What Is Composition?

Found at No Film School:

What Is Composition from Press Play Video Blog on Vimeo.

Werner Herzog's Masterclass

Found at Cinephilia & Beyond:

Mackendrick on Film - Updated

David Gordon Green: How to make it as an independent filmmaker in America

From Dazed:

DON'T BECOME A STUDIO SLAVE 

"The beauty of independence is that you can make your own model, carve your own path and find your own distribution. Independence just becomes whatever you want it to be. In my head the corporations have basically taken over and, in many ways, the internet dissolved a lot of these distribution companies so the theatrical experience for distribution is certainly not as profitable. Those models weren’t making enough to justify their existence within the umbrella of the corporation, which made them very un-independent anyway." 

BANKROLL YOUR OWN PROJECTS 

"The smartest thing was putting my own money down. I worked really hard and had a lot of jobs and then spent it all on my first movie. For me, that’s the thing. There are a lot of people who are just waiting for grandma to die to give them an inheritance, or for some rich friend to give them money to bankroll their first film. But for me the big risk that I first took was that I worked for like a year and a half to make as much money as possible then I’m going to spend it all to make a movie. So I wasn’t asking anybody for anything. I could just be in charge of every dime and be real smart about where I’m spending money, and very aware of it, so that’s something that I’ve always recommended to people whenever they ask, 'How do you find money to make a movie?' I say you go and you get a job and you make a movie." 

GIVE IT SOME FLARE 

"When Easy Rider came out, it showed you that lens flares were not such a bad thing, and zoom lenses are okay in narrative film. You don’t have to project for the microphone, you don’t have to have everything perfectly composed and staged, and something about it struck a chord with culture: everything’s stripped down. You went from very composed Hollywood design of cinema, and there were a few independents working before that – like On The Bowery did exist – but Easy Rider is what kicked it. 

There’s a real movement and a great audience that appreciates something to experience together that doesn’t have to be so polished and pronounced excites me. I don’t know what form that's going to be, and I don’t know that it’s going to be a traditional theatrical experience, but something culturally is going to happen that does show everybody that old waves of polish aren’t necessarily all that we need." 

MAKE YOUR OWN MICRO BUDGET 

"You can also pull something off for $30,000. There’s a great new wave of great people making micro budget movies, films that I admire, and it’s super great that movies that can be made for that price have that freedom and find an audience. It’s hard to make a movie between three and 30 million dollars. 

SADDLE UP FOR THE SMALL SCREEN 

"The world of television has really revolutionised, and in many ways sucked out the theatre audience because you can go watch a spectacular hour of True Detective and not have to pay $13 to go to a movie, waste 45 minutes watching commercials, and pay $20 for popcorn. It’s just economic sense that if something is really rewarding and it doesn’t cost any money and it’s better than what's out there then there’s a great alternative. 

There are a lot of future filmmakers that are turning to that medium because it’s where more people are letting us loose. On Eastbound & Down – that HBO show I've directed – no one's ever given me a note on casting or editing ever, so it’s a beautiful place to work. Whereas now if you're working in a studio realm making a big Marvel comic book movie, I’m sure there’s a handful of people who are working very closely with you to make these decisions in a way that television used to be, and I’m sure still is on network sitcoms, but I don’t know that world – I’d like to, that’d be fun." 

IMMERSE YOURSELF 

"With 3D and Oculus Rift – it all just goes to some other form of doing things. So many guys I know don’t go to movies at all – they play video games. They’re going to be stoked about that, that’s a new way to go entertain yourself. When I was a kid playing Super Mario Bros., it was fun for about 45 minutes before I wanted to go to a movie, you know?"

10 Tips for Successfully Producing a Micro-Budget Feature

From Indiewire:

1. Make sure the script is written as a micro-budget feature.

That the script must be excellent is a given. You can't make a good movie from a mediocre script. But if you're intending to shoot a micro-budget movie, you also need a script that works with --  rather than fights --  your budgetary constraints. Of course that means avoid car chases, tons of VFX and period pieces. Moreover, think about where your film fits in the marketplace. Don't make a $200K version of a studio romantic comedy – you won't have the star power or marketing budget to compete with "Valentine's Day." "Mutual Friends," for example, is an ensemble romantic comedy, but the tone fits squarely in the indie genre – it's honest, awkwardly real and specific where four-quadrant movies must be broad.

2. Have a "home base" location during production.

When you're filming, much time is lost to loading in and wrapping out. When you need to shoot 5, 6, 7,  or even 8 (yikes!) pages a day, you will rue the time your crew spends lugging c-stands up a four story walk-up. Write one primary location into the script. Somewhere you can shoot (for free) for perhaps half of your shoot days. The shoot days spent here will be walk-aways. You can pre-light. If you're lucky, you can even use this spot during prep as your production office/rehearsal space/wardrobe and art staging.

