The Microbudget Filmmaker’s Guide to Stealing Locations

Stealing locations is a must-have skill in the world of DIY filmmaking.  Even just a handful of shots in a great location can add to the production and aesthetic value of your film, expanding the scope of the cinematic world you’re creating.

With a bit of intelligent planning and simple procedure you can successfully steal almost any location you have in mind.  Following are some principles and steps to get started…

Less is More - The first thing to consider when committing location larceny is your scene.  The fewer people you have involved, the better chance you’ll have to slip under the radar.  Max out at two cast members and three crew people.

The All or Nothing Principle – Locations that make the best targets are those where there are a lot of people doing a lot of different things, or those where there are no people at all.  Places that are busy or highly public can actually be a lot easier to steal than you think.  Scenes in museums, restaurants, and malls can be had if you shoot quickly and inconspicuously knowing that the other patrons will unwittingly provide you good cover.

Case the Joint – Any good thief scouts the scene of the crime beforehand.  Take a low key test run where you try out some shots prior to your shoot day.  A dry run through the location with the director and DP will allow for smooth operation on the day of the shoot.  Find your framing, shots, and potential trouble spots at the location, so you don’t get slowed down (and increase your chances of getting caught) during shoot time.

The Rendezvous Point - When arriving at your location, don’t all walk in together as a group – it will only draw attention to you.  Enter separately or in smaller groups with a little time in between each other.  If the location has multiple entrances, use them.  Pick a point to meet up and then start shooting.

Run Interference - If possible, bring someone along who can distract employees or guards with stupid questions or chit-chat.  The interference person should either lead or trail your production, creating a shield under which the cast and crew can operate.

Let Your Location Speak For Itself - A primary reason you’re probably stealing a location is for it’s look.  So use that to your advantage when attempting to shoot covertly.  You don’t need scenes with a lot of dialogue or too many shots.  Try to find some nice wide spaces for your main character to roam on their own, and let the location itself provide the magic on screen.  Shooting wide also helps separate camera from cast, and will make it look less obvious that you’re filming.

 The Script – Our first draft was 23 pages.  We weren’t sure quite how much screen time it would take up, but based on the amount of action, we estimated our final film would run at least 70 minutes.  The script contained 10 distinct shooting locations and 15 story locations.

Rehearsal - We use rehearsal as a time to rewrite and develop our story, and so we rehearse each scene a few days before we shoot it.  After a series of six rehearsals, we honed our script to 18 pages, and cut a couple of locations.

The Shoot – We determined we would need five full days and four half days to shoot our story.  Of the full days, four were interiors and one was exteriors.  All of the half days were exteriors.

Scheduling – We designed our shoot to include some more ambitious days and some smaller days.  On a couple of the interior days we employed a more extensive crew and more equipment, but on most of the exterior shoot days we only needed the directors, DP, and two lead actors.  Over the course of three months, we completed shooting the film over 9 distinct shoot days.  We shot on a couple of non-consecutive weekends, and then filled in with single days as everyone’s availability dictated.

Budgeting - Of our $1000 we allocated approximately one-third to renting gear, one-third to props and costumes, and one-third to food and craft services.

Our Gear – Most of our gear, including our camera package (generously supplied by our DP, Chuck) comes to us as either stuff we own, freebies, or favors.  One Body is shot on a Canon 5D Mark II, using a Zoom recorder plus a three channel mixer, Senheiser shotgun and a couple of lavs.  Our lighting package varies according to need.  We managed to limit the need for a lot of equipment, so it wasn’t too tough to pull a favor or two for the couple of days that we needed extra equipment.  On two of our interior shoot days our lighting package included 2 4×4 Kinos, 2 Arri 650s, one little Lowell light, and a couple of b-boards.  On the two smaller interior days, we left the Kinos with their rightful owners.  The gear we rented included lavs, a micro-flo car kit, and a camera car mount rig.

Post – We’re just starting the process of post production on FCP 7 with Plural Eyes to sync our sound.  We hope to have a first cut within a couple of months.

When producing a feature film for as little money as possible, it’s important to consider that not all shoot days are created equal.  Like the concept of asymmetrical balance in art, you’ll get the highest production value and tell the most engaging story using a combination of scenes that vary in scope.

