The Borrowers

If this is the first little diatribe of mine that you have read, you need to know that I am a champion of no budget film making.  Not low budget, and not zero dollar, but moving through the process of film making by minimizing costs, and absorbing the necessary costs as they accrue.  For you see, my young film maker, there was a time when you could not shoot a no budget feature. Really. Did you know that the film stock alone necessary for a feature film shot in 35mm format comes to more than $20,000?  Incredible. We live in the wondrous age of data cards and hard drives, making the barriers to entry into feature film making, well, low enough. The only downside to the festering cornucopia of alternatives out there is that equipment geeks get themselves caught up in what to shoot on. Do not be a slave to technology. Make it work for you! If your background is in video technology for some reason, or you already have a strong camera body, and want to surf the net for lenses, adapters, and so forth, I'll ask you to do this:  Price out your wish list, add $100 to it, and offer that to a DP on productionhub. (www.productionhub.com). You'll get the DP AND the equipment you were going to buy, or pretty darn close to it, for one low price.  Look, I just got you a DP  for ten days, for $100!  Nowadays, any director of photography or cinematographer either has his own camera, knows five guys with rigs who will loan them out for favors, or has an ‘in’ to a ridiculously cheap rental. Certainly you should have some serious meetings regarding why he is recommending his specific choices, as well as check out examples of that combination’s footage by the artist you are considering, but please let this expert contribute where his knowledge exceeds yours.

From here, the choice of camera, a review of the script by the DP, and a review of your confirmed locations will dictate the lighting package. Again, borrow if possible.  Why not?  There are other equipment freaks and geeks out there who have already laid out the cash, dying to get onto a set.  Believe me.  Now, I do spend some money for lights because I shoot long days for a SHORT period of time, and therefore my daily rental doesn’t add up to that much. Also, I've been using the DSLR platform, and most of these cameras have crazy low light capabilities.

Next time:  How to borrow pizza. (that's a little joke)

Tom Kennerly will be directing 'Not Love' the summer of 2013...