Shooting a short is hard by its self, but then doing it with no budget adds a whole other level of stress. We all love making videos, and also we all love to make our videos look professional, so here are some of my tips on helping get your videos out as fast, and as easy as possible!

 

First thing you need to do with any production is write a script! I happen to use Celtx to write all my scripts, because its free, easy to use, and also runs on all platforms! Its an AMAZING program, and its a must have for any low/no-budget film maker. I also use a program called Evernote to quickly write down any film idea’s. Whats great about it, is that it syncs to my computer and smart phone! Which keeps every note organized and easy to access wherever I am!

 

Once I am finished with my script, I do what is called a “script breakdown”, where I have a copy of the script that I write any notes, camera shots, things to remember, etc. These are VERY handy on set, because you can easily see which shots you’ve finished or make sure you didn’t forget anything extra.

I also use a method that I learned from FilmRiot, which is the ”Show who’s talking wiggly line”! This is a great help if you don’t have time for story boards, and still want to know where the camera will roughly be looking!

 

 

 

The second important step in shooting your short is to have everything you need! This can include painters tape (to mark where an actor is standing), props, lighting, etc. You should always make sure you have everything you need on set, before your actually on the set!

 

 

 

My third step, which is optional, is a read through of your scene. Normally me and sam have only read through the script maybe once before the shoot.

 

So having a read through for us is a MUST. Its really simple too! All you have to do is read your lines (like you would when shooting) and learn the scene! Simple! This method seems to keep the stress down, and keeps me and sam happy, since we don’t really like memorizing lines before a shoot. Most sets expect you to know your lines before you arrive, and I would agree with them, but if your shooting your own videos, that your directing, etc, you can dowhatever you want! (thats the beauty of the internet)

 

 

 

 

The forth step for my shorts are to shoot the scene! This part is sometimes the hardest, and sometimes the easiest! It really just depends on what your doing. At this point we have read our lines, and are starting to light our actor! Which is VERY important! Make sure you have good lighting! ALWAYS. Now, they don’t have to be anything special, on our set we only use a little light we took out of a lamp, and a chinese ball lantern. We set the ball up as our filler, and the lamp light as light for the actor! We also turn all the lights on in the room that we are shooting in as to add as much light as we can! A lot of the time this works out great for what we are trying to pull off (which isn’t much). So after you get your lighting all squared away, all you have to do is shoot the scene! BAM! Easy.

 

 

The fifth step is the last, but certainly not least. Editing. This is the part that scares away a lot of people from film making. Sometimes its confusing, the programs are expensive, and you always hear horror stories of people staying up for 3 days straight editing something that was only 5 minutes long! Now, a lot of the time, this stuff is true, but not always! For my videos, I use iMovie 11, its $15 in the mac app store, and works great!

I edit on a Macbook that is 5 years old, and it still chugs along with Sudo-HD video. When you start out editing shouldn’t have to cost much, and can be doing on a older computer. You also don’t need to spend hours apon hours editing, you can, but you don’t have to. Something I learned early on when editing is that sound is VERY important and though I don’t have the best audio in my little camcorder, I have found some tricks to making things sound a bit better. Like when I have a cut, sometimes you will hear a change in the background noise (the white noise, in the room), and that is really distracting. So what I do is I grab a bit of white noise and place it in-between the clips! This smooths everything out, and tho there will always be white noise, at least your not hearing the weird cut sounds!

 

So there are the basics to how I make my videos! I hope it helped!

 

 

Oh and another thing I forgot to mention, if your having actors on set, you should do something for them once they have done their job! You might not be able to pay them, but a lunch, or some sort of treat at the end of production is always nice! (I buy sam slurpies at the end of our shoots, as an example!)