3. Open it up.

I'm going to contradict what I just said, but even with a home base, you can't have the whole movie take place at just one location or it will look micro-budget and feel visually stagnant. I definitely advocate for a home base location, but you’ve also got to get out and about as much as possible. On "The Big Ask," we were lucky because, filming in the desert, the backyard of our home base was an endless expanse of open terrain, including ravines and mountains. And being in a rural area, we were able to gain access to tremendous locations including bars, hotels and, of course, Joshua Tree National Park (which offers the strangest moonscape any filmmaker could hope for). On "Mutual Friends," we shot in NYC. While securing interior locations was tricky, for exteriors, the city was our oyster. We did walk and talks through Riverside Park, shot scenes (with minimal dialogue) in the hustle and bustle of Chinatown on Canal St. (Note: I completely broke this rule on "Dead Within," but the entire premise of the movie relies on one location: apocalypse outside, our characters, trapped inside).

4. Shoot while locations are open.

It costs money to compensate a diner for shutting down during the breakfast shift so you can get your shot. Shoot while they're open and they may not charge you a thing. Of course, you don't have the same control as you do when you 'own' a location, and of course, this tip doesn't work for every scene, but I've been shocked by how many times I've gotten away with this. On "Mutual Friends," in particular, we shot at a bakery, yoga studio, cafe, Asian goods emporium, and other locations, all while the businesses were operating normally. We got permission from the owners ahead of time to avoid problems, found a quiet spot on the day-of, and played out the scene with the actors lav'ed (with a mic on their person).

5. Cast matters. A lot.

There are certainly examples of tiny indie movies with no-name talent that came out of nowhere and catapulted to great success. Those movies are the exception. If you premiere at Cannes, you don't necessarily need name actors to obtain distribution. But "premiere at Cannes" is not a great distribution strategy.

In the process of selling my four films, every single sales agent or distributor I spoke to asked one question first: "who's in it?" When your marketing budget is close to $0, you need to rely on publicity, which is free (cost of the publicist aside). What generates publicity? Recognizable actors. Aim high. Get a good casting director. As with a $50 million budget, your cast is your insurance policy for your investors' money.

6. There's no excuse for bad production values.

In today's world of $3,000 pro-sumer cameras which produce images that look shockingly good, there's no excuse for a movie that looks like crap. People always come out of my work-in-progress screenings bowled over by how good/big/real the movie looks. If you're going to go through the tremendous effort of making a feature, it had better look and feel like a "real" movie. That's the minimum barrier to entry to be taken seriously professionally, and without that your movie simply will not be commercially viable. You don't have to shoot on an Alexa (not once has a sales agent/distributor asked me what camera we used) but the finished product does need to look professional.

7. Make sure your cast and crew have worked at your budget level before.

When I first met fabulous DP Aaron Kovalchik, who shot "The Big Ask," we talked about the challenges of shooting the night exteriors in the middle of the desert. Aaron said, "Maybe we could rig a china ball onto a fishing pole." I fell in love. You need your team to consist of professionals who bring creativity, flexibility, and problem-solving skills. It may seem exciting to get a DP with high budget credits, but if they've never had to work without cushy toys or an IATSE crew, they (and you) will be in for a world of hurt. The same is true across all departments.

Bonus Tip: It's easier to get your movie to look good than sound good but bad sound is the tell-tale of low budget films. Your resources are precious, but spend some of them on getting good sound – in production and post.

8. Figure out how your core filmmaking team will pay their bills while you make the movie.

Micro-budget filmmaking is not financially sustainable, but it does take quite a lot of time - often several years to take a feature from development through release You have to know going into the process how you're going to pay your rent, and still have time to edit/do the festival circuit/market your film. "The Big Ask" co-director Rebecca Fishman, for example, plays Christine McVie in a Fleetwood Mac cover band (yes, awesome). Talk with members of your team so you can try to schedule your busy 'money-work' periods for different times, and pass the baton of the film back and forth.

9. Know what you can figure out on your own, and when you need to pay for an expert.  

Micro-budgets are DIY by default – you can't always (or even often) pay for others to do things so you Do It Yourself. I’m not a lawyer, but I do a lot of the legal work on my movies myself. I've developed a good folder of templates I can adapt to almost any situation. That said, when it came time to sell "The Big Ask," Tribeca Film had an in-house business affairs team as well as outside counsel. I needed to hire a lawyer.

10. Budget through release.

I cannot stress how important this is. It's great to have a festival copy, but if you don't have money to apply to festivals, it's not going to do you much good. Likewise, if you get into a big festival, but don't have money to transport you and your cast there and maybe even hire a publicist, you'll be missing a major opportunity to attract publicity and thus buyers. And finally, even if you've got your distributor and they do a great job placing your film with iTunes and all the cable VOD providers, perhaps a few theaters (win!), but having a little kitty reserved for marketing can go a long way. Often the distributor doesn't have the resources to do the grassroots marketing the filmmaking team can. With a little cash, you can send your director and lead actor on a book tour-type series of promotional screenings, or hire a social media guru to help manage your Twitter/Instagram/Tumblr feeds, or throw a couple hundred bucks into Facebook ads, all of which can translate into higher visibility and grosses for your film.

Bonus tip: Work with people you like. You're not making money producing micro-budgets, so you’d better be having a great time.

15 Tips On Making Your First Micro-Budget Feature

From Indiewire:

1. Get off your ass and make a movie.

Frustration and impatience are essential traits if you want to make a feature film with no money. Combine this frustration with an important realization: Unless your last name is "Coppola," your short film received major attention at Sundance, or you have many rich uncles you're not going to be make a feature film for more than $100,000. You're going to have to work for it. And even after that work, it's unrealistic for you to make something with a significant budget. 

