18 Lessons From Making An $8000 Feature Film

[@Flippergob]

Why is this channel not more popular? There is soooo much valuable information in these interviews.

[@filmcourage]

Thank you :) We appreciate it. How popular do you believe this channel should be?

[@joshuacollins7470]

I am attempting to form a screenwriting class from what I am learning with Film Courage videos within the town of Troy, Tennessee.

[@kargakral]

Because of it's target audience. This is hugely valuable information for people who are actually invested in filmmaking. Unlike channels like Film Riot or Every Frame a Painting all you get is information. No special effects work, no skits, no talking about hugely successful or acclaimed movies. So it's less interesting for someone who's just superficially interested in film. They tell you to be realistic and then give tips on how to be realistic without compromising too much. Most people don't want to hear that. Actually really thankful to you guys for keeping it real tho

[@failedfilmmaker]

This is very cool. Love when groups get together, just make a movie and do it for no money. Great job! The flick looks amazing as well.

[@JoeBadon]

Thanks!!!

[@TheFilmLook]

Loving the longer content. Awesome video as usual!

[@taraqqureshi7137]

Reminds me of the all things we had to do to plan, prepare and execute to get our first feature made. Well done!! to Josh, Daniel, and Joseph and the rest of your team.

[@Sisanf]

These guys are dropping absolutely gems!! Fantastic interview

[@filmcourage]

Love that this one found you!

[@Sean-lv6fx]

As someone who is looking to shoot their own short script this video was super helpful. 👍

[@James-nv1wf]

Regardless, always leave a day for pick-ups.. no show actors, traffic, weather, equipment failure, scene change, etc.

[@arthousefilms]

These are fantastic interview that is extremely helpful.

[@OlgaKuznetsova]

Such wonderful and tangible advice!! What a fantastic checklist of what to do and what to keep in mind when shooting a low budget (and honestly any) film. The location thing is so important! Nowadays every time I'm out and about, I'm thinking...can I use this in something I'm working on?

[@arthousefilms]

Yes, you are so right. That location advice was super important for me to hear.

[@adee7546]

Deceiving title.... "How to make an $8,000 film" Tip 1: Use that $10,000 4K camera you have lying around..... WTF?

[@infpmemeslofi]

The only thing missing in this master piece of an advice monster is some scenes of the movie itself in the beginning so we can get an idea of it.

[@FilmPunk]

I've just made a 2 hour feature for 2k and I'm happy to see that I did the same as these guys without seeing this video. So I can vouch for this advice 💯

[@filmcourage]

Congrats!

[@FilmPunk]

@@filmcourage I know I've made it when I'm on film courage 😂

[@filmcourage]

​@@FilmPunk Not sure we are a benchmark. Keep creating and have fun with it! Our best as you move forward.

[@gokuldamodaran9434]

Nobody/ Nothing has ever inspired me as much!!! The importance you gave for storyboarding, convinced me that this shit is GENUINE! I so wish I had stumbled upon ur experience before I made my Short (in '17)! Or at-least immediately after, to not stay outta the game, myself! Again, Thanks a ton! Cheers...

[@cockerjc]

Holy cow, this is so helpful! There's not much that I haven't heard before but to hear it all in one video was a real treat. I will definitely put this video on the shortlist for reference. Thank you very much. Great job guys!

[@Abrazzi.Gaming]

I love this channel! So much great content and nuggets of wisdom. Also, every tip is #1 🤣

[@alexjcorona2605]

This is amazing. Thank you for this content!

[@storywala88]

Extremely valuable information

[@CineSolutions]

Excellent! Very informative. Thx to the filmmakers who were generous to share their experiences. thx also FC

[@HackMyControlSystem]

Solid gold advice. Even more so on micro budget films without trained actors.

[@lernen.ohne.angst.official2737]

8:50, my favorite thing....I call them "Happy Accidents" :)

[@cinematicelements8852]

This video is so amazing & so helpful, thank you! (More like this).

[@HollyHargreaves]

I just watched the trailer. It looks great!👏👏👏

[@neonerfilms]

Congrats!!

