Techniques on How to Produce a Low Budget Movie

Many people have approached me saying there are looking for a job, some told me that they is a lot of discrimination in the labor market because you got to have a sponsor before you can secure a good job. Why are we searching for a job to make money, so for this graduates and known graduates who want to better their life and attain financial freedom to should focus his or her mind to entrepreneurship?

This gives me the need to ask what an entrepreneurship is.

Entrepreneurs are business leaders or creative men and women who run a small or large scale business and assumes all the risk and reward of a given business venture, idea, or good or service offered for sale. The entrepreneur is commonly seen as a business leader and innovator of new ideas and business processes.”

Entrepreneurs are originators of new ideas; they conceptualize new ideas and exchange it for money. They regarded as the employer of labor and a pillar of economy development in a country.

Entrepreneurship span to different areas and specification, but today we will be talking on Moving production, how to produce a movie and become successful in the field.

Many of this graduates who have the zeal of testing entrepreneurship walk up to me and said; ‘We love the craft, we have are interested in movie making, but we don’t have the resources to produce a professional and blockbusting movies. Some say many top producers produce movies with $20,000 (#4million), while others produce at the sparkly rate of $100,000 (#20million). How do we get such amount of money to finance a movie?

I then sat down and did a thorough research and came out with these findings.

Producing a blockbuster movie doesn’t necessarily require large capital, but it thus requires business ideas, smartness, and insight. You need to know the trend in the industry and probably what works for you. As I am writing this post now many talented and smart young entrepreneurs are shooting low budgets movies and selling it to television rights and cinemas at a very high price.

A young producer, I interviewed who wants his name to be kept secret, said he produced his own movie with $1,200 (#300,000) and was able to sell it $15,000 (#3.7million), I told myself, this is a real business.

For most of you guys who are ignorant of this fact, movie making is one of the best entrepreneurship that will fetch you fast money, but there is a huge risk in it. So what do entrepreneurs do, their take risk, take the risk and join the millionaires. They never thought of failing, there have positive mindset, their work towards achieving a set goal.

So what are you waiting for, why not invest the little money you have in movie making, why sit at home and complaining of poverty and unemployment when you are holding to key to your financial freedom and wasting time on it. It may interest you to know that Nollywood is popular in the global world, there is no way you will produce a good Nollywood movie without marketing or selling it.

If there is no money in it, Emem Isong, Female Nollywood popular producer wouldn’t have resigned her job in the bank to join the league of movie, she works in a big established bank in Nigeria as an account and earn above $1000 (N250,000), but she had to quit the job to pursue her career, her ambition and her dream in Nollywood. Today she is among the top 10 most influential movie producers in Nigeria and her net worth is between $10million (N3billion). Do you see what entrepreneurship can do to you, it will boast your income and make you attain financial freedom.

If she was still working in the bank, would she have gotten this kind of money?

My dear readers we are holding our destiny in our hands, it is time to do something with our talent and stop complaining of unemployment. I am writing this post to empower mostly the youth because they are the key to national development.

In my previous post I talks about Ozzy Bosco, Amarachi Uyanne and Regina Daniel. These are kids who were wise enough to risen up and take the destiny by them hands and do things extraordinarily. Just like I mentioned, there are now wealth, at such a young age. Do you know the greatest happiness in life is to become rich at a young age? These children are just 7, 11 and 14 years old, but they have already achieved their dreams. So what are you waiting for, why don’t you challenge this kids, why don’t you allow your inner most power to work through. You are what you want to be.

I believe after reading this post your mindset will change, you have to wake up from your slumber and hide that so called certificate that you are always proud of and use your hands and idea to generate wealth for yourself.

So having said this I believe many reading this post have been inspired to take up a career in movie making.

So let’s go to the major topic at hand.

If you really want to produce a low budget movie, you have to follow this stipulated step by step guide and you will definitely smile to your bank account.

Do you want to create a movie, but don’t have a lot of money to spend? Don’t let that stand in your way. There are a lot of simple ways to cut costs in your movie-making process, like using low-cost equipment and budgeting.

Just follow these Ten Steps and you achieve success.

Let’s go there!

STEP ONE

Decide Whether You Really Want To Make A Movie.

Understand that this is a costly, time-consuming venture that will leave little time for hanging out with your friends and having fun. So you got to concentrate your mind and energy if you want good results. Then again, if you’re making a low-budget movie, what better way to do it than to do it?

STEP TWO

Get An Idea For A Movie and Write Your Script.

Think of the best story you want to create, picture the idea and memorize it. If you have gotten a good story, write down the synopsis (plot) and also write a screenplay, or if you can’t then you have to hire a screen writer to do mit for you. It doesn’t have to be perfect and you don’t have to follow it 100%. It just gives you a great outline to start with. If you want, you can just write the scenes and have the actors improvise their lines.

STEP THREE

Have a Vision and Hire Your Crew.