2. Stop worrying about writing something marketable.

Write something you deeply care about: Our first script was horror because marketability was essential to our business plan. Looking back, even if we had a Clooney-sized attachment, we still wouldn't have raised a dime. No one knew us and we had no industry presence. And unless that's different with you, you need to recalibrate your expectations. Make your nano-budget film personal. It should become the movie you're willing to die for. For me, committing to making something incredibly private was what gave me the energy to endure the hardship to come. 

3. Work with your close friends, especially the brutally honest ones.

I'm not exaggerating when I say that making your first feature will be the most stressful thing you've attempted. And the less money you have, the more difficult it will be. Work with people who will challenge you, who aren't afraid to be candid, and who will push you to do better. Work with people you respect, not those who will simply be nice. In addition, work with people you deeply trust. What does trust look like in an artistic collaboration? It means that the commitment to the betterment of the work comes first. It also means that neither of you are concerned with subverting or undermining the other. The thing that binds you together is a shared trust in doing whatever it takes to make the best film possible. These collaborations are rare. Once you find one, hold onto it with all your strength.

4. Crowdfund for the first and last time of your life.

We raised the bulk of our budget from Kickstarter. To do this, we (the producers and I) repurposed our Twitter and Facebook accounts into a constant stream of updates, reminders, and personal pleas. Did I lose Facebook "friends" in the process? Yes. Did I lose Twitter followers? Yes. Do I care? No, because I financed my feature film. Social media provides a unique and simple opportunity for you to connect with all the people from your past and present. If you have a reputation for being a kind and considerate person you might be surprised by how many of your friends come to your aid. In addition, the entire crew got involved. So, instead of three or four dudes pushing it, we had fifteen or twenty. But just remember, crowdfunding is best if it's one and done. Once you ask your friends for a favor, it's much more difficult to get them to do it again. 

5. Budget for more than post-production. Budget for film festivals, travel, and theatrical runs.

Even though we raised all the money necessary to complete production, we failed to fully consider the costs of post-production. Do everything in your power to pay for a picture editor and a sound editor/mixer. Don't do it yourself. The picture will suffer. And even if you can't pay much, some goes a long way. It ensures their participation and gives you a bit of needed latitude in the contract formation process. 

Also, make sure to budget for at least thirty festivals. While attending the Maine Media Workshops, I met Maureen Ryan, the producer of Man on a Wire and a professor at Columbia University. One thing she immediately advised was to think in festival tiers: upper (international), middle (national), and regional (lower). You want to make sure you have the money to apply to all three. If you put all of your money into the upper tier festivals, you risk getting into nothing. Middle and lower tier festivals can you help you get reviews, befriend programmers who will push your work via their social media platforms, meet the press, and get tips from other filmmakers. 

Budget for travel and housing. Some festivals take care of this, but you never want to assume that. Otherwise, you will end up unable to attend your own screening, which renders the festival experience meaningless. You can't expect to get reviews and garner buzz if you're sitting at home. In addition, if you're crazy-lucky enough to get your film in theaters, you need to attend as many screenings as possible. This summer we're playing in Chicago, LA, NYC, and Seattle, but because we didn't raise enough money, not all of us are able to attend. 

6. Teach at a Film School.

Instead of moving to LA after I graduated, I decided to do something different: teach. Four years later, it's clear that this was easily the best decision I could've made. Instead of moving my family to a high-priced city where we would struggle from paycheck to paycheck, I chose financial stability and security. Yes, many of my friends moved to LA. And no, none of them have made a feature film since graduating. Is this because they lack talent, resourcefulness, or strategic thinking? Absolutely not! Instead, their headspace is packed with the daily demand of financially surviving LA. 

Teaching frees me up mentally to focus on bettering my craft. Moreover, the very act of teaching sharpens my filmmaking skills. The demand on the instructor to translate one's ideas into digestible information for 18-21 year olds is high. In addition, you have to remain fresh, relevant, and in-the-moment, all of which are good traits to acquire as a director. As a husband and father, it also means I don't have to choose between my family and my career. Plus, I get my summers off, which is when I've shot my last two feature films and will be shooting my third in 2015. 

Students also need internships and, if you're a decent teacher, they will likely want to help you make your movie. To be honest, I really enjoy working with student interns. Yes, they're young and inexperienced, but they're also humble, hard working, and quick to learn. They also want to prove themselves. One last thing: schools want to see you succeed since it represents them university positively, which likely means you will be able to use their gear. 

7. Create "Buy In."

When making your first feature film, you have a lot at stake – and so does everyone else. Your producers, actors, and crew have taken time out of their summer to work for you for free. Why would they do such a thing if they didn't hope to gain something from it? What is it they are seeking out of this experience? If you fail to ask these questions, you've neglected your responsibility to them as the key creative. It's your job to not only treat your cast and crew well, but to make the best movie possible. And if you are willing to sacrifice life and limb to make the best movie possible, you will honor the time and effort they've freely given. Plus, a servant leader will engender fierce loyalty. If you operate from this perspective, you will find that people will buy in and join you in this process. We all want to be a part of something bigger than ourselves. We want to transcend the temporary and be part of something collective, something larger. And you can provide this for your cast and crew if you lead with vision and self-sacrifice. 

