How to Make Your First Professional Short Film: A Step-by-Step Guide
Making a film, even a short one, is a big project. Like every big project, it requires breaking it down into smaller tasks. In this series of articles, I will show you how I broke my project down into smaller steps and how you can do it too.
Before I decided to make my first professional film, I had no idea how to tackle a professional production, even though I had gone to film school. But I learned by working with someone else on his film and seeing what he did every step of the way. Artistically, I disagreed with every decision he made, but I loved his just-do-it approach. I learned how to make a film. Just the practical part of it. What I mean by professional is that you work with people who are professionals in their fields, not amateurs. They might be beginners like you, but professionals nonetheless.
How To Make Your First Professional Short Film: An article series will be helpful to you if you:
- have a script that’s ready to shoot. This means you are done working on it, and you know 99.9% you won’t change it anymore.
- can’t shake the thought of shooting this script;
- feel like you’ll make your movie now or never;
- went to film school and made student films in a school setting, and are now trying to pull off your first professional production;
- need a step-by-step breakdown of how to turn your script into a film.
Before we dive into the nitty-gritty, a few words about the most important thing to consider. Something that played a crucial part in my making this film (besides money) was the mindset that I adopted. There were four parts to pushing through all the difficulties and hurdles I had to overcome to get to and through the film set.
- I 100% stood by my story and artistic choices. Artistic choices included my cast and crew. This doesn’t mean I thought there was nobody better than them or me. I just knew we, collectively and individually, would do our best, and our best would be on the spectrum from acceptable to really good.
- I would shoot this film, come hell or high water. Don’t have enough money? Adjust the budget. Someone doesn’t show up to the set on the day of the shoot? Use whoever does. Your main camera blows up? Have a backup (even a shitty one) and shoot anyway.
3. It’s not THAT important: Pope John Paul II said, “Amongst all unimportant subjects, soccer is the most important”. To me, that’s film. Don’t lose sight of what actually matters: health, peace, nature, fellow humans, joy. Filmmakers are not healthcare workers, we don’t fight crime, we don’t fight fire, and we don’t do anything that can’t wait. Nobody’s life depends on what we do. Nobody’s health depends on our films. Don’t forget that.
4. Have the audacity to call yourself a filmmaker.
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Number four is, in fact, the first step to doing any art. The outrageous act of calling your mediocre self an artist and your little, unimportant stories — art. Especially in the face of filmmakers who inspired YOU. If you ask — Who has time to hear about my first kiss, my mother’s passing, my breast cancer, my boyfriend’s double life, my boring job when the world is on fire? I’ll respond — I do. “Unimportant” stories matter just as much as WWII stories. The story of a tramp working in a factory is as great as the story of the great dictator if it’s told well. There will always be an audience for a well-told story. Always! At the same time, don’t be afraid to make a bad film. Even Ingmar Bergman didn’t like all his films. Be the worst! But be the worst after giving it your best shot! Be the worst after being constructively critical of your artistic endeavor!
In the next few articles, you’ll find out what I learned from my experience of dragging this heavy but fun load for a couple of months. Here’s an overview:
- How to Crowdfund Your First Professional Film
- Pre-production — broken down into multiple steps, including:
- The basic team
- The basic equipment
- The basic things
- Other essentials - The days of the shoot
- The days after!
- Post-production and all the pain of having to keep working after you feel like you are done working. I might break this step down further into:
- Editing
- Color Grading
- Sound Editing - Abandoning your film (in less dramatic terms just finishing it)
- Surprise Articles!
If by the time I’m done with these articles, I have anything to share about distribution and festivals, we’ll get into that too. But if you haven’t even started the pre-production, don’t even worry about distribution yet.
The world is at its limit when it comes to shitty films, so please do your best to tell a fun, engaging and meaningful story, but if you can’t — make a film anyway.
To quote Beckett: Ever Tried. Ever Failed. No matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail better.
Even though I mention some parts of my artistic process, I want to emphasize that this is not a creative guide to filmmaking, cinematography, or working with actors. There are many books written by established, experienced people such as Alexander McKendrick, Sidney Lumet, Judith Weston; video resources like Werner Herzog’s Masterclass videos, and a million other things that talk about film as art. If you want to make a good movie (or even a bad one that could at least be called a gracious attempt), I suggest you take a proper look at all of these, watch as many films as possible, and read as many scripts as possible.
I live in New York City, and some of my advice, such as equipment rental houses, will only apply to New York. Try to find an alternative wherever you are. It might be someone who has equipment and hasn’t even considered renting it.
Next up:
