Video Film School

From the words of Robert Rodriquez in this book “Rebel Without A Crew”

1. Solve problems creatively instead of using money

2. Be Self Dependent.  Do everything yourself.  NO CREW.

3. Look Rich be Cheap.  find simple ways to look expensive but do it without spending money.

4. Learn By Doing.  If you want to go to film school.  DO NOT GO TO FILM SCHOOL.  Use that money to make your own movie and learn by experience.

These 4 concepts really sum up everything that this site is about.  The goal of this video film school blog is to give you all the information you need to follow Robert Rodriquez’s advice.  I couldn’t have said it better myself. In his book which is a diary of how he made his first movie for under $7,000 dollars he includes a section called 10 minute film school.  So we stole that idea for this post.  Gotta love a book on this subject from one of the great film makers.

There is a free software program you can use to make your credits.  It’s called VideoTagger.   I have not tried it yet so if any of you do use it please email me your experience.

Post production is the one area I have to admit I do not like.   I’m going to get a hold of my editor friend and see what he has to say and I’ll report back with more post production information.

This is actually the easiest thing to get right with little to no money. A decent shot gun mic is relatively inexpensive. Rentals are not expensive. The thing that helps is having a prosumer HD camera. Really the main difference between a regular video camera and a semi-professional camera is the ability to plug in a microphone. It will also have sound controls and levels. You can do the sound mixing yourself you don’t need a sound guy if this is the case. The audio is recorded digitally and usually comes out pretty good if your camera records more than one track.

On low budget films my personal opinion is to get rid of the sound guy. On big films recorded on 35mm the sound guy recorded on a D.A.T. Your HD camera has the dat built in. And when your filming low budget mount the shotgun mic on a boom stand. This will save you because you will not have the boom in the frame. No one is moving the mic picking up extra noise. One simple way to cut people off your crew.

What you want to do is be sure to get the sound design right. This usually means ADR (Automated dialogue replacement)or Foley. Foley is named after Jack Foley the pioneer of the art of sound design. Basically your video camera has a mic that is going to pick up most of the Foley stuff. Setting the glass down or door closing, or someone walking. If you haven’t picked this up you can record the audio of that noise and add it in post. ADR and Looping is important if you don’t have clear dialogue. “Can you hear me now?” I always think of that commercial for some reason when I’m doing looping. You run the segment of video on a loop and the actor matches their original dialogue for you to enhance the original in post.

The last element of sound design to think about in post is the music sound track. Obviously haven’t a composure create music for you is out of the question on a low budget film. If you have friends who are musicians they might be able to make you some music that fits the style and feel of your film. You really don’t need a big symphony do get the music right. Using local unsigned musicians is the way to go. Also don’t forget about the option of using stock music. You can find good stuff for very cheap that won’t be too cheesy. Music can really enhance the production value of the film project. Be sure to not skip this aspect of post production.

On your first project the best thing to do is light everything. Unless you have a budget for a bunch of lights. It’s tough to do real cinematic lighting with just one light kit. Also professional lighting kits are industrial and cause damage on the set. These kits are also heavy and big. It will require resources to transport, setup and pay for. The best thing you can do is get a set of softboxes. I recommend using Fluorescent lights because they provide a lot of juice and use limited amounts of energy. They are not expensive and low weight. You won’t blow circuit breakers and you wont destroy your locations. Softbox kits will disperse the light over the set and light your scenes. The other key significance is that they do not produce as much heat as most common film production options. Your actors won’t sweat while delivering your dialogue.

Most film makers you talk to will disagree with this suggestion because it will make your movie look more like TV. This video film school is about how to make a feature film on video on the budget you have not the budget you wish you had. You do not have the time to light your movie as if it is a film noir. You do not have money to feed a few lighting guys. You need a simple solution that will allow you to direct your resources towards directing and filming your feature. You do not have an hour to setup the lighting every time you move the camera.

If you do not want to believe this tip. Go to your local rental house and rent one of these kits for the day and do a test run. Grab one of your actors for some rehearsals and give it a try. Test it out. When you watch your dailies if you absolutely can not live with a crisp well lit video then go back and rent a more expensive professional kit and see how you like that. Which one is better? Which one cost more? Do you have access to a few guys to help you do lighting. Do these guys know anything about lighting and if they do will they work within your budget and if they will work at discounted rate what happens when they get a gig in the middle of your shoot that pays them 10x more?