8. Embrace your Limitations.

In the documentary, "Under The Great Northern Lights," Jack White of The White Stripes discusses his philosophy of creativity. His thesis is that creativity can only exist when limitations abound. While on stage, he implements this methodology by using crappy guitars and placing instruments on opposite sides of the stage. All of this is done because it forces him to work hard for the outcome. For the micro-budget filmmaker, you don't have to manufacture limitations. They abound. But what White reminds us is these limitations must be viewed as opportunities to test your creativity and respond to the problem. These limitations will not only be financial, but also creative (such as the need to shoot almost exclusively at one location to stay under budget.)

9. 17-18 days makes sense for production. 

Despite the fact that you don't have much money, it doesn't mean you should try to cram your shoot into 8-12 days. If this is your passion project, you don't want to screw it up. If this is the only film you get to make, you want to make sure you have sufficient time to not just get it made, but to make it well. For me, 17 days was a perfect amount given the few amounts of location moves we had to make. For my second feature (a low-budget feature) we had four times the amount of location moves than in "As It Is in Heaven," and we also attempted to shoot it in the 17-18 day range. But due to the crazy amount of location moves, I had to make unnecessary and dramatic cuts to my shot list. But if you've written a script that takes place in primarily in one location, 17-18 days is the sweet spot. As long as your script is less than 100 pages (which it most certainly should be), this will allow you to retain a 4-6 page per day shooting range. The pace forces you to be creative without sucking the soul from your film and demanding compromise from the very first shot. Remember, if your nano-budget feature is going to get in front of an audience, it has to look like a 10 million dollar film. And that takes time for camera, blocking, acting, and lighting. One other piece of advice, have your 1st AD build your shooting schedule around your shot list. This is essential to smart planning. Some scenes simply require more shots than others and building a schedule around your shot list will allow you to be sensitive to this fact. 

10. Get to set early and wake up even earlier.

Something we realized after day three is that making a feature requires a radically different methodology than making a short. Practically speaking, it required two additional hours of preparation a day. When making a short, you have a clear memory of your shot list and of how each scene should work. For features, never trust your memory. To start each day, I would get up an hour earlier than normal and spend time carefully combing through each scene, my script analysis, and my shot list. I would also try to cut shots, if at all possible. Then, the 1st AD, myself, and the DP would arrive an hour before call time and go through each set up so we all understood it beforehand. This was the only thing that enabled us to make our days. Without this prep, we would have gotten a lot less shots, which would impact the storytelling, the morale of the leaders, and the shooting schedule. 

11. Write good contracts or pay someone to do so.

Even though you're working with people you trust, it's essential to make sure all creative leads and producers have a precise idea of what their responsibilities are before production begins. Nano-budget filmmaking generates a lot of stress, which test all friendships. So what happens if your best friend, who swore to work with you until the end, comes to an impasse with you? Are they contractually bound to complete the film? Are there any consequences if they don't? It may sound cynical, but you have to fear the worst. You have to legally bind yourself and your key crew members to their agreements. If they hesitate at signing, it should be a red flag. And if you can't find people willing to sign, then you're not ready to make your film.

12. Make sure you have a post-production supervisor.

If you are serving as the writer/director/producer of your film, it's essential to have someone else serve as the post-production supervisor. You cannot be the only person ensuring the completion of your project or holding people to their deadlines. It's a conflict of interest and you will allow the deadlines to slip to give yourself more time to tweak. And without deadlines you will never get your movie made. 

13. Embrace the fact that you won't get into Sundance.  

Repeat this three times in the morning and three times before you sleep. Remember, you're a micro-budget movie and Sundance doesn't accept nano-budget movies. They accept movies with A-listers, large budgets and industry connections. But if you're going to succeed with your film, you have to think beyond Park City. First, follow the tier system I outlined. Second, send free online screeners to all the press in the cities your festival is located in. Then, email anyone you've ever met who claimed to be a part of the industry. Tell them your story and see if they would like to watch your film. If they ask for an online screener, give it to them. It was this through this that we were able to re-establish old connections and set ourselves up for a limited theatrical run this summer. In other words, you don't have to get into Sundance to play in theaters. You just have to make a good movie and be incredibly resilient and strategic. 

14. Get as many reviews as possible.
For the micro-budget filmmaker, critics are your best friends. They have the power to create positive buzz and help you garner attention from distributors. If you can introduce yourself to them while visiting a festival, and get on a name-to-name basis, maybe they will watch your move. After that, it's up to your film to do the rest of the talking. Because we blasted every critic we knew, we were able to land a review in the Hollywood Reporter. Thankfully, they liked it, and this review got us into conversations with other distributors, theaters, and festivals. 

15. Rinse and repeat.
The beauty of micro-budget filmmaking is that you can easily parlay the success of your first project into another nano-budget feature. It's much much easier to raise money for project two when you've got project two in the can. Now, you have more than vision and passion, you have product. As they say, the best time to finance your next movie is while you're making your current one.

