This is where all of our film careers start, and inevitably, most of our work at this stage will SUCK. But that doesn't mean that we cannot take precautions against it and do the best we can to make our student short films worth our while. I've been shooting shitty shorts since I was thirteen and here are some of the most important tips I can share as I bid IB film farewell.

These following tips are for a traditional 3-act story short film, with a maximum of 10-15 minutes runtime. IB film final films are a maximum of 7 minutes when I did my IB film program.

These are also very general rules of thumb that are only for consideration. Feel free to ignore them if you have an idea that will work well

1. Concept Stage

It all begins with an idea. It's important to get a good balance in your story: enough complexity, yet without it being too difficult to execute, and simple enough for it to be told over a 10-minute short film. I would say, rarely would people be willing to watch a short film that's over 10-minutes.

There is a general set of criteria I stick to when I prepare for a short film project with no budget. The best piece of advice I would give is as follows:

<aside> 🏋 Grab a close friend who's also (somewhat) competent or passionate in film, and develop your idea together. That way you can bounce a lot of ideas off them to make sure that they make sense logically. There's nothing worse than a film that has a flawed character motive that causes the audience to think "why couldn't they just..."

</aside>

During the scripting stage, here are some things to consider about the story development:

• LOCATION: Have no more than 2 locations. Try to think about which locations you might have access to, and script your story based around those places. Indoor locations always work better for me because you can have so many more factors under control.
  • USE YOUR CONNECTIONS: If you have any friends or family friends who might own cool locations and venues, this might work in your favor. I knew someone who had a friend who owned a restaurant. They were able to film for a couple of hours before the restaurant opened and after they closed for business. This would have cost at least a couple hundred dollars for a regular production to rent.
• GENRE: Try to avoid comedy and horror. I would say they are the hardest to shoot. Comedy is hard to make original without it coming off as cliche or cheap. Horror relies so much on set design and music score which are going to be unnecessarily stressful for no-budget productions.
• ACTORS: Usually I don't like to have more than 3 actors or actresses on set because it becomes hard to manage people. Also, easier to keep track of continuity with fewer actors.

Thought you might find this piece of infographic interesting - it looks at which film genres become more and more popular over time.

<aside> 🏋 If you're facing an artistic block, you should watch shorts that other people have made, visit IMDb to read loglines of other films which have been made, or check out script markets. You can honestly rip off other people's film ideas, as long as you're not plagiarizing the script word for word. Take it from the man himself Quentin Tarantino:

Tarantino admits that stealing from movies is a part of his repertoire. “I steal from every single movie ever made,” Tarantino confessed in a 1994 interview with Empire magazine. Some of his stolen moments are hidden references, while others are scene for scene exactly the same.

Many feel that this is a type of homage to other films—but Tarantino isn’t a part of that crowd. He denies that he is paying homage, simply stating instead that: “Great artists steal. They don’t do homages,” a quote that—in true Tarantino style—closely mimics the famous quote from Picasso, “Good artists copy. Great artists steal.”

</aside>

2. Pre-Production

The biggest mistake you can make in pre-production is not spending enough time in it. There is so much pre-production that you can do - I allot more than 50% of my time to preproduction just because shooting shouldn’t take more than a weekend (or a weekend’s worth of time), and chances are, if you did preproduction properly, you won’t need to do re-shoots.

• CREW: I would say most crucial crew positions in this order are: Director, Cinematographer, Sound, Production Assistant, Script Supervisor... chances are you won’t need more than that on set before it becomes hard to manage a student production.

  • I would say the MINIMUM number of crew is two people. That’s how I shot my IB final film and we had a lot of limitations. I would argue that the DIRECTOR and CINEMATOGRAPHER are the absolute necessities.
  • WITHOUT A CINEMATOGRAPHER: Storyboard your film out SHOT BY SHOT and shoot according to it. You can even scan in your storyboard and create a drawn-out version of your final film to see how it flows. STORYBOARD ON SET IF YOU CAN.
  • WITHOUT A SOUND PERSON: Secure music ahead of time, or someone who can compose. You might need to script your film around music slightly (i.e if you have a friend who has a pre-composed piece that you want to use and it’s 2 minutes you might need to extend or cut down a scene.)
  • WITHOUT A SCRIPT SUPERVISOR: I would shoot the scene CHRONOLOGICALLY. This is because the script supervisor is in charge of continuity and making sure each shot transitions seamlessly from the last one. Also especially if your characters aren’t professional, it also helps them go through the entire character / emotional arc in order without confusing people.

• PREPARATION DOCUMENTS YOU NEED: You should go through all of them for preparation and decide which ONE document is the most crucial for you to have in your hands at all times. You can download a copy of the storyboard and shotlist in Pre-Production. The others should only be used for reference, or else it becomes inefficient, UNLESS you have a PA or script supervisor on set. I would say the three most crucial ones are:

  • STORYBOARD: This is the most visual communication you can use to make sure that the entire crew is on the same page. After you storyboard your scene you can almost always tell which shots you need (hence what equipment you need), or whether or not something doesn’t work out as well as you want it to.

    

    It doesn't have to be complex - this is how Ratatouille (2007) looked like.

  • SHOT LIST: A lot of film teachers really like shot lists but I’m personally not the biggest fan. My personality is a lot more suited for run-and-gun or improvised filmmaking, so I just roll with a master and shoot as much coverage as I can. BUT regardless, it’s helpful for you to know what shots you might want or how long each scene might take.

  • SCRIPT BREAKDOWN: For me this is the most important document. You breakdown your script and scribble all over it, USING YOUR SHOT LIST, and you can literally mark down where each shot begins and ends. When you’re on set, you can make notes on which takes you like and dislike. You can cross out completed scenes... it’s great.

  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sdf0rChX0eI

• PREPARE CALL SHEETS: To make sure that everyone is available. Hold people accountable for the promises they make. That’s where call sheets come in: you send it out together with which scenes they’re in and what time you’re filming and what time they need to show up. Make sure you do this over email. If you’re not shooting in an English-speaking country, prepare a address card that your crew and actors can just show the driver.

• REIMBURSEMENTS: Everyone’s shooting for free, so it’d be great if you can make it worth their time. As a director/producer it’s important that you do it ASAP for professionalism.

  • FEED THE CREW. Pizza is appreciated. Just split the cost between all the main stakeholders of the film. Even better if you have a meal scene, so schedule that around meal time to kill two birds with one stone.
  • TRANSPORT. If people are going somewhere that’s off-site or far from their home. I wouldn’t reimburse based off of how much it actually costs... it gets complicated calculating decimals and small units. Just give a flat-fee reimbursement of, like, $20 USD per trip. They can choose to take the metro and pocket the rest, or take an uber for the exact amount.

3. Production