Make your short film Now!

If you want to make a short film, it’s time to get started

If you’re reading this on a smartphone, you have everything you need to start making your first short film. When I first got into filmmaking, we worked with Directors of Photography who had cine cameras which shot on DV tape. Those cameras cost around $2,500 — $3,000 back then and filmed in 720p (almost an eighth of the resolution of 4K TV sets). We had to crew up for Location Sound, find a Gaffer and Grip (or deal with natural light), and build out a cast and crew to put those short films into production.

You needed to crew up to make a short film back then. It felt like a movie set for an independent film production, even though we would have all of our coverage in a weekend.

On one of my recent short films, I filmed everything on an iPhone Xs, and I used two Zoom F1 recorders to capture the dialogue. One of the actors and I ran around Downtown Chicago and captured footage around town with the iPhone and a DJI Osmo Mobile 3 (a steadicam designed for smartphones). It was a lot of fun shooting that day. I had a simple script and we went out and shot it.

Now all you need is a smartphone and a couple people who believe in your ideas.