Lastly ask yourself what are you going to do when these professional lights damage your location? Is that going to be OK? Do you have extra money in the budget to fix repair the damage and if so how long will these repairs keep you from getting your trailer and rough cut completed?

You can usually find a nice softbox kit on ebay with 3 lights for a few hundred dollars. How many days of professional light rentals can you get for the same amount of money? This is what I would use on amazon it costs $799 including the boom stand which you should have for your microphone. 5800w Studio Fluorescent Light Kit Lighting Photography. 5800w Studio Fluorescent Light Kit Lighting Photography
What I like about this kit is that you have 4 switches on each light so you can adjust the amount of light you are using. This is a nice feature but I have seen similar softboxes with a lot less wattage and only one switch for half this price. You do not need a boom stand you can save some money by not getting a kit with a boom stand.

If you have scenes outside please do not try night scenes. If you have a night scene be sure to film tight and use this same kit. If you need more light than what is provided with your light kit try shooting day for night. Hit up youtube there are a bunch of videos on how to do that. Exterior day filming is great. It’s tough on audio but easy to light because you can use the sun. Get your self this cool gadget for $19.99 its a reflector – Opteka 43″ 5-in-1 Collapsible Disc Reflector, Translucent, White, Black, Silver, Gold, with Carrying Case. You can also use a white cardboard from walmart that costs less than $5 but this is a good purchase for your kit and fits nicely in the lighting kit bag.

Please just remember you are filming a movie on video. Your lighting requirements are different than traditional film. This is also your movie and probably your money. Don’t let someone convince you that you need more money to because the lighting will lower your production value. You have limited resources not just financially but you are wearing many hats on this project and you do not want to spread yourself to thin. Once you own these things it’s one less expense you will have on your next project. Unlike video cameras lights never become obsolete. These lights resell very nicely on ebay and you will be surprised if you decided you do not like them when the production is over you can recoup most of your investment on ebay or craigslist. One last thing to convince you. Professional lights have much more expensive bulbs. At some point big heavy lights will get knocked over and break a bulb. A bulb will cost you about as much as buying one of these lights new. One last last thing. When you film on video the light frequency of these lights will give you a better picture without the need for gels and other time consuming setups.

PSS. You might want a few stingers. Stingers are just a fancy word for extension cords. You can buy them at walmart for a few dollars. I would suggest 3 cords that are 100 feet long. Call them stingers you will sound like you learned something from the video film school.

Let’s be honest here and the reality is that your not going to make your money back on your first film. But you still want to avoid any law suits. Look at the $999 you spend on this project as an investment. You wouldn’t take a college class without buying books. Trust me your going to learn more making a movie than you will in any film school. This online video film school is free so please invest $999 and make a movie. If you make a movie contact me so I can at least post your youtube trailer and a story about your project on this site. I need testimonials.

Let’s talk about how you pay your actors on a micro budget film. It’s called deferred pay. Everyone is paid a specified rate per day. I like the SAG ultra low budget minimum with points. So that’s $100 per day flat rate per day. You have the call sheets as a record plus any pickup or re-shoots. Then everyone gets 1 point. Going with favored nations status the keys get 2 points. Your friend who helped produce would get 2 points. You lead and costar get 2 points. Anyone who let you borrow a dolly or video camera get one point. The owner of any locations you used get one point. If one of your actors helped you with post production they get one point extra for serving two rolls. Any music you use get $100 flat rate for the right to use their music plus 1 point per song. Then you add up all the points you have given. So for example if you have given out 200 points every point is worth half a percent of the profits. 0.5%.

How do you determine the profits? You start with your investment as the investor. You get your money back first. you are the bond holder plus a 20% return. This is a high risk investment and requires a big return. Then you add up all the people you owe money too. If you used 10 songs you owe $1000 for music. If your actors worked a total of 40 days times 10 actors that’s ($100 day x 400 = $40,000) If your movie only earned $10,000 you break down your $999 investment plus 20% which leaves you $10k – $1,198 = $8802. So you figure out what fraction of whats owed to each person you owe money to. If you have 400 days you owe money for each day is worth $22 and you still owe them an additional $78 per day. Which they will just have to be happy to get any money. If on the other hand your movie makes $150,000. You take the first $1,198. Then your actors and everyone who worked on deferred pay lets say there are 400 days or $40k. You have $150k profit – (your $2k) – (Deferred pay $40k) = $108k profit. You owe 200 points or 0.5% of the profits. each point would be worth $540.

