Micro Budget Films

Micro budgeting for film is usually defined by shooting for an extremely low budget, normally five thousand or less dollars.  Many filmmakers decide to shoot on micro budgets because they want the creative freedom to tell the story they visualized when they wrote their script.

I am a fan of micro budget filmmaking because it forces me to be creative, and innovative. I cannot just throw money at a situation; I have to think my way through my challenges.  

I am a big fan of the Nollywood film industry in Nigeria. In Nigeria, an independent filmmaker will shoot a film in a week with a budget of less than ten thousand dollars. That film will be edited and pressed to DVD and the process starts over again.  Some Nigerian independent filmmakers will shoot six to eight films in one year using the micro budget strategy.

I have learned from the Nigerians and Nollywood, the power of micro budget films. People want to be entertained, and many do not want to leave their house. If you can produce an affordable, entertaining and convenient movie product, the people will buy it. You do not need the Hollywood stars and the Hollywood marketing to be a good independent filmmaker.

Go make a movie!

The Color of your Film

Color grading is an important aesthetic element of film, probably only second to sound. You can use color grading to effect lighting, the color of the film and subsequently the mood of the film. Different films have different color grades that help express the emotion of the film. Here are a few examples.

Terminator Salvation:

Notice how the colors are washed out. I believed some type of bleach bypass look was used. The stark coloring helps sell the story of a post-apocalyptic earth.

Where the Wild Things Are:

The colors are saturated to the point where people are flesh colored and the rest of the world has a teal tint.

The Matrix

The saturation is turned down, almost to a black and white. The movie takes on a very dark and stark tone, which help sell the setting of the movie.

As you see, color grading is an important aspect of film. Imagine watching The Matrix where all the colors pop off the screen and everything is in great detail. It would take away from the movie.

In this era of HD video, everyone is going for the 720 HD look, however HD video is almost too clean for movies. I shot my documentary “The Bay” in 720 HD however I used color correction and a Gaussian blur to diffuse the look of the movie. If I knew what I know now, I may had had done even further color correction to create a tone of the film with color grading.

As independent filmmakers we have access to color grading software as part of the editing suites we posses or as stand alone products. I advise you to use color grading in your future projects to help tell your story. We are in an era in which cinematography and color grading are merging to create the same effect on a film.

Now go make a movie!