How to make a short film by yourself
And why I think it's worth doing
In a somewhat comical turn of events, the next two films I’m planning to release are more or less polar opposites in terms of production.
The first was a madcap solo adventure — I shot, edited and even acted in the film all alone on an island over the course of a single evening.
The second was the most collaborative film I’ve made to date — I shot it in a rented studio chock full of talented filmmakers, with two actors and a crew of 6, plus a wonderful choreographer and composer behind the scenes.
This dichotomy made me think it could be fun to write a pair of pieces on here, one in defense of the solo approach to filmmaking, and one in defense of working with a crew.
And so, to accompany that first film, here are some of my collected thoughts on the pros, cons, and best practices for making a film by yourself.
On solo filmmaking
I’ve been shooting films as a crew of one (or maybe two, if I’m lucky enough to have a sound person), for as long as I can remember, and I think it’s not only an excellent way to learn how to make films — or to try out filmmaking risk-free if you’re curious about it but don’t know where to start — but also a fantastic way to make fun, affordable films that can take you far.
For example, I shot my film Girl, Sweetvoiced in about 2 hours with a budget of $50 (the cost of taking everyone out to dinner after), and it had one of the most successful festival runs of any of my films and remains one of my favorite films I’ve made.
The pros
1. It’s much cheaper
Even if you’re only paying people in food, feeding yourself and 1-2 actors (or just yourself!) costs a whole lot less than covering food, transit, and potentially day-rates for 6, 10 or 20 people.
The caveat here is that if you want to use fancy equipment that you don’t have, it can be cheaper and easier to pay or feed someone you know who does have the equipment and knows how to use it than to rent it and figure it out yourself — this is one reason why I definitely recommend using equipment you already have, no matter how basic, if you’re setting out to make a solo film.
2. It’s much easier to schedule
It’s much easier to find a day to film that works for 2-4 people than for 8-10, and while it’s no fun to replace an actor who dropped out at the last minute, that’s a lot easier than replacing a cinematographer who you were counting on to bring the camera.
3. It’s easier to film in fun locations
If you’ve just got one or two actors and a DSLR, and no lights or boom mics, most people will assume you’re taking photos or shooting some silly YouTube video and leave you alone, which means you have a lot more freedom to shoot in locations that would otherwise be difficult to get permission for, and which can add a whole lot to your film.
4. You can focus more completely on the actors
When you’re managing a whole crew, it’s easier for actors to get lost in the shuffle, sitting around waiting while you talk to the DP or the gaffer or the sound person — but your relationship with your actors and how they feel on your set translates very directly into your film, so the more time you can spend talking with them about the scene and making sure they have everything they need, the better performances they’ll give — and the more likely they’ll be to want to work with you again.
5. The set usually feels more “real”
When you’re shooting a scene that’s two characters talking in a bedroom, and on set it really is just you and the two of them in a bedroom with one camera and a light, it can create a very different energy than 30 people standing around on a soundstage.
On these tiny sets, you often get something akin to the feeling of watching or acting in live theater, the sense that whatever’s happening in the film on some level really is happening — and that energy can do a lot for the final film, and be a great help for non-professional actors.
6. You learn a little bit of everything
This is one reason why I really recommend this approach to beginner filmmakers, and why I’m very grateful that my high school film teacher had us all make our films completely by ourselves; this meant that, unlike in other film classes I took where you’d be arbitrarily assigned to a crew position and might not even i.e. touch a camera, we got a taste of every part of the filmmaking process, and could figure out what we liked and didn’t like, and where we could improve.
7. You start developing your own voice
This is something else I remember fondly from that high school film class; when everyone was making their films alone, you started very quickly to get a sense of each person’s individual directorial style, which can sometimes get diluted when working with a crew, especially if you’re a beginning director and you’re not sure how to coax the crew into creating what you’re envisioning.
You learn a lot about who you are as a filmmaker when you really do have to make every decision yourself — and whether or not you keep working alone, that knowledge is very valuable.
8. You have the freedom to make a film whenever you want
This is one of the biggest reasons why even if I start working with a crew most of the time I imagine I’ll always come back to working solo now and then — the wonderful thing about getting yourself the tools and the experience you need to make films alone is that at any moment if you’re inspired to make a film there’s nothing to stop you.
You don’t have to wait to get a budget together or assemble a crew or even necessarily convince some friends to act in it, you can just pick up a camera and shoot. I love that freedom because it makes you as a filmmaker more like a writer or a painter or a dancer, someone who doesn’t have to wait on money or permission, but can just wake up and create whatever it is they want to create.
9. Bottom line: the film actually gets made
This is the gift that making films alone gives you, the absolute certainty that no matter what, no matter who flakes or how dubious the equipment you have access to is, as long as you’re committed to making it happen, one way or another this film is going to get made.
The cons
1. You’re on the hook for equipment
If you don’t have your own equipment and/or want to use fancy stuff, you’ll have to rent or buy it (not to mention figure out how to use it!), whereas with a crew often people you work with will bring their own equipment that they already know how to use.
2. You’re on the hook for technical issues
If it’s just you, you need to be the one who makes sure that the shot is in focus and the sound isn’t too loud or too quiet and the food order gets in on time, all of which can be an annoying distraction from just directing, and which you probably won’t be able to do as well as someone who’s only doing that.