This is yet another instance in microbudget filmmaking where storytelling, artistry, logistics, and finance dovetail.  By bringing the parameters of production into your story development process, you can find the optimal balance between the small scenes and more ambitious ones.

Modern films tend to favor spectacle at their story’s outset or around the plot climax, and if you want to do something extra in those scenes, you’ll have to find ways to do more with less in other scenes in your film.  Just keep in mind, it might not always be an even trade.  Sometimes you’ll have to shoot several smaller scenes to bring the energy and expenditures of the more ambitious ones into equilibrium with the rest of your film.

Don’t be wary that a series of small scenes will kill the momentum set by big ones.  As we explained in Part 3 of our Screenwriting Series, intimate or “alone moment” scenes can actually make the audience feel the power of bigger scenes even more – through juxtaposition and contrast with the smaller ones.

When creating your story, it’s not so much about limiting the scope of your project, as it is not letting your no-budget production sink off balance.  If you have a non-negotiable scene that’s super ambitious, and means one of your shoot days requires more equipment, more crew, and a couple dozen extras – then start thinking about a set of smaller scenes that require only the director, dp, and one actor.  Even if the more ambitious scene takes a day and sucks up half of your assets, you know you can bring the production back into equilibrium by completing the smaller scenes more efficiently.  The variation in the individual scenes (and the production elements that they require) can make your film work better on a whole.

Scheduling a no-budget film shoot can be tricky, because most scheduling formulas are based on an institutional model that has remained unchanged since the heyday of the studio era.  The old models of production assume page-per-minute scripts, and shooting three pages per day – shoots that last 30 – 60 days.

But emerging microbudget filmmakers are increasingly less reliant on highly structured scripts or simple formulas, and almost none of us have the luxury of a shoot that stretches a month long or more.  So how do you schedule your shoot based on three pages per day, when you might be shooting a story that’s completely improv -  without any pages at all?

Scheduling is not the impossible (or tedious) task it seems, when you realize that logistics can be naturally occurring part of the creative process.  Following are a few general guidelines and parameters to make no-budget film scheduling as painless as possible…

Scheduling is based on setup and your shotlist.  Generally speaking, it takes about 60 – 90 minutes from when you arrive at your location to load in and set up for your first shot (and about the same to clean up after you’re through).  From there, it will probably take you about 30 minutes per shot to shoot your film.  Given a 10 hour day (minus some time for lunch), you’re looking at completing roughly 12 – 15 shots per day. That’s a good clip, but for a feature, that means you only have two or three shots per scene, so you have to use them wisely.

Allow the creative and aesthetic facets of directing to dovetail with producing.  There are a couple of major misconceptions in cinema – that camera direction must be complicated to be interesting, and more shots mean a better final product.  Neither is true, it’s possible to be interesting and efficient.  And what’s most important is to tell your story effectively.   That might mean doing fewer setups, in favor of doing more takes to focus on working the scene and getting a better performance.

Make even MORE out of your rehearsal. In our acting and writing post we proposed using rehearsal time for more than rote practice.  And well, you can use rehearsal to help with your shotlist too.  Don’t come up with a shotlist in a vacuum.  Instead, set a camera up in a wide, and run the scene a few times – your shotlist will start to develop naturally, based on where the actors move and what they say.  You’ll most likely find you need a lot less than you think, and that a little bit of creative blocking will do much more for you than a lot of shots.

Leave it on the location room floor. Don’t be afraid to revise your shotlist while on set.  You should always schedule with your maximum number of shots in mind, but when you feel like something is works, don’t be afraid to lose what you thought you needed, and move on.  What’s the point of losing a half-hour shooting that close-up just because it’s “on the list,” if you know the medium was so good you’ll leave everything else on the cutting room floor.

As we’ve said before, the key to success in microbudget filmmaking means taking a holistic approach.  In this case, that means more than the way the schedule and the shotlist are connected – it means keeping your cast & crew in mind too.  When scheduling it’s important to be reasonable and respectful.  Staying on-time and on-target will bring the best out of the people you’re working with.