Film Editing

This video has been making the rounds, and was the inspiration for collecting various editing videos together:



No Film School posted on this video and said:

many of these moments exemplify the power and allure behind the art of cinema editing, while making us aware of some of the advanced aesthetic techniques that comprise editing grammar. They’re prime examples of techniques that all of us, or at least those of us with an interest in the psychological implications of editing, should learn and internalize for use in our own films.

Edwin Nieves at A Bittersweet Life also posted on this video and said:

The power of a film rests in its approach to storytelling. The way in which a film communicates its story to the audience and how it engages that audience with its arrangement of images and sounds is of the utmost importance to the filmmaker. Thus, editing or “the invisible art” becomes the foundation of a film’s narration. Being unique to the art of cinema, all the layers of the film meet in the edit to hopefully create a cinematic work that captures audiences.

A Bittersweet Life added some videos to go with it:

THE EDITOR from Inside The Edit on Vimeo.

The Cutting Edge - The Magic of the Cine from Hirton Fernandes on Vimeo.

Cinephilia & Beyond posted on this video and added some videos as well:





Cinephilia & Beyond also just had a post on Orson Welles on Editing:

For me, the strip of celluloid is put together like a musical score, and this execution is determined by the editing; just like a conductor interprets a piece of music in rubato, another will play it in a very dry and academic manner… The images themselves are not sufficient: they are very important, but are only images. The essential is the length of each image, what follows each image: it is the very eloquence of the cinema that is constructed in the editing room.

Adam Wingard & Simon Barrett On How To Make An Indie Horror Film

From Fast Company:

SKIP FILM SCHOOL.

Simon Barrett: I definitely advise people now not to go to film school. You could just buy one of those SLR cameras, get a decent editing program and a laptop and start making professional films that you can get into festivals. When Adam and I went to film school, it was different. We shot our first stuff on 16 mm and you really had to go to film school to shoot and edit 16 mm. Now, everybody is shooting on video as opposed to film, and it’s a separate series of technical talents that you have to learn to become a filmmaker.

Adam Wingard: Really, the only way you can learn to be a filmmaker is through trial and error, and we definitely have a lot of that under our belt. We’ve been working at this for over a decade now, and it’s only through accepting all of our faults as filmmakers and all the mistakes we’ve made up until now that we’re actually improving. There’s a hugely different practical application to actually making a movie that you can’t prepare for in film school.

WORK ON MULTIPLE PROJECTS BY DIVIDING DUTIES.

Barrett: One of the many things that unites us in our values is that we always want to be making as many movies as possible, and we want them to be as good as they possibly can be. The trick to working on multiple movies at a time is that there has to be two of you. It’s almost like having a designated driver. I’ve learned that I can’t switch back and forth from one script to the other, I have to feel like I exist in the world of one story before I can move on to the next one. I kind of have to immerse myself in the movie to make sure that I’m making the right creative decision. If I take a break from it, it takes me a while to get back into it. But since there’s two of us, I can be writing another project while Adam’s editing the last one.

PLAN OUT THE VISUAL STYLE OF THE FILM THOROUGHLY.

Wingard: You want each film to have a unique visual style and a unique perspective, too. There’s always an element of finding what is the perspective of the narrative that we’re telling here. Are we following one character or two? There’s gotta be rules you have to set up. Once you start setting up rules of your movie, it’s different every time because it’s always got to be related to the story. Figuring out these things makes the audience think, on a subliminal level, that you spent more time and money on the movie, and it makes them think of it as a more legitimate film.

BUILD OBJECTIVITY INTO THE PROCESS.

Wingard: We work separately. We like to surprise each other with what we’re doing. We get to an agreement on the kind of movie we’re making. Simon goes off and writes it and then I read it as a viewer would. During the making of the movie, he’s there if I need him, but he’s not looking over my shoulder. Ultimately, I’ll go in the editing room and make a cut of the film, so that way he can judge it based on what it is, and what I wanted to make of the script.

Barrett: It’s important to not just know when to give each other notes and push each other, but also when to give each other space. That allows us to approach these projects with objectivity. I assure you that when you lock yourself in an apartment and work on a script for six weeks straight, you do not know at the time you are done with it if it’s a good or bad script. You might have an idea, but there’s a very good chance that you’re wrong. Having someone constantly getting you out of your own headspace and your own ego can save you from making a bad movie. By giving each other space, there’s always someone on deck who can be objective about the work.

SHOOT PLENTY OF COVERAGE.

Wingard: It’s all about maximizing your production value on-screen and creating an aesthetic. Basically, cinematography is one of the key elements of making the movie feel bigger. With You’re Next, I wanted to do something that had more of a mainstream kind of cinematic language to it. And to do that, I watched a lot of Hollywood movies again, and I realized the main throughline is just having lots and lots of coverage--having the ability to film and film and film and then cut to wherever you want to later.

DON’T OVERUSE THE TOOLS YOU HAVE.

Wingard: Making a movie feel more expensive is about having all the tools and using them in motivated ways. if you watch student films, it’s the first time kids have a lot of equipment, and they just overuse everything they have, and they use them in these obvious, bad ways. And also be able to sculpt your lighting from the perspective of story and realism, as opposed to just, “I want this to look really cool.” You can have really expensive gear and stuff like that, but if you overuse it, it ends up having strangely the inverse effect, and you end up making it look cheaper.