So now you know how to explain it. Everyone works for deferred pay. You have them sign a contract at the start of everyday before you roll the camera be sure there is a contract for them. I would get a folder with blank contracts and location releases and get them signed before you unpack any equipment. I would have a call sheet that has a sign-up sheet on the back of it. Have everyone sign the call sheet and date it at the start of each day. Also if anyone comes help out for the day have them sign a crew release and the same process. It sucks when your doing the credits and you can’t remember someones name to give them credit. I always use a binder with a 3 hole punch so they are all attacked. Just be sure to put that on your list of equipment. They always seems to get lost.

So your going to want to have blank forms ….

1) Actors Release
2) Crew Release
3) Location Release
4) Music Release

If you have any nudity in your movie your also going to want to have a 2257 release and a photo copy of their ID. I would even either be sure they where 18 years old before you registered your story with the SAG for the first time or have them hold up the news paper of that day and get that captured. This establishes that they where 18 years old before you filmed then nude. The 2257 might seem like over kill but it establishes intent that they knew what was going on. I would even budget in some payment for your naked actors just to prevent a headache later. Remember sex sells.

So you just finished your last day of filming. You have the film in the can. It’s time to celebrate. Be sure to have a cast party. If you can bring a trailer to the cast party for everyone to watch. You did something that everyone has always dreamed of. But your work is not over. I want to stress this. Get a rough cut done as soon as humanly possible. If you have been cutting the film as you go then you should have the rough cut done within a week. Now you can re-shoot anything that needs improvement. Compile a list of pickup shoots. Get your actors back in the studio to do any Looping. The way they do this is just put the video on a loop that the actor needs to redub. And the actor tries to mimic her voice from the take you want to use. Most actors are pretty good at this so if you have any audio issues on the dialogue take the time in post to get this fixed. The other thing that really helps the production value is Foley where you get doors closing and foot steps as people walk. If they set down a glass it should make a sound. Depending on your story the best way to do a sound track is to find a bunch of local unsigned musicians and see if they want to donate their music for deferred pay. Have them sign a release with some agreement so if you are one of the lucky few who actually sell your movie later the company who bought your project can actually get E & O insurance. Errors and Omissions insurance. This prevents you from getting sued later if someone things they are owed money. (My next post will be about getting people paid)

Audio Production
1 – Looping
2 – Foley
3 – Sound Track

One thing you might want to do after your have your rough cut is do a test screening. If you have money rent out a theater and give away 500 tickets and put together a questioner for everyone to fill out to get feed back. Maybe you can add a scene cut something or re-shoot some stuff to get your movie perfect. Indie films almost never do this but it can help even just screening it for the first time for some friends who will give you honest feedback.

The average time it took for me to see a rough cut on all the film projects I have worked on is over a year. The first film I worked on, I didn’t get to see for 10 years, when I stumbled on it on netflix. I just got a tweet on facebook today that the last film I produced is getting a re-write and starting re-shooting soon. That was 2 years ago. So get your film finished. Get it ready for the film festivals and get it out there so you can start on your next project.

If your like me the day you start principle photography your going to be a nervous. I made the mistake of not starting with a simple day. I had a ton of people including a local band and about 30 extras all being filmed in a night club. Huge mistake. And the first scene was with one of my best friends who wasn’t a real actor. He had one line but it made me nervous cause I didn’t want him seeing me screwing up. My suggestion is to start with a simple scene. If you have a scene with just you lead actor get that knocked out on the first day. This does two things it gets you started and gets you comfortable directing and comfortable with your lead. If you can on day 2 make that the day with your lead and costar. Keep it simple and just get one good solid scene in the can. You are taking baby steps one at a time and before you know it you’ll be at the top of the mountain and have no fear of heights.

