By: Carter Phillips

Great prestige is given to cinema. Frequently considered the hardest profession to get into, multimillion dollar industries have you in they’re scheme. They want you to climb a collapsed ladder and spend all your money hopelessly waiting to be discovered.

Stanley Kubrick is a filmmaker. I am a filmmaker. You can be too. Wealth and class do not matter

If you want to be a filmmaker start by getting a camera and shooting. I don’t care what you shoot, just shoot something. It is my recommendation that you begin with documentary, as not to worry about working with (most likely non-professional) actors and the mind games that goes along with it.

I’ve already suggested what could make a great movie. Now I will suggest HOW to make a movie and how to do it with little to no money.

On May 11th, 2022, I publicly released my movie They Came from the Attic, to almost entirely positive feedback.

Making the movie was one of the hardest challenges of my life, the most challenging being my current project The Lost Memories of Slumber but I am not discouraged.

I am proud, not because I think that the movie is great, but because it is significantly better than what I and everyone else was expecting.
Me and my friends made a nearly feature length movie at the age of 15 and 16.

I am not completely apposed to film school, but I’ve seen a lot of student films and thought, “It didn’t do them any good.”

This is to explain that it’s hard to teach art, because its rules are invented within you.

Don’t seek approval from other people for you will never be satisfied. Take criticism but don’t let it discourage you. Let it help you get better.

I’ll mention practical mistakes that can be avoided as well as general advice I want to give.

The type of camera you use doesn’t have to be expensive, as long as it is not getting in the way of your camerawork. If the quality is low, then have the films tone become a good fit for it.

Black and white is a good place to start. It looks nice, feels dreamy, and is easier to shoot well.

It took me until my fourth film project to begin working with full color. If you do make films in color, I’d suggest that you make an emphasis on them. Make them look pleasing, not dull. If it feels right, use gels over your lights.

It is a myth that you need massive and expensive lighting equipment to make good cinematography. A great cinematographer can paint a shot with bare necessities. If you have no lights to use, shoot near a window just be weary of continuity.

I’ve shot many scenes without having to use more than a lamp, two flashlights, ceiling lights and a strong but small LED light.

I’d recommend using a trick by Akira Kurosawa which was invented in his production: Rashomon. A mirror can amplify and reposition light.

Repositioning your light source is where the fun begins. Changing the angles of where your light(s) are coming from can make a more pleasing image, but more importantly, can change the tone of the shot.

Keep in mind that setting up lighting cannot take hours per shot. I take about an hour to shoot each scene, two occasionally for location shooting. Pillow, effect shots and most inserts can be shot afterwards.
Depending on the mood you want, no artificial lighting is needed for exteriors.

Shooting at night outside is difficult for a beginner, I’d suggest shooting day for night or shooting in the evening because to shoot something, you need a light source.

If you do a day for night shot, make sure shadows aren’t distracting.
Do as little effects in post as possible but remember to color grade your film. I color grade each shot, sometimes each take individually to ensure that it looks as good as possible.

It is a myth that you need a budget to make a good movie. You need very little to make a good film.

Write scripts that don’t require money. Make a movie about the world your given before you make one about a world you’ve created.

If you can’t afford a tripod then balance your camera on books, chairs and stools. One shot in They Came from the Attic used a tripod.

Under almost all circumstances, you need nice microphones.

Rely on yourself. If you ask your friends if they want to be in your movie they will probably say yes. If you want, they’re help, they will abandon you. In middle school I could never get passed pre-production because none of my friends were reliable.

Just before writing this article, I had to talk to a crew member because he was unable to shoot one second unit shot for the movie. He had been procrastinating for weeks and finally told me that he didn’t have time to get it done and that he misunderstood what I wanted.

Regardless of if he was lying, I made sure he knew I was disappointed, but I didn’t get mad, even though I wanted to. Loosing your temper is a reckless way to direct. I now know what jobs I can give him that I can expect him to achieve. I if got mad, he would have viewed me as an angry boss, not a friend.

In moviemaking, it is my belief that a director should see all cast and crew as equal. He should take all of their good ideas and all of his good ideas and filter them together into one vision.

That does not mean he should rely on them. Pouting about not getting all the help you want is childish. A new director should be happy to get any help. His early films are most likely trash anyways, just as my current films often leave me unsatisfied.

If you watch a rough cut of your film and hate it, then learn from your mistakes. Ask people what you did wrong. You don’t need advice from critics, you can also get it from regular people, for it is them who you are making it for.

It is a lie that you are making a film for yourself. Everybody wants recognition. You are making a film for the world, to be eternal through you.

Don’t try to please everybody. We are too diverse a people for that. Pick a demographic and start shooting. If the film has a heart, you are in the right direction.

There will never be enough words to teach filmmaking. You can always learn more. There is always a new level of greatness a film can ascend to.