Barrett: A lot of filmmakers don’t have a realistic idea of what costs what. I see $10 million horror movies all the time that look much cheaper thanYou’re Next, and I think it’s just because they tried something too ambitious. Because of that, it looks low-budget. It really is about finding a style you know you can make work and being flexible. Not being like, “No, we have to do it this way because I read that’s the way David Fincher does it.” Dude, you don’t have David Fincher’s budget, and you’re not David Fincher. It’s about finding your own style.

Scott Derrickson On How To Make A Studio Horror Movie

From Fast Company:

WORRY ABOUT THE BUDGET AFTER FINISHING THE SCRIPT

I try not to write screenplays strategically in terms of the budget. Typically, I just write the movie I’d like to make without feeling restrained by that, then we’ll budget the movie, and then there’s kind of a pass on the script to make concessions so it’s more financially comfortable for everybody. Once I’ve got the movie within proper budget range, it takes the pressure off a bit, so you’re not thinking about the finances and can just focus on the creative. As you’re shooting, things always happen that surprise you and can incur more expense--and that’s true no matter what the budget is.

SAVE CGI FOR WHEN YOU ABSOLUTELY NEED IT

The more you can do things in camera, with physical effects, the better. A lot of times, it’s not possible. The key to it is also being sensitive to the kind of things that are hard to make look real with CG effects. There are actually a surprising number of CG effects in The Exorcism of Emily Rose andSinister, and I think none of them feel like visual effects. They don’t pop out that way. There’s a scare with a lion in Deliver Us from Evil, and I was very nervous about not feeling real. It was a sequence I fought hard, in terms of the budget, to get into the movie, and worked hard to make seamless so that you wouldn’t know it was visual FX.

When you get into all-CG shots, where everything in the frame is CG, that’s when you really run the risk of having something that’s gonna pull the audience out of the movie. Sometimes you have to do it, especially on a big movie, but those shots take a lot of work.

A LITTLE GORE GOES A LONG WAY

I think that most audience members are probably like me. I like the proper shock of having some gore that comes at the right time in a movie, with a bit of restraint, and it’s actually a story point. I like when it takes you to a place the movie wouldn’t go without that moment. Those are always appreciated. I think you have to question yourself when you’re dealing with that kind of material about excessiveness and if the audience you’re playing to will appreciate it. I’ve always veered much more toward the imagination than on-screen violence.

The idea of what happens in the videos in Sinister is so extreme that if I showed some of the extremities that are hinted at, it would have literally ruined the movie. Imagination’s a powerful thing. I’ve had conversations with people where they swear that you can actually see the lawnmower hit that woman’s face and see blood afterward, but you can’t.

THE THEATER CROWD LIKES IT LOUD

There’s a particular kind of quiet that plays really great in a big theater. It’s usually when you’re creating a certain amount of sustained tension and quietness that the audience isn’t too aware of, so that when something breaks the frame, the audience jumps because they weren’t expecting it. Generally, though, I think that when movies are intimate and quiet and particularly thoughtful, there’s something about the home viewing experience that can be better for a viewer. I’m not sure that Sinister is not a better movie to screen at home in a living room. It’s a very cinematic movie, but there’s a lot of intimate home environment in it that I think feels more unsettling at home than in a theater.

EVERYBODY FINDS SPIRITUAL MATTERS SCARY

The idea that there is more to the world than the material, and that in the immaterial realm of reality there’s malevolence--that idea is terrifying to people. As long as there’s been religion, the idea that there’s a dark afterlife has been scary--great horror writers like Dante have been using (it) for centuries. I think it’s the mystery and the unknown--the unknown is always the scariest thing. Whatever religion, it always sets up a vast ocean of the unknown.

It’s tricky because you don’t want to get too deep in religion itself because it’s always controversial and everybody has their own belief system. But it doesn’t mean you can’t tell, say, a catholic story, like The Exorcist--it just has to be well-told tale. The trick of it is to get your audience to invest themselves in the point of view of the character. It doesn’t have to be the audience’s point of view. If they can get interested in how the main characters see the world, you can open them up to experiences based on that point of view.

Jason Blum Keynote - SXSW Film 2014

Found at Mentorless:

Mackendrick on Film

Found through Cinephilia & Beyond:

Film Finance - Raising Money For A Movie - A Film Courage Filmmaking Series

Screen Craft on Film Financing

Producers Guild of America: Financing Strategies

Cinematographer Darius Khondji's 6 Life-Saving Tips for Low-Budget DPs

Found via No Film School:

Go on scouting trips as early as you can so you have a say in what will work or not work.

“I love going to see the last two or three locations to choose from, to be able to say something,” Khondji said. “When I do a movie on location, it’s really important for me to go and scout locations even before the technical scout with my crew. It’s crucial to go with the production designer — and the director, if you can — to figure out how you’re going to make the best out of it for the storytelling.”

Lighting can highlight character. And headaches, if you’re not careful.