Feeding the cast and crew is a concern for every microbudget producer.  You want to treat everyone well with food that will keep them happy, energized, and feeling good…

But meals, even something as simple as a few sandwiches for lunch, can quickly get expensive.  Say you have a cast & crew of 10 people and a 7-day shoot.  At $7 or $8 a sandwich, you could spend over $500 to feed everyone on your shoot.  Add the carb overload most restaurants will give you, and you’re faced with additional expense of declining productivity – the drag of the post-lunch coma.

Enter the slow-cooker to save the day.

These recipes will feed a cast & crew of about 10 people, and you can make them at a cost of under $3 per person (that’s a total of only $200 for our example shoot).   Using the slow cooker is even easier than taking everyone’s lunch order.  You set it up before you start shooting for the day, and six hours later, when you break for lunch, your meal is ready.

I love cooking.  I probably love it more than filmmaking on some levels.  Maybe on a lot of levels.  At any rate, following the break, you’ll find some of my favorite custom slow cooker recipes. I am a paleo diet believer, and so these recipes are designed with the modern hunter-gatherer in mind.  They’re full of nutrients and protein – and gluten free, to keep your crew running at full power, with no post-lunch coma.

Before we get going, a word of explanation.  I rarely use measuring devices when I cook, and I prefer a lot of spices – so the measurements provided are estimated, and I’ve listed the spices in a ratio format so that they can be scaled to your tastes.

The names may not be catchy, but they’re totally delicious…

Versatile Slow-Cooker Pork

This pork is amazing every time.  The spice mix gives it a great foundation for any flavor or food you combine it with.

4 – 5 lb pork shoulder (probably will come with a bone-in, simply take it out after cooking is complete)

1/3 cup Honey

1/3 cup Apple Cider Vinegar

1/3 cup (or a little less) water (you can also sub bourbon or stout beer)

2x Allspice

2x Garlic Powder

1x Ginger

1x Cumin

1x Onion Powder/Flakes

1x Thyme

.5x Cinnamon

.5x Sea Salt

.5x Paprika

.5x Black Pepper

Stir the honey, apple cider vinegar, and water together.  Add all the spices to the liquid.  Let it sit for a couple of minutes.  Sear the meat – I like to heat up a big cast iron skillet and then sear it for approximately a minute to a minute and a half on each side.  Start with the fattiest side of the pork.

After you’ve seared the sides, place the pork in the slow cooker, and slowly spoon the liquid/spice mix over it.  Set the slow-cooker to low and come back in 6 hours.  The pork will be falling apart.

At this point, you have a few options…

My favorite (highly recommended) thing to do with this pork is serve it over a salad of thinly sliced red cabbage tossed with sesame oil and seeds.

You can also use this pork to make a great taco – just chop some cilantro and onion.

And if you really can’t help but succumb to the sandwich lobby and blast your crew with gluten, pile the pork on some rolls.  But don’t be surprised when everyone falls asleep after lunch.

South Asian Inspired Chicken

Admittedly, this is a little broad but it’s easy, quick, and super spicy.

3 – 4 lbs chicken thighs (skinless & boneless)

1 onion

4 garlic cloves

3 tomatoes (or used canned)

2x Garam Masala (I use ton of all the following spices)

1x Curry Powder

1x Ginger

1x Tumeric

Chop the tomatoes, onions, and garlic.  Throw everything into the slow cooker, set it to low for 6 hours and you’re set.

Serve it with a sauteed side of curried cabbage or cauliflower.  And yes, you can serve it over rice if you want to.  A dollop of yogurt tops it off nicely.

5 Pepper Caveman Chili 

Cavemen are like Texans – they don’t like beans in their chili.  My recipe is based on a meaty Texas chili, but with a few more veggies than the Lone Star folk prefer.  This chili has a late kick of heat.  It goes great topped off with home-made guacamole.

For the chili

3 – 4 lbs of beef – sirloin or round, cut for stew into cubes

1 green pepper

1 red pepper

1 pablano pepper

1 jalepeno pepper

1 serrano pepper

1 or 2 onions

5 or 6 cloves freshly chopped garlic

4 – 6 chopped tomatoes (you can also use canned tomatoes, but I like fresh)

5x Chili powder

3x Cayenne Pepper

2x Cumin

1x Chipotle powder

1x Sea Salt

1x Black pepper

.5 x Ginger

1/2 cup water

To make this fast and with the least amount of hassle, you can just chop all the veggies and throw all the ingredients in the slow cooker on low for 6 hours.