By crew, we mean a group of people who may or may not really know what they’re doing. If you’re really serious, put an ad in the paper and find a few guys who went to film school who know a little about lighting, recording sound or working a camera. As a director, you’ll be able to get closer to what you want from people who have even the slightest idea as to what they’re doing. Or, if you want a more hands-on approach and want to learn more about the various aspects of film making, ask some of your friends to hold mics or positions lights with you. That way you’ll both learn and you just might appreciate it more.

Make a shot list and draw or create storyboards. This helps you to know what shots you want to have in the movie before going out to shoot them. Storyboards don’t have to be drawn by an artist, either. You can draw stick figures, take pictures of action figures, use storyboarding software like Storyboard Quick or whatever you think works best. Again, this just gives you a basic outline of what you need to shoot and what will be in each shot.

STEP FOUR

Make A Shooting Schedule and Prepare Your Budget.

Figure out how much money you can spend on this film of yours and figure out the best ways to spend it. Remember, you’ll need something to record sound on, a simple lighting kit, and a camera. Anything beyond that and it might be too complicated. You’ll also need props, food for your cast and crew, transportation for some of them, and you might even have to pay for locations. A schedule helps everyone, too, because they’ll know when they need to be with you and where you’ll be.

STEP FIVE

Get Your Actors and Rehearse Well With Them.

This is called auditioning, this allows your actors to get a real feel for the scene before they go out and waste time, tape, or film. This way they can learn the lines together or, if you’re allowing them to improvise, they can start now and generate ideas for lines they’d like to use. Auditioning a and rehearsing in very important especially for low budget movie, since you are not using top actors and stars, you should rehearse well with your new actors and make sure they deliver very well.

STEP SIX

Look For Props (Especially For Free)

Get as much stuff as you can for free. Are you in school? See if the school owns a camera. Buddy up to the technology teacher. Do you know someone who owns a hardware store? They can get you lights and maybe some props. Tell them you’re making a movie and they might give you a discount. Need a location badly but you think you might need to pay for it? Explain that you’re making a movie and most people will give you stuff. People love movies and they want to be a part of one. Just tell people that you’re making a movie and it’ll open up doors you didn’t know existed.

STEP SEVEN

Search For Good Locations You Want to Film

Be organized, it’s that simple and stay true to your vision. Search for good environment where you would love to film your movie. Look for quiet environment (very advisable) and then negotiate with the owners (remember to always beg for free).

STEP EIGHT

Rent Good Digital Camera, Boom Mic and Light

You have to consider the kind of Camera you plan to use, look for good digital video camera, with good picture quality and sound, spend money on camera because it is the camera that will place your money in the market, television and cinemas, no television rights will want to buy crappy movie shot with low quality camera.

STEP NINE

Start Shooting Your Movie.

Be nice to everyone and try to explain to them what you want without making them feel stupid. You’re supposed to be having fun, right? So let everyone else have fun, too. Remember to watch your footage as often as possible. You don’t want to lose a shot because it was too dark and not be able to go back and redo it because you only had the location for one day. When you are shooting don’t forget about the sound. Film in areas where there is not a lot of street noise. Street noise will make it hard to hear your dialogue. Don’t lose your cool and never forget that you’re supposed to be having fun. Remember to make note of takes and use clapboard. There’s a lot to know, but you can duck and dive through a lot of it. Just have fun and be strict.

STEP TEN

Post Production Take Place: Editing the Final Product.

Submit your finished raw files to a good movie editor to edit the footage and add soundtrack, effects and credit.

Try and get a good editor because the future of your movie depends highly on the editor.

Learn how to use editing software like Adobe Premiere Pro. Most programs are easy to learn and will allow you to sync sound and music with almost no trouble. And don’t rush it. Editing takes time. It’s good to use good software like Adobe Premiere Pro and After Effect for the final touch of your movie.

Create Movie Credits; you can use a video title creation system like Video tagger.

Prepare a preview copy and burn the film onto a DVD and have everyone you know come over to your house and watch it, before going to Television rights or Cinema for preview. Bask in the glory of knowing that you are now an independent filmmaker. People will love you a little bit more now.

Show your friends along the way. If you’re stuck, make a few versions and show people. They’ve probably seen a lot of movies, too, and will tell what works and what doesn’t.

Remember to follow workers rules. If your goal is to have this film is to get a distribution deal or even enter it into a festival there is a list of rules you must follow and paperwork you must fill out, especially Censors Board, make sure your film did not breach the law and is acceptable by censors board. If you don’t follow the rules you’ll basically lose your movie.

Tips to guide you through

Read as many screenplays or books on film and film making that you can find.

See if any productions are in your area. If there are, ask if you can be a production assistant. You don’t get paid, but you’re on the set and learning!

Listen to director interviews.

A good way to get publicity for your movie is to upload it on YouTube.

Depending on how great a budget you have and how much time you’re willing to put into your film, try to keep your film fairly short.

Be wise with your money; try to plan out your financial plan before you begin production.