I would also suggest if you can after you get the first few days of filming done spend a day or two just digging through the dailies. Look for mistakes and try to learn from them. Get a completed scene cut together add some music and maybe even a mini credits. Post it up on youtube and facebook for everyone to see. It will get people motivated and you will be pumped up about your project watching it. But most importantly look for “teachable moments!” Look to learn something adjust your directing style. Remember as tough as making a movie is being an actor is not easy. Sure some people are naturals but it is not easy. Look at your actors performances and see what you can do to direct them differently to get better performances. What your probably going to need to do is figure out how to film around their weaknesses and be sure to capture their strengths. You want your leading lady to look stunning. Maybe you need to light her differently so the lighting is softer without shadows on her face. You star might need to look bigger you can shoot him with the camera low looking up so he seems stringer.

One thing I notice about amateur actors is they have a tough time with their hands. They might deliver the lines well but if your shot is too wide you catch some nervous acting with hand gestures. The way around this is to get lots of coverage. Lots of extreme closeups to cut to in post. You can edit their performance to enhance it. The key here is being sure you get the coverage done and get the right type of coverage for certain actors. Some actors have a tough time hitting their mark. I notice actors that have gone to acting school or college for drama and have a few stage plays under their belt have problems hitting their mark. Not the tape on the floor but the mark in the frame. Video filmmaking is basically capturing a moving photograph. For stage and theater the position of your head doesn’t matter but it does when your trying to get decent composition. The quick fix for actors who don’t hit their mark so they are framed in the light is to do a take with a hand held camera. This is a nice trick for low budget films because you can grab a cutaway or reaction shot from the hand held footage and cut it quick in post so your audience doesn’t get motion sickness. This allows you to get coverage of actors who can’t hit their mark.

I recommend doing a filmed rehearsal. You might interrupt the actor but you film it anyway. A lot of times actors are more loose when its a rehearsal and that ends up being the best performance. You have extra footage to cut from if the overall performance lacks something. Then always start with a long shoot. Get both your actors and go very wide for the first take to get that out of the way. Then you can tweak things and cut in one specific parts of the scene but you always have that extra footage to cut back too if you need to.

So when your filming you have …

1) rehearsal take
2) establishing shot
3) mid-shoot
4) over the shoulder actor 1
5) over the shoulder actor 2
6) close up actor 1
7) close up actor 2
extreme close up actor 1
9) extreme close up actor 2
10) hand held

So you can see every scene has at least 10 takes. When I say you want at least a 1:15 ratio you factor in each of you mess up at least once you on the camera and each actor screws up once. Now your at 1:13. If you want the actors to try a different take on the delivery your at 1:15 really quick. And wouldn’t it be nice to have 2 versions of each of those 10 takes? I recommend it. There is no reason not to run at a 1:20 ratio. Hard drives are cheap. Even if your filming on tape render the tape to the hard drive and make a backup of the raw footage. Tapes deteriorate fast I would rely on them. In fact I would render all the footage and watch it off the hard drive copy when your viewing the dailies and not even worry about the tape. 90 minute movie with 20 takes is 1800 minutes factor in letting the tape roll and your at 2000 minutes. Plus your pickup shoots lets say you end up with 2100 minutes of footage or 35 tapes but some days go long others go short you probably just use one day per day so 40 tapes. That can run you another $250. So now your over budget but it’s not a bad idea to have an extra backup if you have the money.

That reminds me of one important thing when your filming. Always let the camera roll for a while after you call “CUT!” I try to go at least 30 seconds before I call action and after I call cut.

Another thing I do when I’m filming is I make a check list. When I wrap for the day I want to be sure especially if we are on location if everything is loaded up and cleaned. Did I remember the power cords. Do I have all the equipment? Did the actors leave anything? Scripts always seem to get lost do one last walk through. Be sure you didn’t leave a mess on a location. If your planing on coming back or you need to do a re-shoot if you left a mess your out of luck. We built a dolly on one of my productions. I’ll try to find the diagram basically you can build this for $100 with stuff from home depot. Anyway I was working on another production and the director insisted on a dolly but we had already gone over budget so I called the director and borrowed his dolly. We didn’t have an extra $100 or the time to build one. You know what happened it got lost or stolen. One day I was out running to pick up equipment or dropping off one of the actors and didn’t make it back before wrap. Anyway we never saw the dolly again and it was world war 2 getting an extra $100 to compensate for the dolly. So make a check list don’t lose anything you are borrowing from someone else.