If you really like cooking and have a little extra time, I recommend a couple of extra steps…  Sear the meat in a coconut-oiled skillet for a minute or two.  Remove the meat, then cook the onions for a few minutes.  Add the tomatoes and spices.  Cook for a couple of minutes more, then put everything (meat, tomato/onion/spice mix, and chopped peppers) in the slow cooker.  Come back in 6 hours.

Note that the tomatoes and peppers will disintegrate while slow-cooking, so don’t add too much water to this at the start.

Once your chili is done, top it off with some fresh guacamole.

For the guacamole

3 or 4 avacados

1x Cumin

1x Garlic powder

.25x Sea Salt

A hot and spicy, high-protien treat for the crew.

These slow cook meals don’t take long to prep, are zero-maintenance to cook, and an economical way to feed a small crew.  They’ll keep the energy up on set, and make you feel good about keeping your cast & crew well fed.

Please chime in with your own slow-cook recipes in the comments…

For most microbudget productions, a crew of about five people is ideal.  A good basic setup is a director, dp, sound person, and two very saintly swing people (who can handle lighting, sound, take the occasional set photo, and don’t mind making a run for batteries). No matter how you crew up through, everyone you bring aboard should be willing to do anything on set at any moment it’s required.  As Buckminster Fuller says “Specialization leads to extinction.”  On a set with limited resources, that’s especially true.  We’re not advocating chaos, where every person on set is tripping over each other to tell you why they think that light should go there.  You still want to assemble a team where specific individuals are charged with making specific decisions.

However, an organization that’s a militaristic hierarchy of task performers will most likely slow you down in a no budget film production. To understand how to best assemble your microbudget crew, think of your on-set production time in two different functions…

Function 1 is setting the shot.

Function 2 is executing the shot.

During Function 1, anyone who has a free moment should be willing (and ideally technically capable of) helping someone who doesn’t.   So the director might have to perform grip functions for a minute.  The dp might help an actor get their lav on.  And the actor might be resetting props.

During Function 2, the crew (and cast) focuses only on their assigned responsibility.  The director watches performance, the dp watches the shot, and the sound person watches the levels.

In assembling your crew it’s important to consider the team and the collective emotional experience over any individual and their level of technical expertise.  Your microbudget set is most likely going to be lacking some of the creature comforts or procedural certainties of a big budget production, but that can make the no-budget set a more rewarding experience for everyone involved.  Make it a fun place to hang out.  Don’t be blind to the fact that non-filmmaking friends and family might make for a better crew than the hotshot film guy complete with his own light kit that you found on craigslist.

In the spirit of evolution and collaboration, one of the things Todd and I have found most rewarding about microbudget filmmaking is co-directing.    Just the same way that debate, open discussion, and differing viewpoints quickly lead to improvements in your story, they can also foster an improvement in on-set functionality.  We’ve found that sharing directing duties unconsciously takes the tyranny out of the position and makes for a more open on-set environment.  Big budget sets are about ownership.  No budget sets are about kinship.  Art is more than just an idea, it’s about creating a bond between the piece and the audience.   Any way that you can bring that energy to your project will bring it closer to it’s ultimate potential.

The first thing most anyone thinks about when it comes to filmmaking is the budget.  At the microbudget level, the notion of budget is complicated.  There’s a lot of gray area between what you could spend, what you should spend, and what you do spend.  Every microbudget film is going to have a different set of resources, and a different way to deploy them.  So while it’s difficult to say here’s the way to spend $1,000 bucks – we truly believe that anyone can make a film for $1,000.

The key is not about what specifically you spend your money on, but setting yourself up so that you’re efficient and effective with what you spend.  Even though a lot of the help, equipment, or locations you’re getting might come free or dirt cheap, none are unlimited.  Here are some parameters designed to get more from your production.

