Seven Important Steps to Low-Budget Filmmaking

1)   Collaboration- You have to be extremely resourceful. Collaborate with people who are ambitious about filmmaking, just like you. Give, in order to get. If you need an editor for your film, collaborate with someone who is new and trying to make a mark. He would be someone who would give his best in editing your film. Similarly, if you need a sound artist, search for somebody who is young, fresh and wants to get noticed. If he wants to get noticed, he will probably work for free as well so you are sorted when it comes to budgeting. Try to get everyone on board but be very honest to tell if you don’t have money. People, who still join you, would be the most passionate guys around.

During the shoot of 'Abhi Babua Zinda Hai'

2)   Shoot with what you have- One of the primary concerns for students is that they don’t have the latest Canon 5D Mark III or that awesome stabilizer so they won’t be able to shoot. Well don’t wait for that next big thing to arrive, rather shoot with what you have. For eg, forget a regular DSLR, if you just have an Android phone, write a script that revolves around a guy who loves making videos on mobile phone or is a selfie lover and what if his phone captures a murder during one such recording.

You can shoot the entire film from the POV of a mobile camera much like the found footage in ‘The Blair Witch Project’ or ‘Paranormal Activity’. Don’t be upset if you do not have a dolly track, make a film that centers around the CCTV camera footages much like ‘Love Sex Aur Dhokha’.

Normal bed sheets were used as Skimmers during the shoot of 'Abhi Babua Zinda Hai'

3)   Don’t be too ‘shot-centric’- You might want to be the next Nolan or Tarkovsky and there is nothing wrong in being one but it is very important to convey a story or an idea first. While directing a film, if you have the most basic shots but you are able to convey your story, no one is going to get offended, trust me!! In ‘Superman of Malegaon’ the director didn’t have a budget for a crane or dolly, so he used a bullock cart and used it as a crane. Instead of a dolly, he took the tracking shots through a bicycle. So what really matters is your output, not the way you got that output.

Bullock Cart was used as a crane in 'Superman of Malegaon'

4)   Utilise the ‘un-used’- Getting difficult to get permission for your next location? Well don’t worry. Use the location which has been abandoned by everyone. If you want a dhaba for your next shoot, go to the outskirts of your city, find a dilapidated property, contact the owner. For him, any amount would be a significant profit for that good-for-nothing land and for you, you get the maximum from minimum. Similarly, do not  throw away that old worn out jeans or that unused polythene bag. May be you can use them in your next film centered around a psychotic guy.

During the shoot of 'Abhi Babua Zinda Hai'

5)   Keep it ‘hush-hush’- When shooting outdoors without permissions and without any crowd management, it is essential to have a substantial amount of pre-production work. If you go out to shoot on a road and shouting instructions to your AD, it is unlikely that you end up shooting peacefully and trust me if the crowd comes to know that you are shooting a film (be it a short film or a feature film having the least desirable star cast), it can go worse than a stampede. A detailed pre-production always results in a better product. A little research on your location would help you save a lot of time and money especially if you are shooting a low-budget film. For example if you want to shoot a crowd scene, do it ‘guerilla’* style (hiding the camera) i.e. without letting your crowd know about it. Infact, in order to get the real emotions from real people, just don’t tell them that you are shooting. Make them get into a situation and then shoot them silently.

6)   Use your actors/extras cautiously- Don’t just fill your script with actors. Always cast your actors who look like your characters. This way you can save the money on make-up. Also, cast actors who can bring in their own clothes. Save money on costumes. Finding good actors among amateurs is an art. Unless and until you have the resources and enough budget, choose your cast wisely. Essentially, in a short film of 8-10 min duration, there shouldn’t be more than 2-3 actors so write your scripts according to the availability of good actors. A bad actor can spoil a very good script so just do not compromise when it comes to acting.

Also there might be scenes where you need to show a lot of EXTRAS. Now this could be tricky. It depends on your vision, your pre-production and your foreshadowing of the situation. Either you can go ‘Guerilla’* style or try to be a little street-smart. In the latter scenario, role of storyboards becomes pivotal. In one of my short film ‘Abhi Babua Zinda Hai’, I had to shoot a protest but I didn’t have the budget nor any man-power. It was a genuine problem but I had a creative solution. I just had a group of 7-8 people. I made a frame where camera was low angle (high angle or eye level would have revealed the actual number), played actual footage of the protest in split screen and multiplied sound to create chaos by protestors and my job was done.

7)   Avoid unnecessary verbal diarrhoea- Having problems in getting sound recorders or mics?? AVOID WRITING DIALOGUES in your script. As I always teach to my students- SHOW, DON’T TELL, make your script as visual as you can rather than dialogues. At the end of the day, we tend to forget that film is an audio-visual medium i.e. we have visuals to support our concepts. Use metaphors and allegorical references to convey the most difficult feelings. What I do is first I find my limitations both in terms of budget as well as space and time and after that I write my script. That helps me to think logically and feasibly.

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(*) guerilla- Guerrilla filmmaking refers to a form of independent filmmaking characterized by low budgets, skeleton crews, and simple props using whatever is available. Often scenes are shot quickly in real locations without any warning, and without obtaining filming permits.

