PRACTICAL DV FILMMAKING

Practical DV FilmMaking

• Overview
• Inside video
• Films and how they work
• Pre-production
• Production tools
• Production aesthetics
• Post-production tools
• Post-production aesthetics
• Careers and distribution
• Mapping the industry
• Glossary of film and video terms

Low-budget filmmaking

'Thank God for FireWire and DV. The revolution will be televised after all.'

Chris Allen, founder, The Light Surgeons

Big money vs small money

In industry terms, there is a specific level below which you are considered to be a low-budget produc­tion. A standard budget in Hollywood terms can be somewhere in the region of $40 million to $100 million; low-budget is seen as anything operating on less than around one-tenth of this. But these figures are losing their relevance now that DV has brought the general cost of shooting and editing a movie down to something most people can afford. Many costs that served to exclude filmmakers from the business are now invisible or absent. For instance, rather than hiring an editing suite it is quite likely that you have the right level of hardware and software on your home PC or Mac to edit a movie. Similarly, short films have seen a huge boost to their numbers, evident from the large number of movies on the web and the growth of local screenings. One indication of the amount that costs have plummeted is the rise of filmmakers competitions aimed at making movies for $50, where similar events only a decade ago would have aimed at adding three zeros to that figure.

Increasingly, as the cost of filmmaking goes down, more and more directors find that they, by default, are low-budget people. The medium-budget movies of yesterday are today's low-budget. But while medium-sized productions will see their money go further than before, many will simply aim higher, trying previously expensive genres like science fiction and period costume drama.

Did you know?

Genre refers to a type of movie, such as the thriller, the western or the war movie. Movies within a certain genre tend to have similar characteristics, such as style, structure, story and so on. Sub-genres exist within these, such as the prison camp escape sub-genre, part of the war movie genre.

Micro-budget: even smaller

Below this level of low-budget filmmaker there has now emerged the so-called micro-budget film­maker and the no-budget filmmaker - the film equivalents of freestyle climbing. The micro-budget filmmaker is operating with no funding, relying on private income or local arts centre grants, loans, and the investment of friends and relatives. Films are made for the cost of a DV tape, using whatever they own or can access as props, and running on borrowed cameras and a home computer.