Create Your World in 6 Days (give or take) – If it works for a large contingent of true believers, there’s no reason it can’t work for your feature film.  Designing a shoot that will last somewhere between 6 – 10 days is helpful in a few ways.  First, though it does require dedication and friendship, it doesn’t require an insane commitment from your crew.  Secondly, it can give you an advantage with rentals – most rental houses charge a 3-day week or a 1-day weekend.  And finally, a short shoot can make it easier to break your production into even smaller blocks.  Which brings us to the next point…

Work for the Weekend – Try to schedule your shoot over a few weekends.  Generally, more of your cast, crew, and support will be available.  Plus you can save money on equipment rentals.

Be Green – Often people think that being Green is more expensive, but creating cinema that’s conscientious can actually save you money.

• Find locations with natural light – Daylight looks better, and you’ll need less equipment. You still might need to augment and sculpt what the sun gives you with a lighting head or two.  But you won’t be spending hours waiting on lighting changes, and that means more time spent shooting your story and finishing more scenes per day.

• Repurpose and Recycle – Use common items to sub in for grip gear or expendables.  Really, it’s okay to use a piece of cardboard or a cookie sheet instead of a flag.  Buy some $3 sheers at a thrift store instead of a $150 roll of 250 half-white.  What you do on set stays on set – No one will know you used your 59Fifty over the top of the lens instead of a mattebox when they’re watching your film on screen.

• Waste makes Waste – Try to use non-disposable service items for craft and meals whenever you can.  If you’re shooting in a residential environment or an office with a kitchen, use glasses and fill up from the faucet rather than spending money on (and creating waste with) bottled waters.  Make coffee on set and use mugs rather than buying a box and a bunch of paper cups.  Use silverware and plates from the kitchen instead of buying plastic from the store.  You might have to do a few dishes for your host, but you can save a lot more money than you realize and you’ll help the planet too.

Your Vision – In approaching microbudget producing, it’s helpful to think of this overriding principle… Approach your vision not as what you imagine, but what you can see.  Part of this is being realistic about what you have, and part of it means seeing your resources in the light of your resourcefulness.

We want our films to evolve at all times, and for us that means we spend some time developing a story, so that we have a set of scenes that work together.  However, we aren’t that concerned with specific dialogue or writing a script.  Again, don’t think of filmmaking as a component process – writing (and rewriting and rewriting) a script, casting, rehearsing – try to bring all of these processes together as a whole, and you’ll find you can truly unleash the potential of your story.  For us, this means not writing a script in a vacuum, rather letting our cast be active in the creation of the “script.”

Writing your story begins with the outline – and as soon as you know who your characters are, you should know who you want to cast.  We couldn’t say it much better than Jim Jarmusch “I start with actors that I know personally or I know their work, and there are things about their work or their presence or their own personality that make a character, that exaggerates some qualities and suppresses other qualities. It’s always a real collaboration for me.”  

Think about who you know who would be great for each part, write a few of lines that would sound perfect coming specifically from them, and then bring your actors in for a table read.  Don’t use your rehearsals as a time blocked out for memorizing and determining the way people should read lines, but instead work on the beats of the story, and allow the actors to take authorship.  Know and trust the people you’ve cast will augment your story in a unique way – Rehearsal will become much more than a time to practice, it will become a time to rewrite, revise, and make your story better.

Give your actors space to improv and create their own lines and motivations.  Realize that writing and acting are very similar disciplines. They draw on actual raw emotional experiences of the artist, that are then re-interpreted, analyzed, and understood until they can be emoted again organically.  The only difference is that a writer can sit around for days trying to figure out how to do it, while an actor often has to do it on the spot.   We turn to Larry David for some wisdom…

When all is said and done you might decide to commit some of your rehearsal work to a script or you might not.  Mike Leigh uses improv with the aim of developing a tight script.  But we create a hybrid document that’s part script, part outline, and part random inspiration, like director Drake Doremus.

Many people view directing as specific and technical – deciding on blocking, line reads, and camera angles – but when you take the helm on set, approach it from the more expansive terms of directing the flow of the story.

There is a misconception that auteurs succeed by demonstrating brute despotic strength, when the reality is that auteurs find success only through understanding and believing in the strengths of the people they work with.

