Five Ways to keep your budget low when you first start making films

This article is for anyone who’s thinking about making a short film for the first time or anyone who is starting out.

Film is the most expensive medium to tell stories and create art. When you are passionate about telling your story and directing your first short film it is easy to go through all of your savings and find yourself in debt.

Here are a few ideas to save money when you are first starting out and learning the craft of filmmaking.

Write

The cheapest way to make films is with pen and paper. The main expense when it comes to screenwriting is your time. You will never me able to make a good short film unless you have a great script.

Screenwriting gives you an opportunity to conceive of a story and troubleshoot it before you get cast and crew involved. I’ve seen the films of a lot of talented and hard working filmmakers fail because of the script.

Given that many of us are sheltering-in-place you can put together a table reading for your script for free. Just find some volunteers and get together in a video chat.

When you’re conceiving of scripts for your early short films, it’s a good idea to come up with short film ideas that happen in one location and films that…