How to make an indie film

by Erin Sims

If you want to make an indie film, cut your directing teeth on a 5 minute film short! Check out our tips for screenwriting, actors, location, budget, equipment, props and post-production. Be the next Gus Van Sant. Indie film-makers unite!

There are several factors you need to decide upon before you embark on your quest to become the next Quentin Tarantino, Kevin Smith or Gus Van Sant.

What is an indie film?

An indie film is one that is made outside of a major motion picture studio. It has independent backers, and at the lower end of indie films (like yours) it's often self-produced with everyone taking pay cuts or no pay at all.

The advantage to making an indie film is that you can be much more experimental in your subject matter. Because your indie movie didn't cost a squillion pounds to make, you are not required by Fat Cat studios to bring in a squillion pounds in profit. It really doesn't matter if you only get a few people to see your movie, so you can make it about anything you're genuinely interested in. If, for some reason, the viewing public don't want to sit through 120 minutes of 1920s flappers dancing round a mournful elephant, or a shrieking woman pulling out her arm hairs one by one, 'tis very much their loss.

What will your indie film be about?

Well, only you can decided. But it's a good idea to watch as many indie films as you can. You'll start to get a feel for the subject matter. You'll also watch those films with a director's eye. Did they choose a topic that could easily be filmed with just a few actors in the local area? Did they try to have special effects in their films? If they did, how did they get around the problem of having no budget? Did the indie films focus on great performances, or on beautiful landscape? Were they shocking? Did they have happy endings? Did they revel with poorly-made sets and exploit their lack of budget, or did they do clever things to hide it?

You'll basically be looking at: How to make an indie film with no money, what techniques are used to make the audience think it's a wonderful film even though no money has been spent on it.

Watch as many Indie films as you can. Here is a small list to get you rolling:

Paris, Je T'aime - A two hour film consisting of eighteen short films set in different arrondissements of Paris.

Donnie Darko - A classic with a cult following.

Once - A musical flick set in Ireland, which proves that simple storylines can translate into beautiful screen time.

A Trip To The Moon - A revolutionary silent black and white film from 1902 which used the first used of animation and special effects in a film.

Son of Rambow - This marvellous UK indie film is about two schoolboys who decide to make their own Rambo sequel using whatever they find. Not only is it a good film, it might give you an idea of some of the pitfalls ahead regarding set, stunts and artistic differences...

Other indie films include Pulp Fiction, Moon, Clerks, Eraserhead, A Clockwork Orange, Juno, Fish Tank and Nowhere Boy.

An indie film needs a script

There's no getting round it - one needs a script before directing a masterpiece! This is usually the most time consuming activity in the film making process. How many good plot ideas have you paid heed to, only to wince in horror behind your bucket of popcorn at the cinema when seeing the protagonist struggle through a dire script?

Screenwriting is a different ball-game to the creative writing you may be more familiar with.

Check out www.filmscriptwriting.com for everything from creativity hypnosis to character development.

Screenplay writing tips

You are writing for a visual medium. You are showing your audience a story, not telling it to them. Your characters have to show and say what they are thinking.

Use real-life experiences to keep dialogue natural.

Don't overcomplicate the plot line, especially if it is planning to be a short film.

Know your limits. The average Hollywood film is now well over £100 million, and the chances of your budget being the same...? Knowing you have essentially no budget should make you think about what you can achieve. For instance... Are you aiming for a period drama? This will be hard work if nobody you know has any period clothes, you can't sew and you live in a sea of modern blocks of flats. Will your friends work for free? If your friends tend to be busy people, forget about epic crowd scenes - it'll be hard work getting them all in the same place at the same time.

Shooting an indie film takes time

How much time do you have to dedicate to the film? Would you like it to be a one month project or a one year project? Can you commit to working on it every weekend or every weekday?

It really helps to set a schedule. It's easier for your actors and crew (if you have any crew) to commit to a project if they know how long it might take and how often they can expect to work.

There is a rich tradition of film shorts nowadays. You can think about making a five minute film short to begin with. The screenwriting, shooting and post-production will still take more time than you thought. But, if it's your first effort, it means you shouldn't go disastrously over budget. Your actors won't get bored and run away after six months of shooting in the rain. And you get to see those magical words 'THE END'.

Actors - You can't pay them and you can't shoot them (unless it's with a camera)

Do you have budding stars in the making in your circle of friends that are waiting for their 'moment'? This may not be it, but encourage them to participate in your film anyway!

Oh, and make sure they are the sort not to break your supposed-ever-lasting friendship over artistic differences... we wouldn't want to have to re-cast and re-shoot now, would we?

Your film budget

How much money can you invest in the film? It is possible to make a low budget film look high quality. There have been several low budget films that have made relative killings in the box office, and although your budget still may be nowhere near theirs, you can still make a movie to be proud of.