[@danielmartin45]

I have seen this video several times and I think it is admirable that this team pulled off shooting a 90 page script in two weeks. However, I am reminded when they speak of the importance of storyboards how Werner Herzog says storyboards are for cowards. I don’t agree but l do agree that the best work can be a bit messy and challenging in the editing room. A storyboard has a place but it should never be more than a guideline. My main concern, and it is a major one, is the number of times the terms “art” and artists” are used. If these people think they are artists they have far to go and may never get there. They are more illustrators and craftsmen. Art is short for “artefact” and out of all creations considerably less than 1% ultimately becomes an artefact that endures for more than a generation. An artist is someone who creates an artefact. I have known perhaps two artists in my life. They were both teaching In universities are now dead and are still revered. I hope someone in this video becomes an artist but they are certainly not yet and may never truly know within their lifetimes. And storyboards are not art, they are illustrations. Werner would likely now insert “and ever more shall be....”

[@funnyvideosera]

Thank you very much

[@alessandracarrillo700]

I'm so happy seeing this video , I'm going to study visual arts because I cannot study cinematography ): , but anyways i believe that is going to help me a lot :)

[@028TuvaluanHero]

Just learn Cinematography through youtube well ur doing Visual Arts :)

[@Christimony222]

This was really inspiring!

[@jbartell9756]

Great video!

[@David-mg1yj]

Oh Behave!

[@atlbike]

i'd like to see the story board.

[@alexispapageorgiou72]

So many cool ideas and the notion of working under such constraints is a challenge in itself. I wonder if these guys auctioned the food part cause they didn't sound like they did. I want 300 burgers carries a lot more weight than I want one burger 300 times. Also just the idea of talking to people who say they'll come to the shooting and learn their lines there is appalling. I wouldn't work with anyone who doesn't realize that this could be their breakthrough, no matter the size of the budget, and actors preparing for the shooting by playing their parts off camera, can save time and money and of course deliver much better performances and therefore a better final product. I saw the trailer and even though the movie will certainly make more sense, it doesn't seem to follow the basic rule of starting off with the idea that the viewers have absolutely no idea what the story is.

[@TheSuckoShow]

"My mom owns a beach house." I don't want to hear you talk about being resourceful.

[@thompson_productions]

$4,000 food! Omg I just filmed my first movie with not paying for food. We had short film times 2-4 hours as I had to work around people’s work schedules. Everyone just ate before or brought their own cooler. Most normal jobs don’t pay for employee meals so if you need to cut costs that seem like the easiest one to do.

[@hehhehdummy]

That last tip hit different

[@SijinJoseph-kz7zl]

Super

[@dennyyuriandi6712]

greetings from Indonesian independent filmmakers

[@hackdp]

90 pages in 13 days is nothing new. It's expected for cable and VOD.

[@sergiomartinez5946]

Royce Dudley it’s harder on such a small budget. On a show you have a full crew etc.

[@madportuguese2006]

I am a 2nd year college management student... but I always loved writting, one of my dreams is doing a movie or participating in the making of one I really dont know what to do now

[@jackkamin1171]

About producing a low budget movie. My name is Jack Kamin I write scripts and put together a crew that some of them will work on percent of the future movie. If it interests you we can talk and i give you more details.

[@TECH3_]

hi i dont have any gear right now ( except a point and shoot ) but i have a cool story .... and dont have any money to spend what should i do

[@potatofuryy]

Depends on what the story is. If it makes sense for the story you could try to film it as if the main character films the story themselves, this could turn the limitation into something cool and unique. Otherwise a cheap option is mobile phones, if you record with manual settings it can look pretty good. Of course the best option is to buy a cheap camera like Z30 or FX30.

[@grantgreyguda]

👍 👍

[@onthetrailwithcoolsocks6628]

Renting? to save money A discussion on that would be appreciated

[@danielwaghorne]

99% of the time, I would tell anyone to rent instead of buy, unless you can make money back from your own rentals which is fairly hard to do unless you have a large client base. Rentals didn’t make sense for this project though. You can’t really barter with a rental house, and even if they give a discount it’s still money out of your budget you could place elsewhere. I definitely agree with you that renting gear definitely needs more discussion!

[@davidp158]

While story boards certainly show the shots depicting the story, they can restrict the movement and performance of the actors, as well as camera framing and lighting options. So much can change once you have actors on set and run through blocking and rehearsal. I’ve seen directors and DPs slavishly attempt to match their storyboards only to burn up time reworking shots to fit the location and blocking. In summary, story boards are fine, don’t neglect a realistic shot list and production schedule. You can thank me later.

[@daniarjumanazar]

Great advices! But they do know their stuff cuz they failed a lot of times and that made them grasp things. If you are beginner then you have to fail. There is no better way to learn something.

[@paulgee4336]

Be NICE. --- "I'm not being paid enough for this BS." --- SAY "THANK YOU" !!!!! Filmmaking is a COLLABORATIVE ART FORM.

