10 TIPS FOR ULTRA LOW BUDGET FILMMAKERS by Melody Rock

I stumble upon this wonderful article!!! It's a must read if you want to make movies no matter what.

Thank you to @DreamStreetLTD for the follow on Twitter. That follow lead me to the great article and some really useful info.

Click the link below to read the entire article. Happy reading!

10 Tips For Ultra Low Budget Filmmakers

Short film dark comedy english - Love, Mary Movie

COMING SOON!!!

Fashion Film featuring Ashaine Briscoe

Film Director and author Ashaine Briscoe has made a name for herself in the fashion scene as a daring dresser with a diverse range of tastes. Often spotted at networking and film events, her ensembles – both vintage and contemporary – never fail to impress. 

Get a closer look at Ashaine's unique style in the fashion documentary entitled Sunshine Chic created by award-winning filmmakers Chetachi Egwi and Cathleen Dean.


MIAMI'S FASHION FILM FESTIVAL

September 11, 2014

9pm 

Miami Beach Cinematheque
1130 Washington Ave
Miami Beach, FL 33139

Miami Fashion Film Festival

You Don't Need a Million Bucks!

Hey Storytellers!

I found this insightful article and I just had to share it! I've been stalling forever, doing any and everything to avoid shooting my feature film. Why, you asked, because I have a this little voice in my head that says "you need a million dollars to do a feature film right". So, you can imagine how excited I was to read this..... Here it is!!!



5 Tips For Indie Filmmakers From Joe Swanberg

You think it’s tough to make a feature film for less than a million dollars? Joe Swanberg has made more than 15 of them and he’s barely 33 years-old. 

The lo-fi micro-budget writer-director of improvised relationship dramas such as Hannah Takes the Stairs, LOL, and 2013’s breakout hit Drinking Buddies, says his films have ranged “from about three or four thousand dollars for my first film, Kissing on the Mouth in 2005, to about $600,000 for Drinking Buddies. So even my biggest film was really small!” 

Drawing heavily from real life, Swanberg’s movies are typically talkative and candid, with actors bringing their own dialogue into broad scenarios. Themes circle around relationships, sex, fear of commitment, and the dilemmas of being young and creative in Middle America. A key figure in the unofficial ‘Mumblecore’ movement (along with Andrew Bujalski and the Duplass brothers), Swanberg’s films are often rough around the edges. Handheld camerawork, natural lighting and minimal production design mean the focus is firmly on story, character and incredibly naturalistic dialogue. This is what makes films like his latest, Happy Christmas, so genuinely warm, funny and insightful. Perhaps it’s a lesson to Australian filmmakers whose work is too often praised as ‘beautifully shot’ – technically brilliant, but deficient in character development and storytelling.

A guest of the Melbourne International Film Festival, and in town to support festival screenings of Happy Christmas (starring Anna Kendrick, Melanie Lynskey and Swanberg himself), the Chicago-based Swanberg took some time out to share a few of his filmmaking tips. Admitting he knows “not very much at all” about the Australian film industry, and being far too smart to suggest he’s found a definitive model, Swanberg’s impressive output and track record (he’s finally making a modest living, in part through VOD licenses to his back catalogue) are enough to make his wisdom worth your while. Here are his tips.

1. Use what you’ve got

My biggest tip for filmmakers– especially for low budget independent filmmakers – is to utilise the things you have access to, which has always been important in my career. Only having access to cheap video cameras and inexpensive sound equipment meant we couldn’t fall back on those things. I had to rely on the stories we were telling and the actors I was working with. I get emails from filmmakers all the time and I’m always having to remind them that if they are anxious to make work, then the thing that they can make most quickly is a movie where they’re utilising the people and the equipment they already have access to. I think a lot of independent filmmakers end up in the situation where they have some idea they’re really excited about, and it’s going to take 10 years to get it made, and then they feel frustrated those entire 10 years. This is a different way to go about it. Rather than spend a long time getting the financing to make one movie, just make a lot of movies over time and hopefully arrive at the same place with more work to show for it.

2. Focus on character and story over high production values

I was inspired by the Dogma 95 films which started coming out while I was in film school, and really liberated me from the need for that high production value. The whole Dogma manifesto is kind of against that focus on high production values and more on character.

