Studio

How To Make a Movie for $700

7/28/2009 at 11:02 AM by Amy Allen

For all DIY fans, Mark Cabaroy breaks down how he was able to complete a feature film for only $700. His film, Life's Passing Me By, is currently screening at festivals.

Tell me a little bit about your film. What is it about and when was it made?
Mark: 'Life's Passing Me By' is the story of Dora Allen, a twenty-something year old African American woman. Dora has the unique ability to hear people's problems and then provide them with concise helpful advice.

This leads her friends, family and even complete strangers to depend on her help with their everyday decisions and for Dora things eventually become burdensome.

I wrote the script in 2005 and started production later that same year. I finished shooting pick up shots for the exteriors of buildings and the opening credit sequence in mid 2006, then spent about six months editing the film before and after work and on weekends and another year finding some to create the music sound track for the film, officially completing it mid 2008.

What is the short story about and how did it all came together? It started out as a short film?
Mark: Essentially for about a period of four years I had been making a series of short films and I wanted to tell a story in a longer format- I wasn't sure if I could do a feature film because I had no money and was unable to raise any from friends or family- "Life's Passing Me By" was another short script I had written and was planning to do with my then producing partner Karen Ford- We had already cast the film and were in pre-production mode when I went to a film festival in New York and saw some of independent films playing there. I left thinking, "I can do that." "I can tell a feature length story- What am I waiting for?" I pitched the idea to Karen about writing a third act to the short which was only about 30 odd pages and she wasn't too thrilled about the idea.

We had about two weeks before we were going to start rehearsals. So I re-wrote the film in a about a week and sent it out to everyone via email - I thought well, if they don't like it we can just do the short version and if they do then we'll do a feature!

You shot this for $700, which is frankly amazing. What cost the most?
Mark: The amazing thing isn't that I spent so little - It's that it cost as much as it did. The bulk of money went to feeding the actors. My Producers and I agreed that if you couldn't pay the actors at least feed them well.

I think we spent about 80 to 100 dollars on costumes - which we got at Conway Stores for the main actress and then just mixed and matched supplementing accessories such as shoes and jewelry with her own and the costume designers Letitia Edwards and Denise Bickford's stuff. Oh yes and min DV tape, which I think we shot about 12 or 13 of those, I think a three pack was like 17 dollars.

I remember one day we needed a wedding dress for a scene and Karen Ford my producer ran out and spent like 20 bucks for a camisole top which she matched in color to the actress' satin skirt and threw in a veil she sewed together and some flowers she made into a bouquet all of which cost another 15 dollars and - darn if it does look great on film. You just get really crazy creative when you have no money.

What equipment did you use and how did you gain access to it?
Mark: I shot the project with a Cannon GL-2 - which I bought two years before to shoot shorts with. I bought one of those 30 dollar Azden shot gun microphones and had a cheap 30 dollar tripod (I shot 70 percent of the film hand held). I found a used Lowell tota light kit online I think for 250 dollars (That was pricey). It has these three lights with umbrellas and stands. I think the most expensive thing was the microphone boom pole and wind screen - that cost over four hundred dollars. Most of this was acquired during a two year period while I made short films on my credit card.

How did you go about finding your locations, and convincing people to let you use them?
Mark: Locations have to be the single most difficult thing to get during filming; a great location can give tremendous production value to your film. There are a few ways of getting around those pesky "location fees" - For me I try to write in locations that I know I have access to. So my house actually doubled for three different character's apartments. I used my girlfriend's Apt for another location and one of the Producer's Apartments for yet another location. (These were all character's residences as well.)

I work for Columbia University - and had been allowed to shoot on campus before - So I went to people in charge of the different school's buildings and asked to shoot in a cafeteria (This doubled for a coffee shop) in a student lounge (this doubled for the rear of a church) and the side of a dorm (When dressed with chairs from outside around campus this doubled for an outdoor cafe). This actually worked out really well because we could use the same dozen or so extras in all three scenes - since they were on campus - simply by changing their clothes from casual to wedding attire and back again.

For the street scenes we just did guerrilla film making and got lucky that no one bothered us for permits (one of the reasons I shot in the Village near NYU) and did a bit of hand held photography for the stuff in Manhattan on Broadway and later in front of a movie theater location down town.

Do you have any tips on feeding/keeping your cast and crew happy? Your managerial skills must be excellent.
Mark: Try and shoot in friendly locations- This gives people access to bathrooms (which comes in handy on long shooting days) and makes catering easier, because you can prepare food instead of ordering out. I try and only have the people on location that I'm working with so I've gotten pretty good at calculating how long it takes me to shoot a scene. This helps me avoid people waiting around to go on.

I also have every one double and triple up on jobs so my "producers" are also "talent wranglers" (they keep everyone informed and happy) and caterers - costumers or whatever needs to be done - you really learn how to make films on one of my movies. Lastly it is very important whenever possible to have a staging area for cast especially extras when they not being used - somewhere they can sit down and have access to juice/water and snacks.

Most of my filming days were very short - I mean I'd shoot for four hours some days and that's it. 10 out of the 14 shooting days I usually had no more than five or six people including the cast to work with. The story was mostly about one character and she would run into people, so feeding large groups was never really an issue and on days when we shot for a couple of hours out on the street people just showed up, filmed their scenes and left.

I think people always get this impression that when you make a film it's this big production with dozens of people running around and vehicles parked on the street. But for me it was more like this group of friends who would get together every weekend for a couple of hours to hang out. We did this for 13 straight Sundays over a period of three months.

What was the biggest thing that you learned while making Life's Passing Me By?
Mark: That it's possible to make an ambitious project with little or no money if you have people who are dedicated to work on it with you.

Also that by casting really talented hard working actors, 90% of the directing work is done. Having a good really tight script goes a long way.

Lastly and this one is the most important and most personal - I realized that my films ultimately get made not because of money or time or even people. They get made because no matter what happens, I don't give up. I keep pushing, One of the Producers Karen Ford said me very recently, "You only fail when you stop trying" and she's right. It took me close to three years from script to screen and if you told me that at the time I started it I wouldn't have believed you. But it did and I never gave up (although I wanted to) and now it's playing in film festivals and getting ready for a DVD release all for under a thousand dollars.

What do you ultimately hope to achieve from this film? What do you hope audiences take away from it and what do you hope it will achieve for your career?
Mark: I think I already achieved my goal- which was to see if I could make a watchable feature film with little or no resources- that audiences could view and enjoy.

I hope audiences can relate to the characters by seeing themselves or someone they know in them, that the story works for them on some level. Essentially I guess I want what any film maker wants - that they "get it". That they feel it was 86 minutes of time well spent, instead of "Well there's an hour and a half of my life I'll never get back."

Career wise, I hope it leads to other things - new collaborations and partnerships. Perhaps some paid work that would be nice. But money is not my ultimate goal; when I first started out someone told me that "You're in this business for one of two reasons: For love or money" I made choice a long time ago and I've never looked back.

Mark Cabaroy Director