The most important thing I can tell you is to just have fun. Enjoy the time directing. Long term friendships are made working on film sets. But stay focused and keep the days short. Be sure to keep a consistent pace between takes. Remember we can’t afford to feed people and food is fuel once you run out things really drag.

Production Schedule is important to keep your film organized and not waste peoples time. What you need to do is come up with your prop list. Wardrobe list also but be sure to be flexible and work with your actors to find clothes that they have. Your going to want them to commit clothes that they wont wear again until the film is finished. In fact if it’s really important for continuity you want to have some bags and you want to hold on to them yourself just so they don’t forget them or get lost.

So if your film takes place over 24 hour period of time then your going to want to probably buy a tshirt at goodwill for your actor. And that is part of your equipment package. If you have a few scenes that they need to wear the same clothes your going to want to try to film those scenes together. Break down your script first by location. Film all the scenes that take place at a certain location together. Then break scenes down by actors. Ideally you want to use your actors and get them done. Things happen like broken bones, scratches, and pimples. Yes this did actually occur on my 2 week feature film production.

Never try to film a feature over 2 weeks. Your going to want to work short days 3-5 hours. Trust me your going to need the time to watch and edit dailies and do production stuff that you don’t have a crew to help you with. It’s what I call simple physics. If you have a baseball and your throw it at the wall with a specified amount of force and it has x amount of friction in the air and the ball weighs z there is a formula to calculate how long it will take to hit the wall. Same with film making. You need to be sure you get plenty of coverage. That means you need an establishing shot. You need to rehearse and stage your actors for each scene. you need to postion the camera and setup the lights. then you need close ups coverage and cut aways. This all takes time and if your going to have enough footage to cut together feature that is 90 minutes long it simply can’t be done in 2 weeks. Remember what I talked about before the 3 elements of quality. Time, money, and quality. You don’t have money so you need time to get quality. I recommend that you have 40 days of filming (one for each scene). Some days you might knock off 2 scenes but other days you might only get half a scene. Keep in mind you are going to want as many takes as possible.

Save the toughest stuff for the end. The more complicated performances. If you really need a dolly shot put that off for the end. Also work with your actors to see what their availability is. Do not assume that they are going to be available anytime. If you have an actor that has a limited availability try to get him out of the way first. Same with locations if you have a location that your not comfortable with as far as them really being committed to helping out get that out of the way first.

Once you finish principle photography your going to want to do pickup shots and also a bunch of exterior shots to establish your back at the house and it’s day time. That helps the flow of the film even if it’s 2 seconds of screen time watch sitcoms Bill Cosby or Beverly Hills 90210. The beach house comes to mind. I know I’m dating myself here. Your going to want cutaways. Great way to cut around band acting. Kevin Smith did this in clerks he would cut away to a Twinkie display.

I highly recommend you cut and edit the film as you film. But get a rough cut done ASAP. Seriously it should only take you 2 weeks less if you cut scenes together as you filmed. You are going to want to see what needs to be re-shot. This is your first project so it’s ok if you need to go back and get some reaction shots and that kind of thing. If you have any really terrible performances see if you can figure out away to redo it with the actor trying to get something else that might not come off as really poor acting. Back To The Future they originally cast Eric Shultz. Can you imagine that movie without Michael J Fox? Anyway halfway through they fired him and had to do re-shoots.

Another thing to note is that your 40 days of principle photography might be spread out over 2 months. You are working with what is available to you. Actors and locations might not be available every single day. So figure your going to spend 2 months filming and a 3rd month re shooting. Then plan a screening for everyone involved. If you have any money left over plan a little party to celebrate.

I’m not a fan of rehearsals. The only real purpose it serves is that the actor becomes more comfortable with the role and their lines. Most amateur actors don’t come to set with their lines memorized or do all the work they need to do to learn their character. The best thing to do is assemble the entire cast for 2 hours to do a read through. I would start here. Then at most do a week of rehearsals. Me personally I would just skip it. Amateur actors I believe give their best performance cold.

