Using Your Resources as a Film School Graduate

As a service to the young filmmakers who submit films to the YoungCuts Film Festival, we will be featuring weekly filmmaking tips from YoungCuts Alumni, Partners and Friends.

A problem you’ll run into as a graduating filmmaker is that once you leave your program, you’ll lose the safety net you once had as well as the perks that came along with it. It’s hard to find that foothold when you spent the past several years within a learning environment where things like equipment, crew members, and plenty of opportunities to make several short films were not an issue.

It Doesn’t Take Piles of Money to Get a Film Started and Rolling

Now that you’ve moved on and are beginning to look into creating outside of those post-secondary walls, you need to address the problem at hand: how will things come together? You’re eager as ever and yet you have very little at your disposal. You begin to tell yourself, “I’ll put it off till I have the money or can find someone who’s willing to invest in it.” Even with the recent rise in crowd-funded films through websites like Kickstarter and IndieGoGo, it can be easy to despair.

So what’s a recent graduate to do when it comes down to creating their first film? Tone back your current ideas; go for creative and intelligent over flash and the unnecessary. It seems almost like mindless advice more than a method, but you’d be surprised at the amount of people who don’t revel in the idea that less is more. Even on a professional level, people looking to receive their second or third screenwriting credit here in Canada are calling for a budget of $10 million on their new feature script. The film begins to cry Inaccessible once you’ve added your first explosion or gunfight.

Go for Creative and Intelligent Over Flash and the Unnecessary

Now that the smaller and more achievable ideas begin to flow, you need to start thinking about plausible boundaries to create your film within. Boundaries as in what can you use that you know you have access to (locations, props, characters, etc)? As you begin to include these elements into your film, you realize that the money you do have for budget will be able to go where they’re needed – craft services.

When the script is complete and has been fine-tuned to pinch every penny it needs to, one of the biggest problems will be the equipment. One of the benefits of graduating in the digital age is that the industry is being pushed towards that direction. No matter how hard one may try, there is no replacement for 35mm, but with DSLRs in recent years and their filmmaker-friendly abilities, the idea of shooting a short film or even an independent has never been more accessible.

What if you don’t want to shoot on a DSLR though? You begin talking to those who were wise enough to invest in a good camera. You’ll find that as you begin talking around with those connections you’ve made through out your years at school, the idea of trying to make a film becomes less daunting. In the end, you may not have the most impressive equipment list, but you make do with what you have and you learn to improvise.

Make Do With What You Have and Learn to Improvise.

As you grow outside of your years at school, you begin to realize that the world of film is really what you make of it. It is always wiser to invest young and while you’re running fresh out of the gate. If you end up waiting five years, you may find that you are in the very same situation that you would have been when you had just graduated. It doesn’t take piles of money to get a film started and rolling, only a little ingenuity and the connections you’ve made.

Aaron Robson is a filmmaker from Toronto. His film Raising Bigfoot was in our Top 150 International Short Films for 2012. Follow Aaron on Twitter: @aarontherobson

This post is based on one originally presented by Film Army.

Agree with Aaron? Disagree? Have your own filmmaker tips, best practices or mistakes to avoid that you would like to share? Get in touch! E-Mail the YoungCuts Film Festival Director, Michael Ryan: Mike@YoungCuts.com