“Of course, your work has to first correspond to who the character is and what the story is about,” he said. “The most important thing to bring out when you shoot a movie is to figure out how you’re going to light the location in order to bring it into this area of the character. Often you want natural light coming in through the windows, let’s say. When you do movies on low budgets, you don’t want to have a location that requires a very big light right outside the window when you’re 10 stories up. You have to find a location where you have a terrace outside, or you can light from a second floor, or you can light through the windows for daylight. You also want to have a certain height of ceilings so you can put toplights.”

It helps to be strategic (and lucky) about the mutability of locations.

“If you like a location for its architecture or mood, for the feel of it, but you don’t actually like the color, you need to have a location where you’re allowed to change the color,” he said. “It’s all always aiming at who the character is that lives in this location. For instance, when we were doing ‘To Rome With Love’ with Woody in Rome, we were looking for a location for young architects (Jesse Eisenberg, Greta Gerwig). We looked in many locations. Woody had a problem finding a location that really fit what he had in mind. So with the art director and production designer, we sketched how we could transform one into what Woody had in mind, because we found one that we really liked in the Trastevere area. There was an artist living in this kind of loft in an old house. Then we transformed it, we made it to what Woody had in mind. And the artist’s daughter was actually a location manager on another movie!”

Leave yourself a wide-angle option.

“Then you do your technical scout with your crew,” he said. “Working in Rome on this movie was a wonderful experience, and very easy thanks to the excellent Italian crew we had – the production and all camera, lighting and grip crew were a dream to work with. But when you shoot on location, you have to be incredibly prepared because you can’t move the wall around like when you’re in a studio. You really need to know that the camera is going to fit there, that with the focal lens you’re going to be able to go back far enough to get a wide shot without putting on a ridiculously wide lens that would be very vulgar or warping. In order not to do that, you need to have a location where the wall or the side of a room allows you to go back enough to get the wide shot that the director wants. This sounds obvious, but sometimes let’s say you shoot CinemaScope anamorphic with 2.35:1, you have to go much further back to go to a wide shot, in terms of height. Otherwise, you shoot medium and close-up all the time. If you don’t scout out your location, it can be really bad.”

Learn how to use natural light on interiors.

“Unfortunately, a lot of these low-budget movies have to shoot small-format digital,” Khondji said. “You have to calculate. If you shoot daylight, what would be a great thing to do is have a Plan A and Plan B with the Sun. If you don’t have the money to put up lights, you have to think about how the building is in front of your location and bounce the light into the apartment. Or try to schedule your shooting around the sunlight. I light mostly from outside the windows for daylight, but if you had to light from inside the windows or on top of the windows to reproduce the light, then you have to make sure you have high enough ceilings.”

Have one strong thematic idea, not a bagful.

“I’ve learned one general thing in filmmaking: to work with one strong idea,” says Khondji. “One strong concept that pushes you to work in a certain way artistically. Then you can bring it into a family of ideas. Then it’s like a tree: You have an idea for each scene, but one main idea in the film. The more you have concepts and ideas like this before you plan the film, the better it is. I’ve found that the great directors I work with, usually for the movie they have one strong idea visually that makes the film what it is. I realized that usually they don’t have multiple ideas, because you always get clogged when you have so many ideas to tell a story visually. I don’t think it’s great to come with a bag full of ideas. It’s better to be behind one strong statement or one strong idea for a film. For ‘To Rome With Love’ it was the saturation of the colors, the fact that the Italian scenes were more like the old Italian cinema of the ’60s and ’70s, and the modern scenes, when the Americans are in Rome, are more wide angle, a little bit colder, sharper, less saturated. It’s thematically brilliant.”

Jim Jarmusch's 5 Golden Rules of Moviemaking

From Moviemaker Magazine:

Rule #1: There are no rules. There are as many ways to make a film as there are potential filmmakers. It’s an open form. Anyway, I would personally never presume to tell anyone else what to do or how to do anything. To me that’s like telling someone else what their religious beliefs should be. Fuck that. That’s against my personal philosophy—more of a code than a set of “rules.” Therefore, disregard the “rules” you are presently reading, and instead consider them to be merely notes to myself. One should make one’s own “notes” because there is no one way to do anything. If anyone tells you there is only one way, their way, get as far away from them as possible, both physically and philosophically. 

Rule #2: Don’t let the fuckers get ya. They can either help you, or not help you, but they can’t stop you. People who finance films, distribute films, promote films and exhibit films are not filmmakers. They are not interested in letting filmmakers define and dictate the way they do their business, so filmmakers should have no interest in allowing them to dictate the way a film is made. Carry a gun if necessary.
Also, avoid sycophants at all costs. There are always people around who only want to be involved in filmmaking to get rich, get famous, or get laid. Generally, they know as much about filmmaking as George W. Bush knows about hand-to-hand combat. 

Rule #3: The production is there to serve the film. The film is not there to serve the production. Unfortunately, in the world of filmmaking this is almost universally backwards. The film is not being made to serve the budget, the schedule, or the resumes of those involved. Filmmakers who don’t understand this should be hung from their ankles and asked why the sky appears to be upside down. 

