IFH 116: Fast and Cheap: Lessons Learned for the No-Budget Feature Film

By Alex Ferrari | November 22, 2016

Clerks, The Following, El Mariachi, Slacker, Spike Lee, She's Gotta Have It, Richard Linklater, Kevin Smith, Robert Rodriguez, Christopher Nolan, no-budget feature film, no-budget feature, no budget feature

Fast and Cheap: Lessons Learned for the No-Budget Feature

On this week’s episode, I go way to a simpler time, the 90s, and discuss the lessons we can learn from some filmmaking legends. I’ll discuss films by Robert Rodriguez, Kevin Smith, Christopher Nolan, and Richard Linklater to break down and learn the techniques they used to make awesome, no-budget feature films with limited resources.

“In no-budget filmmaking, your limitations are your guide.”

If you take note of what filmmakers did before you, you can jump start your filmmaking career. Enjoy!

Right click here to download the MP3

I also included this killer video by The Royal Ocean Film Society. In the late 1980s and 1990s, there was a great movement indie cinema of no-budget filmmaking that was the beginning for some of the most successful and popular filmmakers of the modern day. Let’s take a look at five features from that movement and see what lessons we can learn on how to make a great film with as little money as possible.

Here are some key points discussed:

Shoot black and white
Be disciplined
Try not to use guns
Film something that hasn’t been seen before
Take stock of what you have and make a movie about it
Don’t take things so seriously

LINKS AND RESOURCES MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE

Screenwriting and Story Blueprint: The Hero’s Two Journeys
Filmmaking Hacks
This is Meg – Feature Film

KILLER RESOURCES!!!

Action Items:

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