A Phenomenon called ‘Sridevi’

News Article by:
Manas Mishra
Assistant Professor,
AAFT School of Cinema

A still from Chandni (1989) Directed  by Yash Chopra

As a kid, I still remember when my mother used to run after me holding a glass of milk and how, like a wrestler carefully plans his next move and an artist uses his brush to carefully stroke the finest details in his painting, I used to plan new ways of avoiding milk. But after all, being a mother, she knew all the tricks of the trade. When I'd thought that I succeeded once again in averting the entire milk-drinking process, the sound of "zu, zu, zu.. Na jaane kahan se aayi hai" caught hold of me and just like a serpent submits itself to the charmer, I stood spellbound in front of the television holding my glass of milk and watching Sridevi's antics and frolics. The film was 'Chaalbaaz' and for me it was Manju's (name of her character) film or you can say she was the hero for me. That was the power of Sridevi.

 

Most critics generally write off the 1980's saying that it touched the new "low point" in Indian cinema. The rise of the VCR coincided with the decline of cinema halls. Movie theatres became run down places where only unemployed youth went, not 'respectable' families. As a result, most of the content started becoming cheap and sleazy, mainly to allure the front benchers in cinema halls. But it was mainly power packed performances from Dharmendra, Jeetendra, Jackie Shroff, Sunny Deol and Anil Kapoor that provided some entertainment between not-so-entertaining stuff. Amongst females, it was either Madhuri Dixit who had just started or Sridevi, which was already a big name especially after ‘Sadma’, ‘Himmatwala’, ‘Mawali’, ‘Tohfa’, ‘Sone Pe Suhaaga’ and of course ‘Mr. India’ (I fondly used to call her Miss Hawa Hawai as I found it difficult to pronounce her name as a 4 year old).

Born and brought up in a cinema-crazy city of Kanpur, where cinema page in newspaper was bigger and colorful than the front page, I was fascinated looking at micro film posters of films around movie halls in Kanpur. Out of approx. 60 single screen halls back then, 4-5 were such where Sridevi films were screened. She was the dominant figure on that page as every second film had Sridevi in it and perhaps the only actress name I knew back then. Her face covered the 3/4^th of the posters, be it ‘Nagina’ or ‘Nigahein’, ‘Sherni’, ‘Waqt ki Awaaz’ (It came the same year as QSQT, Shahenshah, etc) ‘Ram-Avatar’, ‘Sone Pe Suhaga’ (This film had three superstars Dharmendra, Jeetendra and Anil Kapoor including Sridevi but my sole reason to watch the film was Sridevi). One more film ‘Main Tera Dushman’, had a catchy song ‘Jugni disco disco’ featuring Sridevi and as I heard that song, I wanted to see the film.

One of the major influences on me as a kid were some scenes which according to me are just outstanding and I even feel that none of today’s actresses can pull it off or even come close to it. One such scene is the Charlie Chaplin sequence from ‘Mr. India’. Today, even after three decades, this scene is as hilarious and iconic in the annals of Bollywood history, as it was meant to be. This is certainly a testament to the fact as to why Sridevi is one of the best actresses of Indian Cinema.

Another scene that comes to my mind instantly is the ‘Amba make-over scene’ from the film ‘Chaalbaaz’. Whenever the film came on television, this scene had my not-to-be-missed tag instantly. What really made this scene hilarious was the anticipation that one would associate with Spielberg films where you get to see the ‘reaction’ first and ‘action’ later. For the entire duration, we get to see Sridevi’s expressions doing make up like a pro and trust me you wouldn’t blink your eye even for a second. That was the power of her expressions, her emotive eyes, her immaculate comic timing and that mischievous smile that was highly visible in most of her works including Mr. India, Chandni, Gurudev and Lamhe. 

Yash Chopra’s ‘Chandni’ and ‘Lamhe’ gave her iconic status and crowned her standing as the biggest female actor of the 80’s and 90’s. Apart from the songs, the romantic saga was mostly about Sridevi in her ethereally-white, salwar kurtas. ‘Lamhe’, a film too ahead of its time, made her a star in overseas market. When ‘Lamhe’ got released, I was just 6 year old and remember my family taking me to watch the film in ‘Roxy’ (now Sapna Palace) theatre at Kanpur. I had no idea what the film was about as I was too young to apply my mind whenever the film had bulk of emotional scenes. But, I was fascinated by this 15 feet cut-out of Anil Kapoor and Sridevi doing grape-stomping (I think it was the first time that such grape stomping became a part of the Indian cinematic oeuvre). Another moment where Sridevi’s graceful expressions steal the limelight is the Medley song in ‘Lamhe’ which again reminds us of her versatility.

Sridevi was also one of the very few actresses or I should say the only one who shared screen space with the famous superstar trio of Rajnikanth (Chaalbaaz), Kamal Haasan (Sadma) and Amitabh Bachchan (Aakhree Raasta, Khuda Gawah, etc)- a rare combination which not many actresses have achieved in the past. 

After her death, my entire childhood appeared in a montage of sorts in front of my eyes. All her songs resonate in my mind making me want to watch her films once again, her eyes full of expressions, her mischievous smile, her dance moves and then I realize what I have actually lost- as a fan. Today, I have a 2 year old son who, just like me, hates drinking milk but unfortunately we don’t have Sridevi around to catch his attention, we just have her memories.