In about eight weeks, we plan to be shooting my short, Twelve Ways to Say 'I'm Sorry', on a budget of about $20K.
What books do y'all recommend on shooting a low-budget film and/or a short? What are the most useful books you've read on the specifics of do-it-yourself production? Of nuts and bolts directing?
5 comments:
THE DV REBELS GUIDE - especially if you are shooting digital.
FILM DIRECTING: SHOT BY SHOT
REBEL WITHOUT A CREW
Good luck!
I second Rebel Without a Crew.
I'd also like to recommend: The Ultimate Filmmaker's Guide to Short Films by Kim Adelman.
Chapter 8 is "Budgeting: Everything for Free." Nice.
I jumped in here to recommend 'DV Rebel's Guide' by Stu Maschwitz and see that I'll have to settle for seconding Bill. That and pointing you to his website at http://prolost.blogspot.com/
'Rebel Without a Crew'... I really like Robert Rodriguez's process and ideology but it seems to me to be more of a cheerleader to keep you stoked about making the film rather than giving a lot of hard info.
'The Guerilla Film Makers Movie Blueprint' by Chris Jones lays out a lot of process.
For information on the hardware side of things there ain't no source better than www.hdforindies.com, drop by there and read for a few hours and then call up Mike Curtis to consult on the acquisition and post process.
FROM REEL TO DEAL would be my recommend.
I really like Robert Rodriguez's process and ideology but it seems to me to be more of a cheerleader to keep you stoked about making the film rather than giving a lot of hard info.
Trust me -- When you've been on set for 16 hrs., everyone's exhausted, everyone's sick and tired of seeing the same faces every day; and no matter how hard you coax, cajole or castigate them, the cast can't get the scene down and you're going to lose your set in 20 minutes -- it's really good to remind yourself why you did this in the first place.
Speaking of cheerleaders, a director friend of mine once hired the local high school cheerleaders to come in at 3am and do a routine for the cast and crew. Everyone was laughing, re-energized and shaking their heads at the wonderful goofiness of it all...
The grips of course, were upset that the cheerleaders were not 'of age'.
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