How to make a great short film for $0
Itching to make a short film? Hesitant because you have no money? Well, that is a poor excuse. I know because I’ve used that excuse for years. I always thought you needed to have money to make a decent short film. But one day, I said fuck it and set out to make a short film for $0.
Was it any good? It’s decent. I’ll let you decide for yourself. The important thing is what I learned from the process.
Don’t worry, I’m going to show you how I did it, and how you can follow the same approach and make a film with no money. If I was able to do it, I know you can do it too.
What do you have at your disposal?
When making a short film with no budget, the first step is to take inventory of what you have available to you. To make a short film, you’ll need a story. The story will need characters, it will need locations, it will need props. You have no money, so you’ll need to look for a story in things available to you.
When I made my $0 budget film, I looked at what was available to me. I live in the woods. In my backyard is an abandoned house with fire damage and some other eerie artifacts. I used my backyard and these interesting locations to build the plot of the film.
For you, this could be the location where you work, or the creepy house you live in, or a guitar case and random turtle you met on the street. Look at what’s available for you and uncover the story needing to be told.
Find a free location
Since a location is needed for the short film, here are some free location ideas:
Where you live.
This is the most accessible location available to you. Find something unique about where you live and find the story in that. This is how I was able to bring my film to life.
Where your family or friends live.
Feel free to ask relatives or friends to utilize their homes for your film. This network can really open up the locations available to you.
Where you attend school.
If you’re a student, look at utilizing the classroom or campus for your film. Most schools have no issue with students filming, double-check with your school first, but this can be an excellent free location.
Where you work.
Check with your employer first, but where you work can be a creative setting for a film. One of my favorite movies, Clerks, did precisely that.
Public Parks.
City parks, National Parks, skate parks, beaches, lakes, etc. Parks are public property, which means that you can utilize these locations if you keep your production small. If you have a large crew or big production equipment, you’ll need a permit. But assuming you have $0, that shouldn’t be a problem you face.
Abandoned locations.
I’d be a hypocrite if I told you not to use abandoned locations. I’m a big believer in asking for forgiveness, not permission. But please be careful with this option. I know people who’ve been arrested using a seemingly abandoned location. So just scout the area, and be responsible.
Ask to use someone’s location for free.
I’ve used free locations for many shoots. People are surprisingly helpful, so if you’re respectful and kind, people may want to help you out. You never know until you ask.
Find cool props
Uniques props can really elevate your production value and give your story and characters extra depth. This could be an exotic pet, a farm animal, a cool instrument, a vintage weapon. If you have access to a cool car or a boat, all these things can really add production value and layers to your story. Even the smallest of things can add meaning to a character, like a valuable watch, a spinning top, or even a house plant.
In my short film, I used a Halloween mask and a bedroom curtain to construct the character “The Torch.” I took a torch to the mask to give it a worn-down, charred look that fit the theme and the fire-damaged house in the film. These props elevated the production value and provided extra depth to the character and story.
Cast people you know
For most of my films, I don’t cast actors; I cast friends. Actors are great. I’d love to work with talented actors on every project. Working with great actors makes your job as a filmmaker so much easier. But when working with no budget, you might not have access to talented actors. But that’s ok because you can just as easily use your friends and family.
You think your film will suffer if you use non-actors. For specific stories, you’re absolutely right. A non-actor could ruin the film and character you have written. The key to successfully using your family and friends is to cast them as themselves. They can’t mess up if they are playing themselves.
For my short film, I wrote the entire script with my friend in mind. He had never acted before, but he didn’t have to act. He just had to be himself. It’s incredible how effective this can be. I showed the short film to some actual actors I know, and they were surprised and very impressed this was Anthony’s first time acting.
Your job as a filmmaker is to deliver an authentic performance, so if you have no budget, write the characters with your friends and family in mind. If they are confident on camera, write them as confident. If they are shy on camera, write them as someone shy. If they easily forget lines, write them as a character who has a scatterbrain.
Write the script
You might have expected this part of the process to come much sooner, but when you make a no-budget film, the writing comes once you’ve taken inventory of everything available to you. Once you know what locations you have available to you, the props at your disposal, and the friends and family you can cast. You can start to look for the story.
For me, I had the woods in my backyard, a Halloween mask, a bedroom curtain, and my friend Anthony. With these, I was able to write the entire script for The Torch.
This leads me to the first step when writing your script.
Pick your genre.
Genre filmmaking can be your best friend when you have no budget. This will limit your options since some genres are nearly impossible to pull off with no money, such as sci-fi, fantasy, musicals, and period pieces. But other genres are well known for their low-budget potential. Horror, thriller, mystery, romance, comedy, drama, action, and adventure can all be done with no budget. Find a genre that you’re passionate about and steal from your favorites films. It’s 100% ok to reference and steal from the movies that inspire you.
I love the horror genre. It’s a genre that thrives on no budgets. Typically the worse the quality, the scarier it can be. This is why I picked horror as the genre for my film.
The story structure of a short film.
Now that we have the idea for the film’s location, props, characters, and genre, we now have to define its structure.
You’re familiar with the three-act structure in film. We all learned about the setup, rising action, climax, and falling action, all plotted on this little graph.
Well, you don’t have to follow that at all. With short films, you have flexibility. I recommend you play around with it. Given the film’s short nature, you have to decide its purpose.
You could make a really dope trailer as a proof of concept for something much larger.
You can focus on a cool camera trick and editing technique that is captivating and interesting.
You can shoot a dialogue-free sequence.
You film a small scene from a feature-length script.
You can follow Dan Harmon’s story circle.
Or you can condense the typically three-act structure to a run time that you see fit.
When making a short film, you do not need to be attached to a particular structure. For my little movie, I wanted to break the rules and attempt non-linear storytelling. So believe me, anything is possible.
Film your short
The story is now written, so the next question is, how do I shoot this? You might not like how brief this answer is, but use what’s available to you. Do not let camera equipment dictate whether you make your film or not. Look at the cameras you have available to you, and make your film. There have been Hollywood movies successfully filmed on iPhones and GoPros. I used security cam footage in my film. You do not need fancy equipment to tell a good story.
The same goes for capturing audio. I’ve filmed projects where the audio is captured on my iPhone. If you have dialogue, you can immediately do ADR for the scene right after you film it. Just use the voice app on your phone.
Edit the film
If you already have editing software like Final Cut Pro or Adobe Premiere Pro, that’s great. Due to the nature of this topic, if you’re looking for professional editing software for $0, look no further than DaVinci Resolve. DaVinci is fantastic; it’s very similar to Final Cut and Premiere with their non-linear editing software. DaVinci the best program for color grading, and it comes with some fantastic features like tracking and masking. I will say DaVinci is pretty high level with a decent learning curve, so if you’re a beginner, you can also do a lot with iMovie or Video Editor.
Conclusion
That’s it! You have everything you need to make your short film for $0. The key is to embrace this as a great learning experience and have fun doing it. You can’t control whether someone will like your film or not, but you can control what you learn from the experience of making a short film.
I hope this inspires you to get out there and make a short film. If you do make your film, please send it my way. I would love to see what you come up with!
As always, make it a great day or not; the choice is yours.
