How to Make a Short Film

Video Transcript

"In this clip we are going to be talking about how to make a short film. So you feel like you are ready to make a short film. Well, here is a couple of things you need to start off with. Now one, you have to decide, do you have a lot of money or do you have not very much money, because there are different routes you are going to take depending on you know, how financially stable you are. Now if you do not have very much money, you are going to need to use the resources that are the closest to you. Such as actors, you may want to use your friends, your family. As far as location, your own house, your buddy's apartment. You know, your camera, you may only have a three hundred, four hundred dollar Sony HandyCam, or maybe you are just using a little digital camera that has a movie mode on it. Who knows, but basically the point is that you need to make and produce the film based on your needs, what is realistically what you can do financially. So basically with that, if you do not have a lot of money, like I said, you are going to want to use your friends, your family as actors, but you need to make sure you have a good script, make sure you have a good story, a good plot, and just take it step by step. You are going to want to use your own computer to edit, so make sure you have a good editing program on there that is easy for consumers to use, such as Adobe Premier, or if you have a Macintosh, Final Cut Pro or even iMovie, it works. Okay? So you can do those kinds of things and produce your movie, and once you do, I mean, depending on the quality of it, you can submit it to certain, you know, film festivals, that kind of thing and awards, and see what happens with it. See where it takes you. Maybe someone will like what they saw and maybe take you to the next level and finance your next movie. I mean, it is a good stepping stone into the world of short movies and directing and producing. Now, if you have a lot of money or if you have some sort of person who is going to give you a lot of money, Uncle Ben has got a lot of money, and he is like here son, here is a million dollars, go make a short film, have fun. Okay? Well with that type of situation you are going to want to hire a little bit more professional crew. Okay? You can look on, you know, Craig's List or look on certain places where you can find professionals looking for short movie gigs. You can find, you can purchase a script, if there is a script out there, a good story, you can purchase it, purchase that rights to that, and you can produce it. You can actually hold auditions for actors. If you have enough money you can do it union. It is going to cost you big bucks, but I mean, you are going to have, you know, good quality of actors there. You can obviously go out and scout your site, where you are going to have this film, and just take it somewhat professionally with that. But depending if you have money or if you do not have money, by the end of the day, your short film is not going to be so good if the story is not good, if it is a good plot. So make sure before you even start calling friends or family, or calling investors, make sure you have a good story to work with, because if you do not, no one is going to care if you have, you know, fancy fireworks and explosives, but if the movie sucks, you are just wasting your time. You might as well just sit on MySpace and try to get friends all day. So that is basically how you are going to put together a short film. Good luck."