[@casuallypoisoned]

I lowkey thought this said 18 lesbians making a $8,000 film

[@flavorlens]

u were probably high asf

[@vaughnamir.6457]

So you can’t read

[@FearlessNetwork]

👏👏👏👏

[@paulgee4336]

Writing your script according to your pre-found locations is one of the WORST ideas I've EVER heard of. You write your script PURELY, and then tweak it if you need to. That is a MUCH better way to do it. One person in our local Filmmaking Group wrote a pretty nice story and good script. But, it required a "rich person's house", which we both pretty much knew we would never get a location for. So I suggested some changes to the script to make the people not be wealthy and it still worked, but he wouldn't change it. The film was never made and never will be made.

[@mattboggs6304]

Spending 50% of your budget on food seems wasteful to me. And especially when you have to cater to specific diets like vegetarians, and gluten-free etc. Just get everyone to bring in their own food and spend that $4000 on other things.

[@someguyyoudontknow263]

this is amateur advice. obviously you have no experience on set. you are doing 16 hour days, 6 days a week and probably asking people to give it their all standing outside in the heat or cold. The thing people really look forward to in that breakfast when they arrive at sunrise and that lunch. When you see the food, all is forgiven. I dont think peopel would work with you again if you had crappy food or no food on set.

[@kaidne]

@@someguyyoudontknow263 exactly

[@bluerabbit1236]

So your advice is not to pay anyone and on top of that ask all the cast and crew to pay for their own food too? Why, because Matt wants to make a movie? Lmao. That is the dumbest advice you can ever give to someone. People will walk out on your set on day 1 and many won't even show up on day 2. You'll come to set to find out that your lead actor is MIA and the calls go straight to voicemail. There you go. Now you have all the $8000 back to spend on other things. Hopefully not another movie. Stop giving bad advice on a subject you have no clue about.

[@belgay]

food is more important than a great CAMERA? Half of the budget was for food? wow. don't tell any solid producers about that. But the rest of the video is great.

[@bluerabbit1236]

A solid producer will do exactly that if not more. Clueless people like you are the ones who come to set on day 2 just to find out that half if not more of your cast and crew is missing and cannot be reached. You can have the greatest camera in the world but it means nothing when people walk out on you, leaving you all alone with no movie in your hands.

[@potatofuryy]

You can make great movies with a cheap camera and happy, dedicated coworkers but you can’t make a great movie with a great camera and angry, noncooperative coworkers.

[@bigman25plus25]

Genuine question... why would you make an $8000 feature, when you could make 2 really high-quality shorts? I admit I haven't seen the movie, but it seems silly to put yourself through that hell.

[@mulethedonkey2579]

because they want to make a feature, different kind of story

[@non_regulars]

Because you get a lot more cred as a filmmaker if you make a feature. A short can be put together in a day, but a feature requires so much more time and effort to be made and if you can commit to it and make it through that process it will speak volumes to your capabilities as a filmmaker. Sure, the film might suck but you still have that experience under your belt and you can move on to a bigger project and have a much better handle on it. You can make shorts all you want but at the end of the day they aren’t profitable and have no market outside of film festivals. You can put them on KZbin, but unless you have a lot of subscribers or get really lucky and it goes viral, it will most likely amount to nothing.

[@bluerabbit1236]

You can sell a feature but you can't sell a short and many producers won't take you seriously up until you have a feature film credit as a director. High quality short is still a short and anything ypu spend on it will be gone forever. If you couldn't think of this and had to 'genuinely' ask this question then you're the only silly here.

[@Mr06261984]

a lot of this is pointless

[@melstudiosworkshop9545]

Kind of a mean comment but it made me laugh LOL

[@jackkamin1171]

About producing a low budget movie. My name is Jack Kamin I write scripts and put together a crew that some of them will work on percent of the future movie. If it interests you we can talk and i give you more details.

[@majdfayad1117]

i love you film courage

[@filmcourage]

We appreciate the love majd. Any props on this one need to go to Joe Badon, Daniel Waghorne, and Joseph Estrade. They did an excellent job putting this together. Happy they wanted to share their insights with our viewers.

[@thedarkestcorneroftheinternet]

It seems like this video had a higher budget then the film

[@AnyDayNow360]

Wow. This was an amazing interview. Tremendous lessons learned from this group!

[@filmcourage]

Glad you enjoyed it!

[@arsoyaltinpinar2667]

This is what i call some simple , clean , valuable advice..👏

[@StumblethroughProductions]

I'm so happy seeing this video!