Let's say you've got practically no money at all. Where is the money going to go? Assume that nobody gets paid for working on this film including yourself. The budget is likely to go on equipment, setting, props and costume. The film is most likely to look professional if the budget goes on equipment.

If you don't own a video camera, it is possible to hire equipment from companies such as Kays, who will provide any film making paraphernalia you could imagine, from backdrops to choreographers.

Don't forget that your dad's old video camera (the one dug out from a box in the attic that he used to film every Christmas when you were a kid) can help you make your short film. The handheld camera effect is used in big budget films frequently nowadays. If you know the cinematography is going to look a bit 'home movie' because of the equipment you're using, consider if you can work that into your script or into the atmosphere of the film somehow. Turn that limitation to an advantage.

Digital cameras have changed the face of the industry and it'll be far easier for you to make a decent quality indie film on a digital video camera than it will be for you to get hold of standard film recording equipment. The Tom Cruise / Jamie Foxxx blockbuster 'Collateral' was shot entirely on digital camera and (in the hands of experts, admittedly) doesn't look any the worse for it.

Choosing film locations

Consider whether you will be filming close to home or whether you'd rather spend a two week trip in the Scottish mountains to film your final scene. Draft an estimate and keep a running tally of equipment hire, hotel rooms etc. If you're making travel arrangements for location, be as prepared as possible to make sure it's a wrap by the end of the trip. That means you have an idea of what locations you'll find up there, you've made back-up plans if the weather doesn't go your way, and you've got a firm but flexible idea of how you'd like to shoot the scene(s).

Where possible, rope friends in to help you for free. Why stay in a Highlands hotel (that's you, the crew and actors) when you have cousins up there with a farm who might be able to put you up?

Lastly, if you're filming close to home, do a little location research. use the internet and library to find out if there are places in the area that might be of interest - abandoned hospitals, closed down railway stations, old quarries... You'd be surprised. You may be able to write a nice letter to the authorities and get permission to film there.

Also get your friends to assist you. Tell them to walk around and take snaps of places they find that might work for locations.

Setting and Props

If your film requires props, get a group of friends around one evening and supply them with alcohol (or juice!) and snacks and let them assist you on your way to prop greatness.

It will really help if you ask someone to take on the role of Continuity Assistant. If you have to film on more than one day, your Continuity Assistant will take snapshots of what positions the props were in and what the actors were wearing and how they did their hair and what time of day it was. That way, you can match the props and setting if you have to film on another day. Genius!

Lights, Camera, Action!

For your first film, you won't want to be worrying about filming from different angles and switching between these during the editing process. Get your scenes down, and have fun during the process.

Be warned that if your actors have not actually had any previous acting experience, there will be lots of giggling and laughter and unfinished scenes. Keep these! They'll make for a fun gag reel.

Film-making tips: When you watch films, watch how the simplest thing is shot. When an actor comes into a room do they film the whole opening/closing of the door or just a bit of it so as not to slow the action down? You'll find that films use all sorts of tricks to keep the pace of the film focused on the interesting things that are happening, not the boring things.

And again, at a later stage you WILL be wanting to think about filming from different angles. When you watch a conversation in a film, watch how the camera is used. Does it jump from person to person or is it filmed continuously? Does it use close-ups? You won't be able to afford two cameras. But if you do want to go to the next level, you might decide two film a conversation twice, from a different angle each time - and then you can splice these together in post-production to make it look like you filmed with more than one camera and got some classy angles in there. Very nifty.

Post Production

Most companies such as Adobe have free versions of their editing systems on their websites that you can download.

What does post production mean to you? It might just mean that you place some opening credits on your film. It might mean adding a soundtrack (see below). It might mean that you splice together two bits of filming to create a snazzy whole (see the idea for filming a conversation above). You may be adding special effects (be warned - this will probably look rubbish. But you never know - it may be fun, and it may be perfect for your movie!)

If you wish to include a soundtrack in your film, be it for a full scene or simply the opening/closing credits, there are plenty of royalty free music websites such as royalty-free.tv or royaltyfreemusic.com, who charge per song download.

It's a wrap!

Invite everybody you know to the first screening of your very own Indie flick. Provide plenty of popcorn and enjoy...

Check out www.shootingpeople.org, the world's biggest Indie film network.

Promoting your film short

With all this hard work, determination and the company of most excellent friends and family, you are guaranteed that many sleepless nights, cups of coffee and cold slices of pizza later, your film will be finished!

Google 'film shorts' and you'll find a number of community websites dedicated to hosting film shorts. Simply follow the procedure to upload your film short and have it rated and viewed by the general public.

If you're really, really good you'll want to research into getting funding for your next movie, or getting your film short selected for viewing at mini film festivals.

Hollywood awaits!