Instead of spending your time in rehearsals I recommend spending the time story boarding your film. The more prepared you are the more command and direction you will be able to provide to the actors. Always act like you know what you want. With low budget films you story board once you have the location. Get your production manager to stand in for you. Even practice filming the shots to get a feel for your equipment and how it will look. Basically rehearse yourself not the actors. All it does is create a bigger time commitment for people who are not getting paid.

Most actors and crew love to get call sheets. I recommend you do call sheets that outlines out location that your shooting each day and props needed and the parts of the script filmed. You can email and or text everyone the night before with times. But the call sheets I would do it in advance with addresses ect. So actors know how many days your going to need them on set for the production. And what order your filming in so they can learn their lines in advance. I would also get a contact list together with everyone’s email, phone number and contact information. The actual dates and times will vary as you go but at least have a schedule ready for each day of filming.

What I like to do is take a copy of the script and cut it up into pieces. I put physically sort them by location and by actor. so I have stack one for a specific location that we only have one day at. Then I sort the actors. If I have a character who is in 5 scenes I try to group those together to get that actor done over 2 or 3 days. So if that actor is in the scene at that location. The next day I would shoot his stuff and get his performance in the can and out of the way. Let’s say the other actor in that scene isn’t available for day 2 of filming you can always skip over that and go to day 3 and then come back to day 2 next.

Anyway I think you get the idea. This has to be a fluid process with some organization and planning done during pro-production.

So you have your script, equipment and locations set. Now you need to cast the film. See if you can reserve a room at your local library for a few hours and post on craigslist for actors. Have them send you head shots. List what parts you have. Male 22 years old tall black hair athletic. Female 21 years old Blonde and curvy. Then what you do is setup an open casting call. Invite the ones that have the right look to come in and read for the part. Set a time 1pm Friday or something specific for everyone to come in. Have some sides ready for them to look over and give you a cold read. I’m a fan of the cold read because usually that is the same kind of performance your going to get when the camera is rolling. Half the people won’t show-up so just tell everyone the same time and give them sides to study while they wait. You might also want to contact local agents and and film groups to see if they can broadcast a casting announcement for you.

another thing to do to find actors is network with other local film makers and watch their shorts. You might discover an actors that is perfect for your project and you can get in touch with the director for more information about that actor and their contact information. Acting schools or acting classes have people looking for parts. If your local community college and university have acting classes contact the teacher to help you get the word out.

Remember that your giving someone the experience of a life time to be in your movie. Actors that don’t make a living acting don’t get paid. Especially with a low budget film. Even a small budget film of million or less they have something called “Favored Nations Status” which means everyone gets the same rate. Your key positions and lead actors get one rate and then the other rate for everyone else. Usually that’s going to be about $500 week. But we are not doing things that way we are not filming full time we are going to film only a few hours at a time. SAG has something called Ultra-Low Budget minimum that I believe is about $100 per day for union actors. you have to file with them to get a waver if it’s a non-union film.

The other thing I want to tell you my personal story. When I filmed my first feature I cast a really cool girl as the co-star. She was the most easy actor to work with. Sweet as could be. She had a full time job and drove a fancy car. She was just so happy to be in a feature film that she took comp time and vacation days to be on set. Unfortunately this was her first project and she wasn’t as good on camera as she was in the audition and rehearsals. I personally take the blame because I was filming a feature of two weeks and her scenes kind of got rushed through. A lot of times I didn’t have enough coverage to cut her performance properly. A year later I was producing a feature and the actress called that her car broke down on the way to set. What we didn’t know was she lived 200 miles away. Anyway the location we only had for one day so we had no choice but to replace her. The scene was kind of Showtime late nightish comedy. The part required lingerie. Anyway for what ever reason I thought of her. And had her number on my cell. The director on this film remembered her and said yeah she would be perfect if she’s ok with the part. I called her and she showed up within the hour did the scene cold and was outstanding. So either it was my directing or she got better. What I think is that over the year she did some film projects and got the experience she needed to really excel as an actress. When I pull up her name on IMDB she has actually had some parts in major successful bigger budget films. So my point of this story is that when you give someone a part in your movie, you are really giving them a chance to launch their career. The experience of being in a feature will only help them gain their experience they need to be a real paid actor. Of course we are greatful that someone would commit the time required to be in a film for free but the benefit actors get from being your movie is greater than any amount of money you can pay them. Of course the other thing is that they get footage for a reel which helps them also.