3. Invest in ownership of your work and live lean

If you have ownership of your work, then that work can provide an income forever and that is often not only more lucrative, but more secure than upfront payment, or doing the work for hire for someone else. Oftentimes you just can’t – a movie is going to cost a certain amount of money and I just don’t have that amount of money. You trade ownership for the ability to get the thing made. But there seems to be conventional wisdom in the industry that you shouldn’t put your own money into your films. It’s kind of an old Hollywood mantra and there are stories of people getting burned, investing in their own projects or their friends’ projects. But it’s like betting on yourself, and that’s has always made sense to me.

You also get used to living on a really small income. The trick is not getting comfortable with more money, when you have it, because that makes it impossible to go back. That’s been the training of the last 10 years. Any time I had some money come in, I didn’t create that luxury padding around me, but put that money back into something creative, because film is the kind of industry where careers have ups and downs, so if you get to comfortable during an up, it’s going to make a down period really difficult. My wife’s also a filmmaker, so we’ve had the life over the last 10 years, where hopefully if one of us is broke, the other one of us is making some money. We’ve weathered the tough periods that way. It’s always been surviving on the bare minimum and when there’s money, that gets invested back in projects.

4. Trust your actors and use their intelligence

I don’t think actors are utilised nearly to their full potential. I’m discovering they’re incredibly smart and talented and are often just handed a script and told to read lines. It makes sense to involve them a lot more in the process. It’s important to be open to the idea that the actor may understand the character better than the director does. Actors act in a lot more movies than directors direct. It’s important to cast the right people. But once you’ve cast the right people, it’s important to trust them. They have to trust you too, and you have to earn that, in order for it to be a real collaboration, and then it can turn into something really interesting.

5. Tell stories about women

I’m drawn to telling stories about women, and it feels like it’s open territory out there as a filmmaker because there are just not enough strong female roles. I feel like stories with interesting women are the ones I want to see, and the ones I want to tell.

Article By: Rochelle Siemienowicz

Happy Christmas is currently available on VOD platforms such as iTunes (Apple TV) and Netflix. The film will also screen at the Melbourne International Film Festival on Sunday, 10 August with Joe Swanberg in attendance as a guest of the festival.  (Picture credit: Getty, Stuart C. Wilson)

Joe Swanberg

Leading By Example - Ron Howard

Hey Young World!!

I ran across this article and thought I'd share with ya. Be sure to watch the video. Not everyday an Oscar winner wants to share his secrets.

NEW YORK — Aug 6, 2014, 2:27 PM ET

Ron Howard is letting aspiring filmmakers in on his secrets — and into his hotel room — in a video released by New York’s Tribeca Film Festival.

The 60-year-old Oscar winner stars in “Leading by Example,” a digital short released in conjunction with the festival’s call for submissions Wednesday.

Howard first appears in pajamas in the four-minute video, inviting the camera into his hotel suite. His first tip? “Salt baths keep your skin baby-soft for decades.” 

While wearing a robe, Howard sketches out a mathematical formula for directing that he developed during “A Beautiful Mind.” Finally dressed, he prepares for the challenge of filmmaking by intentionally putting rocks in his shoes to “maintain a steady baseline of discomfort.”

The Tribeca Film Festival is set for April 15-26, 2015.

WATCH NOW!

Thank you for your subscription. And remember to share this blog with other filmmakers and film enthusiast.

Enjoy, 

Filmmaker Ashaine Briscoe

So You Wanna Make Movies??

So you want to make movies??? Welcome to my world. The world of storytelling. The world where your eyes and ears are always ready to receive inspiration to your next project.

I swear, I don't even have emotions anymore. Not because I'm heartless or don't care but because I want to save the emotions for the story. Everything is a story. Hahaha! Twisted, but oh so true.

Recently, someone I mistaken as a friend decided to alter the status of our friendship by luring me to his home under the pretense of script writing. Once there, he gave me some pointers on writing and we had a short discussion, then he quickly exposed his real motives. This left me shocked and angry, so angry I couldn't wait to write about it. When I finally emerged from this hypnotic writing spell, what I ended up with AMAZED me. I had just wrote my first psycho thriller and it was hot! I had never wrote anything like this before, NEVER! So when I say there is a story in everything, there is. And I have trained myself to find it. So thanks to Mr. Fake Friend aka Sneaky Creep, I'm scheduled to shoot my new film "Do You Know Who I Am" in September.

So,  if you still want to make movies your first task in to get a script! Stories are everywhere, as I demonstrated earlier, lol. If you are going to make a film, you have to have a great story and then be willing to run with it.  You can write it or hire someone to write it. If you're budget is extremely tight like most independent filmmakers then check out Fiverr.com http://www.fiverr.com/sayfivenow/write-a-short-story-film-or-sitcom-for-you 

On this site you can get a short film script for just $5. I kid you not! So many useful gigs, you just have to go see for yourself. 

