The Top 3 Myths about Microbudget Filmmaking
Today launches a 3 part series on some of the common myths of microbudget filmmaking that we hope will fuel some new thoughts about the approach to the art. So let’s get started…
Microbudget Myths
1. Your screenplay has to be perfect before you do anything else.
2. You need to shoot on a specific camera, use specific gear or software.
3. You have to make a zombie movie.
Let’s start by taking a look at our first myth.
Your Script
As someone who has devoted a great deal of time to writing perfect screenplays, it’s a little tough for me to say this, but here it goes…
There are screenplays, and there are films… And despite what you may have heard, the two are completely different forms. Storytelling encompasses a wealth of mediums, including perfect screenplays, but in no way is a screenplay required or necessary to tell a story in the medium of film.
There’s no denying that if you want to sell a screenplay to a studio, or get a producer to fork over millions for you to shoot your movie, your script practically has to come from the Pen of God. But if you want to make a movie, screenplay be damned – all you should aim to do is harness the cinematic medium to tell a compelling story.
If you are a true storyteller, you can distill a story down to few sentences, and you’re if a truly amazing filmmaker, you can take those few sentences straight from your mind to the screen. While we might not totally recommend a method quite that minimal at home (unless you’re Cassavetes or Fassbinder), the point is that you don’t need 90 – 120 pages of (hero’s journey-mckee-syd field-save the cat) glamorized formula before you start shooting your feature.
In fact, we’d argue that the more precious your screenplay is, the more stagnant your film will be. Making a film is much more than simply committing the words on the page to the screen. As a microbudget filmmaker, you should be open to letting your story evolve and grow at all times, and that might even mean the first thing you do when you get on set is to throw your script in the trash.
Most of the time, we don’t even have a script with us on shoot days, but it’s because we know our story and characters so well that we feel comfortable letting them lead and finding new ideas as we go. We spend a lot of time in rehearsal, both before we shoot and on set, and it’s through that process that we learn to understand our characters in a way that we never could on the page.
Consider that a perfect script in no way guarantees a perfect (or even mediocre) film. Write as much or as little as you feel comfortable with, but try to merge the process of writing to your film production as early as you can.
A little down the road, we’ll show you how we use five or six key movements to create classic 3-Act stories that maintain their structure, but can be expressed in a couple dozen pages, and contain room for your story continually adapt during the filmmaking process.