So you have the script your ready to film.  First few things to think about before you get started.

Can I really film this on a microbudget?

What kind of props do I need?

How many actors do I need to cast?

What about clothes and wardrobe?

Obviously there is no need for cars, makeup, FX, or post production cgi.

How many locations do I have?

What kind of equipment do I need to do this?

And let me add one important thing.  You are the lighting guy. Boom operator and cinematographer and camera operator.  So that means you can not star in your film.  In fact if your going to get in front of the camera it should be one brief scene and only a few lines. If you want to be an actor then find another film maker to work with and he directs and you can star and maybe co-direct.

For equipment  you need HD video camera, 3 lights, and a microphone with boom stand.    I would hit up ebay and buy a cheap used shot gun microphone. Find a Sennheiser Shotgun Microphone. They sell low end ones new for $200. The one that I love is the same one they use in Hollywood and runs about $1500. You can find them used for a few hundred. Again I use a Panasonic HVX-200 which is very high end and you can plug the microphone right into the camera and trust me the audio with a shot gun mic on a boom is better than any sound guy can do. And the best thing is you don’t have to worry about the mic getting into the shoot.  The mic on the camera gets all your other sounds and you don’t need much sound design later. Another good thing to check out is a music rental shop.  They tend to rent mics much cheaper than film equipment rental houses. They might discount you on a monthly rate but it’s a good idea to rent one for the day see how it works with your camera and then try to find it on ebay used. It’s a good thing to own because they are easy to resell and maintain their value.

I’ll make another post about HD cameras.  But really this depends on what you have access too.   My new Google phone actually takes pretty damn good HD video.  the problem is that you couldn’t use a tripod.   Depending on your camera walmart sells some tripods for under $50.  If you want a great tripod also easy to resell.  Get a manfroto on ebay used.  Thats the only way to go. There are some replica manfronto tripods I haven’t tried but I’m interested in trying one just to see how good they are. Anything else is a waste. I bought a $500 tripod once that was supposed to be top of the line. And it only lasted through 2 feature shots.

While sound is really one of the most important things to get right. You need to light your actors. With video or HD film making the best thing is to use Softboxes. When your doing something Guerrilla style you want lights that are not commercial grade for 2 reasons. First the professional lights are heavy and expensive. Next thing is that professional lights are indescribable and when they fall over they don’t break but they break the floor or worse break someone. The damage caused carrying them in and out of locations will cause you to wish you bought film production insurance. And your the entire crew so you want something that is light the actors wont mind helping you with. You want a softbox kit with spider incandescent lights. You need 3 lights and with these you don’t have to worry about blowing fuses and for video it gives you a good picture that wont be grainy. A lot of times they sell these kits in sets of 2 which is fine if you want to scrimp just user a practical light as your third light. Also get a boom stand usually the guy selling yout he kit has them cheap under $50 this is for your microphone. Ebay always has a bunch of places selling these things.

Before you run out and buy all this stuff you might want to try posting on craigs list someone might have all this stuff in their garage not being used and be happy to rent it to you for a few hundred dollars.
1) Sennheiser Shotgun Microphone $200
2) Softbox light kit and boom stand $300
3) HD Video camera $0 (you borrow one)
4) Tripod ($50 walmart)
5) Hard Drive 1.5 TB – 2x $200

Budget $750.00

Now the other thing I’m going to suggest is that you convince someone to buy you for your birthday or xmas a mac computer so you can do post production on it with final cut. The nice thing is that even the lower end ones are powerful enough these days to edit HD. You are going to want to buy the $99 VIP support with it. With this you can go into the Apple Store once week and get one on one Final Draft Training. This is a good way to edit your movie and learn how to use Final Cut. Nothing beats having a personal tutor.

Ok so now your up to $850. don’t forget your going to need to print out a bunch of copies of the script. Walmart sells paper 500 sheets for $2.99. You cast 10 actors so you need 10 copies plus ink which you can refill at cartridge world. That’s another $20 down the drain.

So you now have $100 for water and props. That’s how you make a feature movie for $999. Really what I call micro-budget.