Whether you write it yourself or hire someone, be careful not to fall in love with every word. It's far easier to pick dialog (and discard the rest) when it's written by someone else and there's no personal attachment. A beautiful line is of no use to you if it doesn't move the story forward. Screen writing is, to some extent, minimalist, so you can expect to make some significant cuts from what you've written in the process of getting it down to a shootable script.

Now go get a script!! Write it, buy it or even borrow it. After you secure a script you believe in, you'll be ready for the next phase and I'll be here to assist you.

See you soon! Thank you for your subscription to this blog. Remember to join our email list to stay up to date with special offers, movie release date, event and much more.

Check out "Love, Mary" Movie Trailer. A short film created in 48 Hours, from writing to rendering.

From Atlanta to Miami Herald

Film Vet Ashaine Briscoe Enters the Spotlight with Quirky, Heartfelt New Shorts

ATLANTA, GA, December 09, 2013  -- Filmmaker Ashaine Briscoe has just made her debut as a screenwriter, director, and producer--but to call her a novice would be an incredible oversight. In reality, Briscoe has been working in film for years, developing an almost preternaturally accomplished and diverse resume that includes credits as a Production Assistant, an Art Director, and more. She has worked on TV commercials and music videos, and her keen eye and visual flair have landed her design spots in leading glamour magazines. Now, however, it is Briscoe's time to shine, and to unleash the full extent of her creative vision, with a new short film called Roadside Assistance.

Just released via digital film service Distrify, Roadside Assistance is available for purchase or for rental; the film offers a surreal, comedic take on modern relationships that is, according to Briscoe, based loosely on her years of living in Atlanta. "Like a lot of cities, this one has a lot of people who are searching for love and fulfillment, but it also has a lot of pretenders," the filmmaker notes. The movie, which Briscoe describes as a "dramedy," is almost a parable for the modern world; the action centers on a woman whose car breaks down, but as different men stop to lend a hand, she finds fault with each one, shooing them away.

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Read more here: http://markets.financialcontent.com/mi.miamiherald/news/read/22957745/Film_Vet_Ashaine_Briscoe_Enters_the_Spotlight_with_Quirky#storylink=cpy

READ ENTIRE ARTICLE:
http://markets.financialcontent.com/mi.miamiherald/news/read/22957745/Film_Vet_Ashaine_Briscoe_Enters_the_Spotlight_with_Quirky

Ashaine Briscoe is No Stranger

Ashaine Briscoe is no stranger to the cinema. For years she’s developed her eye as a wardrobe consultant, makeup artist, and production assistant, starting with magazine spreads and album covers before making the shift into music videos. But if fashion was her gateway, her final push into the world of film directing came from an unlikely source: The iPhone. “It just cut through all the red tape,” she says with a laugh. “Anyone with a smart phone can make a movie these days, so for someone like me, with a real drive to create films, there are no more excuses left.” 

Not that Ashaine is plugging Apple products, mind you. She’s a lot more interested in enthusing about her short film debut, a quirky piece called Roadside Assistance. The movie may be borne of an eye for fashion and an affinity for handheld technology, but Briscoe’s true muse is her current city of Atlanta, and the complex issues she sees play out in her community every single day.

“Atlanta is a city full of seekers, but, like any city, it’s also got a lot of pretenders,” says the Jamaica-born director. That dynamic plays out as a tremendously entertaining but penetratingly deep dramedy in Roadside Assistance. The film is about a lady whose car breaks down; men stop to help her but she shoos them away. “They’re not who she’s looking for,” says the director, who also wrote the screenplay. Finally, the man of her dreams rolls up and offers to give her a hand—but it doesn’t take our protagonist long to wonder if maybe she was looking for the wrong thing all along.

- Read the entire article at: http://www.alwayztherro.com/ashaine-briscoe-knows-exactly-what-it-takes-to-succeed-and-get-what-you-want/#sthash.c4vFVsQm.dpuf


The Official Trailer for Roadside Assistance. WATCH NOW!

Ashaine Briscoe is being featured in an upcoming fashion documentary by veteran Miami filmmakers.

http://www.alwayztherro.com/ashaine-briscoe-knows-exactly-what-it-takes-to-succeed-and-get-what-you-want/