, is that some of you need to do the same.

Self-criticism only tends to come around when the stakes are high. The voice in the mirror is more likely to tell you that you look pathetic before a date than before making a piece of toast. The point is - every time you go to write, you have your trusted friend to smash you to pieces. Find ways to alleviate the pressure. I don't know how. But the more you return to the original joy that inspired you back when you were 13, the more you will be able to find and nurture original and personal ideas -- and put them down on the page.

Am I in tune
Yea can't hear much
But the melody coming from you
Baby please don't rush
Keep the tempo slow and you
Let me hear the words you say
Let's go and get tangled in chains of golden days
-The Damnwells

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