Once they’ve made a successful short film, many filmmakers set their sights on feature length films. How to achieve this goal? How a filmmaker greenlights a film.
You may choose to stay and try to raise millions of dollars, as many do. Unless you know a lot of wealthy people who are happy to help donate investments, this rarely works. Or, a champion film financier thinks you’re an up-and-coming filmmaker and offers you money.
This can happen to someone who has made a great short film, written an incredible feature screenplay and somehow met the right people.
However, this situation is very rare. In fact, this is more likely to happen after the filmmakers A hugely successful independent feature film was made on a shoestring budget.
You could spend years trying to raise millions of dollars and most likely fail, or you could try the following. Making a feature film on a shoestring cash budget Make a feature film like four short films. This makes it much easier than shooting a movie in one take.
This means you can shoot a 75- to 90-minute feature just like you would 4 short films. For example
· Shooting Weekend 1 — Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Monday 4 days
· Ash Weekend 2 – Taken 6 – 7 weeks later
Friday, Saturday, Saturday and Sunday 4 days
· Shooting weekend 3 Shooting 6 – 7 weeks later
Friday Saturday Sunday Monday. 4 days
· Shooting weekend 4 Shooting 6 – 7 weeks later Friday Saturday Saturday Sunday Monday 4 days
· Shooting 16 days 4 – 5 months total shooting time
This way you can make your movie with less money and less stress. Each shot takes about 5K, or an entire feature film about 20K.
(4 shots x 5K = $20,000)
Once the film is monetized, the cast and crew work to get their first share of returns, as outlined in the 40:40:20 model mine Online Flagship Filmmaker Course
Everyone wins.
Last week I attended a screening of a film by one of my former five-month film school students. His name was Andreas Tombas and he had no filmmaking experience when he started attending a five-month film school in Sydney. After graduating from May Film School, he learned how to make films. He then made two short films, the second of which was outstanding.
then he 
Decided it was time to make a feature film Known as “adverse effects”. He made $20,000 from money he saved working at a bar. The film company now has a Los Angeles film distributor and now he’s making money every quarter, and it won’t be long before he’s making money and seeing blue-sky profits.
But best of all, the movie was so good that the audience gave it a standing ovation for 10 minutes after the premiere.
I’m very proud of him for making such a good film.
It will be released soon, so check it out on Prime Video and other streaming platforms. He is now about to make his second feature film
He released a trailer that night and it looked special too. He’s about to get a $1 million to $10 million budget, all because.
He went out and made movies on a shoestring budget.
Dreams can come true, now one can make a movie on a shoestring budget.
What should your movie budget be?
20K is the minimum, but micro budgets can vary from 20K to 100K depending on what you want to achieve.
If you’re starting out on your first film, choose a smaller cash budget, say 20,000. Spread your shoot into 4 shoots so you only raise 5K per shoot. Anyone can do this if they are passionate and decide and commit to making a feature film.
You can learn how to do the above, especially in my online film course Filmmaker Flagship Director Production Editing Course