3. Oh god, sound
It can be quite difficult to get good on-set sound working by yourself, since you’re not going to be able to operate a boom and a camera at the same time, and you’re likely not going to be listening to the sound live as you film — one remedy for this is to consider unconventional film structures, maybe shooting a scene that relies on voice-over you can record separately, or doesn’t have any dialogue at all.
4. You’re limited by what you know
If you work with a crew, you can take advantage of the specialized skills of the people you work with, i.e. a cinematographer who knows a lot about framing or a gaffer who has great ideas about lighting, but if you work by yourself you’re only as good as you can make yourself — then again, this can be a great motivator to improve your skills, which in turn makes you better at finding good crew to work with and communicating to them what you want.
5. You can get a little isolated
If you bring in other filmmakers to work on your set and offer your services to work on theirs, you can develop some really great relationships that are hard to develop from “networking” alone — but you can still offer to help out on other people’s sets without using a crew yourself, and this can be a nice way to start transitioning to working with a crew.
Tips for going it alone
I think making a film alone is a crucial experience that really every beginning filmmaker should have at least once, even if it’s just shooting some videos of your neighborhood on your phone and editing them together.
If you want to give it a shot, here are some tips for making it happen:
1. Try an unconventional form
This is also some of my biggest advice in general for people starting out. It’s very hard to shoot a typical dialogue scene by yourself and make it look good, what with the many angles, the difficulty of solo on-set sound, and the importance of continuity between shots. But what about a silent film? A film with just voice-over? A film made entirely of photographs? A dialogue scene where you only see the backs of your characters’ heads, or only see them in a single very wide shot? A mockumentary or faux-video-blog?
The other great thing about going this route is that you’ll discover a lot about how film language actually works — and these films are often able to hold their own quite well even on a low budget, so you’re much more likely to have a final project you can be happy with.
For Girl, Sweetvoiced, that $50 film I mentioned earlier on, I chose a montage-style structure with a voice-over, which meant that we didn’t need to record any sound on set and could be pretty speedy and improvisational with the cinematography.
2. Plan, plan, plan
As the old saying goes, shooting costs money but planning is free. Know that when you get to set you’ll have a whole lot on your mind, so the more you can figure out in advance, the happier you’ll be.
If you’re serving food on set, figure out where you’ll get it from and collect orders in advance. Have a shot list — it can be as informal as you like, just any method to keep track of what you want to film and how much you’ve done so far. Meet with the actors before the shoot if you can to talk about the characters and the scene, or send them emotional context.
Really anything you can think of to do before you get to set will be a huge help for future-you.
For Girl, Sweetvoiced, even though the characters in the film don’t have any lines, I wrote information for each actor about the character’s personality and emotional state, along with a rough shot list for the film. I also did a whole lot of Google Maps location scouting prior to the shoot to identify exactly which bus stop we should film at, since I was only going to be in London for a few days, and I knew I wouldn’t have much time to scout in person.
And for what it’s worth, I spent almost a year editing the film once the shoot was over. Sometimes it really is the time you spend working on the film off-set that makes the film what you want it to be.
3. Don’t overthink equipment
If you have a camera you can use or can get your hands on a DSLR, that’s great; if you don’t, phone cameras are shockingly good these days, and/or a phone mic hidden close to the subject or used for voice-over can sound quite good.
If you want to use fancy equipment, you’d be much better off finding a crew of people who already have it and know how to use it — if you’re working alone and the point is just getting the film made, it’s much better to build up your stock of equipment gradually, and mostly just use what you already have.
For Girl, Sweetvoiced, one of the two voice-overs was recorded on a phone and one on a podcast mic, and to my ears there’s very little difference between the two. We also shot everything handheld using available lighting (thank you, street lamps!), which made it possible to work very fast and which I think adds a lot to the texture of the film.
4. Have fun!
The great thing about a relatively cheap and simple shoot is that there isn’t too much riding on it — you want to make something good, of course, but if it turns out to be a disaster, you haven’t invested a huge amount of time or money into it, so you can just send the actors their footage and happily move right along to your next cinematic experiment.
If instead of stressing yourself and everyone else out on set about the importance of making the Best Possible Film, you just focus on enjoying the process and making something you think you’ll be happy with, you’ll almost always end up with a better film anyway.
Up next
Of course, very few big-time “professional” films are made completely alone, nor should they be — working with a crew, if you can assemble a good one, can be a fantastic experience and can make things possible for your film that you’d never have been able to pull off alone.
So keep an eye out for a piece coming up about the benefits of working with a crew, and some tips and tricks for finding one and making sure you make the most of it.
The film dispatch
I had a great release last month for At Night in Brooklyn, a new short starring the marvelous Marianna Gailus (Vanya, Law and Order), which you can see now on my website.
And of course, I have my absolutely insane solo-filmmaking venture coming out soon, which is one of my favorite projects I’ve worked on in quite some time.
If you’d like to hear more in-depth thoughts about that film — and to see it a week early — feel free to subscribe to The Film Club, a private, slightly more personal newsletter where I send out my new films early, accompanied by longer-form commentary about how each one came to be.
Thoughts?
Have you made a solo film? Are you team always-work-with-a-crew?
Do you have thoughts about the benefits of working solo vs. with a team in other art forms or contexts?
I’d love to hear what you think!