Rule #4: Filmmaking is a collaborative process. You get the chance to work with others whose minds and ideas may be stronger than your own. Make sure they remain focused on their own function and not someone else’s job, or you’ll have a big mess. But treat all collaborators as equals and with respect. A production assistant who is holding back traffic so the crew can get a shot is no less important than the actors in the scene, the director of photography, the production designer or the director. Hierarchy is for those whose egos are inflated or out of control, or for people in the military. Those with whom you choose to collaborate, if you make good choices, can elevate the quality and content of your film to a much higher plane than any one mind could imagine on its own. If you don’t want to work with other people, go paint a painting or write a book. (And if you want to be a fucking dictator, I guess these days you just have to go into politics…). 

Rule #5: Nothing is original. Steal from anywhere that resonates with inspiration or fuels your imagination. Devour old films, new films, music, books, paintings, photographs, poems, dreams, random conversations, architecture, bridges, street signs, trees, clouds, bodies of water, light and shadows. Select only things to steal from that speak directly to your soul. If you do this, your work (and theft) will be authentic. Authenticity is invaluable; originality is nonexistent. And don’t bother concealing your thievery—celebrate it if you feel like it. In any case, always remember what Jean-Luc Godard said: “It’s not where you take things from—it’s where you take them to.”

Wim Wender's 50 Golden Rules of Moviemaking

Some more rules from Wim Wenders. Sometimes you have these moments where a bunch of different pieces about the same director get brought to your attention at once. This list comes from Moviemaker Magazine. I found it through No Film School. Enjoy and listen:

1. You have a choice of being “in the business” or of making movies. If you’d rather do business, don’t hesitate. You’ll get richer, but you won’t have as much fun! 

2. If you have nothing to say, don’t feel obliged to pretend you do. 

3. If you do have something to say, you’d better stick to it. (But then don’t give too many interviews.) 

4. Respect your actors. Their job is 10 times more dangerous than yours. 

5. Don’t look at the monitor. Watch the faces in front of your camera! Stand right next to it! You’ll see infinitely more. You can still check your monitor after the take. 

6. Your continuity girl is always right about screen directions, jumping the axis and that sort of stuff. Don’t fight her. Bring her flowers. 

7. Always remember: Continuity is overrated! 

8. Coverage is overrated, too! 

9. If you want to shoot day for night, make sure the sun is shining. 

10. Before you say “cut,” wait five more seconds. 

11. Rain only shows on the screen when you backlight it. 

12. Don’t shoot a western if you hate horses. (But it’s okay to not be fond of cows.) 

13. Think twice before you write a scene with babies or infants. 

14. Never expect dogs, cats, birds or any other animals to do what you’d like them to do. Keep your shots loose. 

15. Mistakes never get fixed in post! 

16. Final cut is overrated. Only fools keep insisting on always having the final word. The wise swallow their pride in order to get to the best possible cut. 

17. Other people have great ideas, too. 

18. The more money you have the more you can do with it, sure. But the less you can say with it. 

19. Never fall in love with your temp music. 

20. Never fall in love with your leading lady! 

21. If you love soccer, don’t shoot your film during the World Championship. (Same goes for baseball and the World Series, etc.) 

22. Don’t quote other movies unless you have to. (But why would you have to?) 

23. Let other people cut your trailer! 

24. It’s always good to make up for a lack of (financial) means with an increase in imagination. 

25. Having a tight schedule can be difficult. But having too much time is worse. 

26. Alright, so you’re shooting with a storyboard. Make sure you’re willing to override it at any given moment. 

27. Less make-up is better. 

28. Fewer words are always better! 

29. Too much sugary stuff on the craft table (or is it Kraft?) can have a disastrous effect on your crew’s morale. 

30. Film can reveal the invisible, but you must be willing to let it show.

31. The more you know about moviemaking, the tougher it gets to leave that knowledge behind. As soon as you do things “because you know how to do them,” you’re fucked. 

32. Don’t tell a story that you think somebody else could tell better. 

33. A “beautiful image” can very well be the worst thing that can happen to a scene. 

34. If you have one actor who gets better with every take, and another who loses it after a while, make sure they can meet in the middle. Or consider recasting. (And you know whose close-ups you have to shoot first!) 

35. If you shoot in a dark alley at night, don’t let your DP impose a bright blue contre-jour spotlight on you, even in the far distance. It always looks corny. 

36. Some actors should never see rushes. Others should be forced to watch them. 

37. Be ready to get rid of your favorite shot during editing. 

38. Why would you sit in your trailer while your crew is working? 

39. Don’t let them lay tracks before you’ve actually looked through your viewfinder. 

40. You need a good title from the beginning. Don’t shoot the film with a working title you hate! 

41. In general, it’s better not to employ couples. (But of course, there are exceptions!) 

42. Don’t adapt novels. 

43. If your dolly grip is grumpy or your electricians hate the shot it will all show on the film. (Also, if you’re constipated…) 

44. Keep your rough cut speech, your cast and crew screening speech and your Oscar speech short. 

45. Some actors actually improve their dialogue in ADR. 

46. Some actors should never be forced to loop a single line. (Even Orson Welles wasn’t good at that.) 

47. There are 10,000 other rules like these 50. 

48. If there are golden rules, there might be platinum ones, too. 

49. There are no rules. 

50. None of the above is necessarily correct.