Top 10 Fails of Low to No Budget Films
Top 10 Fails of Low to No Budget Films and how to avoid doing same mess every time. This article probably going to raise some heat among “know it all” filmmakers. I based this post only on my personal experience which for over 5 years of shooting short films, commercials, documentaries, corporate videos etc proved to be accurate.
- Terrible script, but nobody has the guts to say so out loud. Very common fail in no budget filmmaking, for some reason, “volunteers” get’s excited to do it, that obvious failures are being deliberately ignored.
- Bad to No casting, typically the first people to reply, or “buddy’s” get’s the role. In many cases, those people way far off, from what the characters are, but hey, you wanna make a movie?!
- NO PRE-PRODUCTION, typical fail. I know a place, I got a place, we can shoot here, we can shoot there type of BS……pre production is extremely important part of filmmaking that for some reason is absolutely ignored by many. NO location scouting, NO wardrobe, NO color palettes, NO directing, NO story boarding and so on and so on…..Major FAIL
- Bad Director, Bad Cinematographer Killer Combo, happens all the times. Director has absolutely no vision, while cinematographer knows 180 rule and how to mount the camera on the tripod…….
- Get your ass off the couch and living room, and start shooting in real locations. Come one, you shoot action movie and it’s all in the living room ?!……
- No Story Telling, I shoot just to shoot, this angle is awesome………FAIL
- Crew Directs the movie, while director agrees with everyone….that’s automatic fail when a makeup artists start suggesting story or camera…..just go home at this point, movie gonna be a complete disaster
- Shooting long scripts in one day…..sunrise to sunset…..Time of the day doesn’t matter, we shoot in harsh daylight, let’s just plow thru this 20 page script and win some awards !
- Post production takes months, maybe years to finish, happens all the times, I mean, who really wants to sit thru shitty project and edit this mess……
- Share with me in the comments below !
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Remove #4, and replace it with, BAD SOUND! Good sound is only achieved with experience. Buying some sound gear, and then hiring some monkey to ‘hit the button’ is the fastest way to get BAD SOUND. Don’t skimp here, hire someone who knows what they are doing.. it’s money well spent!
Definitely agree Richard ! Audio almost always terrible in no budget filmmaking even with good gear. In many cases its cheap Zoom or Tascam recorders though without any preamps or anything like that. Thank you for your comment !