In good fun, my friend Dexter recently sent me a list of “Microbudget Screenwriting Tips” he came across while perusing the internet.  There are several iterations of these lists floating around online.  The screenwriting tips they offer are recycled from books devoted to low-budget filmmaking that were written a decade or two ago… When DSLRs were just twinkles in their Super 16 mm parents’ lenses.

Most Microbudget Screenwriting  lists consist of a fairly lame set of limits, grounded by lack of ingenuity, and are topped off with an appeal to overdone genres.

While the creators of these lists might mean well, they assume outmoded models of filmmaking that ultimately lead to misguided advice.

Limit-based lists might be fine for writers who are seeking a cheapskate producer or unambitious director to take a script off their hands – but if you’re a true microbudget filmmaker, limiting lists are totally useless.

Rather than a set of specific pool rules, here is a list of wide-ranging foundations designed from the ground up for the new age of microbudget production.  Understanding the symbiosis between the practical, artistic, and technical resources you have is key.

1. Leave your story room to evolve.

As we’ve said before on this site – approaching your script as gospel will most likely lead to disillusionment.  Developing a good story doesn’t require that you write a screenplay.  And the screenplay you’ve written in no way guarantees you will make a quality film.  A good story is a lot more valuable than a “good script” because it is more adaptable and allows your film room to grow at every phase.

2. The more the merrier.

Writing in a vacuum makes you miss opportunities – this goes for people who are writers exclusively to writer/director/producer triple threats.  One of the best things you can do is know who your full cast and crew are before you commit a word to the page.  On your own, you might only have access to a few locations like your apartment, your parent’s house, and your sister’s crappy car.  But say your DP has access to a boat, your lead actress can get you into the restaurant she works at, and your sound guy’s brother is the chief of police.  All of a sudden, the scope of your production has grown exponentially.

3. Film is a visual medium.

Dialogue scenes and coverage are for 70s TV sitcoms.  Showing characters in a quiet moment and simple act is much more powerful than anything you can say (and as an added bonus you’ll find these scenes usually only require a minimum of takes).

Leaving things unexplained lets your audience be active in the storytelling, rather than sending them to sleep with exposition.  The less an audience knows, the more they want to find out, the more that they’ll imagine, and the more that they will start to take a personal stake in the story.

The Kuleshov Effect remains the most powerful theory in cinema.  Think of it not only in terms of montage, but in terms of storytelling and the narrative juxtaposition of entire scenes and sequences.

4. Nobody knows what a portal looks like.

The suspension of disbelief is the gravity that holds the cinematic universe together.  Every time a film is made, a new reality is created.  The reality unique to each individual film has no relation to our “real world” or the reality of the films that came before or will come after it.

But frequently, filmmakers forget about this vital phenomenon – and so when someone tells them they can’t write a microbudget film about time travel because they’ll never pull off the effects, that filmmaker wistfully sighs “someday” and proceeds to shoot a story about mumbly people who hang out in their studio apartment.

Instead – what every filmmaker should realize, is that they don’t need a billion dollar special effects portal.  Because as a filmmaker, you have the power to redefine what a portal is.

There are a lot of ways you can do that that don’t require a massive team of 3D designers.  Find a cool physical location to use as the portal – a bizarre doorway in your apartment building, or a public sculpture your actor can run through.  Or create your portal with a creepy shot zooming into the black of a cup of coffee and elaborate sound design.

5. Steal locations.

Being a microbudget filmmaker you probably understand what you can do with a small crew and a minimum of equipment – so never be afraid to use it to your advantage.  If you really want to shoot a scene in your movie where a couple breaks up while attending a Knicks game, then just do it.  Buy some cheap seats, hide some lavs on your actors before you go through the turnstiles, and shoot the scene on your iPhone.  Voila.

Even Aranovsky stole the subway scenes in Black Swan.

So let’s stop setting limits as microbudget film storytellers.  Consider not only creative ways to tell your story, but creative ways to expand your resource base, take advantage of small crew size, and re-concieve the core concepts of cinema.

Soon we’ll be posting Part 3 of our screenwriting video series, so stay tuned…