Home Reel Stories Tight Budget? Work With What You Have

Tight Budget? Work With What You Have

Page 2 of 3 The art of guerilla filmmaking Don’t work with what you want to have but with what you have So where do you cut costs? He tells the tale of Christopher Nolan, who went on to make the independent commercial success Memento and then hit Hollywood big time with Batman Begins. One of Nolan’s early films was The Following, which he made for 15,000 pounds with cameras and other equipment borrowed on weekends and over night from a film school. Another filmmaker, the “outrageously talented” Sadie Benning, made a short film using a Fisher-Price PixelVision camera, also known as the KiddieCorder by fans. The film’s witty dialogue, music and camera angles made up for the grainy quality of the picture. “Don’t work with what you want to have but with what you have,” says Grove. “If you have a problem, you reframe it into a challenging opportunity that tests your creativity to the maximum.” If you have to rent equipment, make the most of the time you have, he advises. He does not advise strict truthfulness. For example, say it’s Monday morning, your equipment is due back at the shop at 9 a.m. but you still have a shot to do. Call the shop at about 10 a.m., say you’ve got the camera in your van and the van is broken down, and you’re in Peterborough and you’re working on it. “You’ve heard of ‘guerilla’ filmmaking? This is the meaning of the word,” he says. Asking for a deal When it comes to film stock, it’s a similar story of inventiveness. One tactic he suggests is to look for film ends, or rolls of film that haven’t been fully used and are up for cheap resale. Another is to use “re-cans,” which means rolls of film that have been taken out of their cans, not used, and then put back in and resealed. These are cheaper than fresh rolls.  If you have to go retail, he has further advice. Call up Kodak or Fuji, the two companies that make film stock, tell the representative that you’re an independent filmmaker and ask for a deal. Whatever deal the representative offers, come back with what Grove calls the “British plumbing noise,” which is the noise a plumber makes in Britain when he’s about to tell you that you need to spend hellish amounts of money to get decent drains. It sounds like a sharp intake of breath. By this and other mechanisms, Grove always scores a 35 per cent to 40 per cent discount off retail film stock prices. Continued... << Previous Page - Next Page >>

 

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