How to Make an Independent Film With Your Camcorder

Video Transcript

"You got a story inside of ya ya just gotta get out? Hi, I'm Christopher Rokosz, actor, director and producer, and I'm going to give you some tips on how to use your camcorder to make an independent film. Well, if you see a real professional film shoot, you know there's a lot of people involved in it. If you don't have access to all those people and all those skill sets, you do have one thing, which is a luxury of time. So, you can play a lot of different hats and accomplish the different roles that they do, and you can do it slowly. This will allow you to keep your budget low, and also keep you on track. Step one; write a screen play. Okay? Use some real script writing software out there. There are some good ones that are free. They keep everything in the right format. Now, it's not just to make it look pretty and professional, but it also helps you organize all the myriad of different things involved in making a film. For instance, the different characters. When they appear. Which scenes they appear in, how many scenes there are, how many characters are they? What kind of costumes do they have? What kind of costume changes do they have? Your main script is almost like a data base of information, and if you use script writing software, you have the ability to be able to break it down so you can use it when you're on a scene. The other thing is you need...gonna need to get equipment. If you're truly making an independent film for distribution, you know, a camera like this, even in this HD quality may be a little bit under tuned for you. But if it's going to end up on the internet, then this is a great style of camera to use. Then, lighting. Lighting is the key. Lighting doesn't have to be big Furnell lenses. What you can use are, things from Home Depot as far as clamp-on lights. You can use area...I say searchlights, but the big lights you use outside for construction. Get creative in that way. Do invest a little bit in microphones. Get good quality. They say video is two thirds audio, and they're absolutely correct. Some things there is to get some friends to help you. You want to audition actors. You're going to want to start to put it together, and then scheduling. Putting everything together, down on paper, deciding when you're going to shoot, what you're going to shoot, what's involved in it, and what's the best way to shoot it, meaning that if your protagonist comes in to a bathroom at the beginning of the film, and then comes into the bathroom that's all destroyed at the end of the film, you want to shoot that at the same time. Changing locations, changing crew, changing days, it all costs money and time. And that's why you film out of order. You don't film scene one first, and the last scene last. You'll film scene six, scent two, scene four, scene one, scene sixteen. You want to think about all the logistics involved in it. Go through a thoughtful post-production process, and then start to post and get your name out there. Those are some tips to give you success. I'm Christopher Rokosz. We'll see you in Hollywood."