Producing a film independently has become quite popular, and this is due to the public no longer being satisfied with the Hollywood formula.  The audiences of today have become much more sophisticated and expect something different and new every time they sit down to watch a film.  The old Hollywood formula just doesn’t cut it anymore for entertainment.  It has been too predictable for film buffs.  We look for cutting edge, quirky and groundbreaking films.

However, the most important aspect of independent film is that anyone with a song in their heart and the burning desire to make a film can now do so.  We have the new technologies to thank for this as well as the public’s yearning for raw footage with a gritty storyline.  So this means you can achieve your dream of making a film, and you don’t have to be a big film studio to get it made.  It also means that you have the joys of the financial headaches and creative challenges.

There are three main phases of making a film:  pre-production, production, and post-production.  There might also be a 4th phase:  distribution (if you’re lucky).  The longest phase of making a film is pre-production.  This is also the most important part of the production, because it is what makes the film.  Without good planning it will be difficult to get anything off the ground.

While you don’t really need one, it is good to have a script.  So in the beginning you have to have a story, a concept, or an idea.  Once you have one, you can move on to all other modes of production planning.  Of course, there are several ways you can tell your story, but in filmmaking there are two main classes of film.  These would be the short film and the feature length film.  It is usually better to start off with a short film rather than a feature length film, and if you are a film student, you rarely have time to produce feature length films.

A professional screenplay is typically scripted for a run time of 90 minutes in three acts.  Each act is approximately 30 pages long, and each page is the screen equivalent of one minute.  This is a timing consideration that is more typical of the American film industry than it is of the rest of the world film making community.  European films have less restrictions concerning film length.  Rather, they have the tendency to let the film unfold and tell itself, allowing however much time it takes to tell the story.

Once you have written your screenplay, if you have no immediate plans for production it is best to write a treatment, which best describes the film in a nice neat three-page write-up.   These three pages represent one act of your screenplay in a treatment, and is the format commonly acceptable to shop your screenplay.  Very often, this is all that gets read, and can make or break your screenplay’s acceptance.  However, for the independent filmmaker, all you need is a working script and you are on your way!

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Many people stumble at the start because they don’t know what to produce. Others have a play in mind or wrote on themselves. If you need a play, just hit the racks at your local library or bookstore and start reading. I find, if you don’t have time to get to the library or bookstore, ebook readers are great. They can be taken anywhere and you can read and read at work, at play and at rest until you find the perfect play to produce.

Next, you should pick a location for your play. Off-off Broadway theaters are located all over New York. The factors you should consider are price, location and size. Price obviously depend son your budget, location depends on the audience you want to attract, uptown, downtown, Brooklyn, etc. And size depends on how much publicity you can do to bring in audience or the scope of the play itself.

Now you are ready for the audition process. You can hire union or non-union actors. If you hire union, you are getting experience and talent for sure but you are raising your budget quite a bit. You then need a union stage manager, director. Lighting designer and more. You have to pay into union benefits and other costs.

Now you have to dress the stage. This doesn’t just mean on the stage but above it with lights and around it with sounds, etc. If you are innovative, you can find inexpensive ways to do this. I produced a play where we acquired crystal jewelry wholesale in large quantities for props. We got a great deal.

The final piece to the puzzle is getting an audience. You have a few options here. You can hire a PR person to build an advertising and publicity campaign. It is also their job to bring in reviewers. Or you can put ads in the paper yourself and write your own press release. Also make sure to list your play in the local papers – this is often free or very low cost. For one play, I actually got in audience by advertising a raffle where we gave away an Ibanez electric guitar that was donated to the production.

The price of producing an Off-off Broadway play can definitely be reasonable, especially for someone with a little money burning a whole in their pocket. It is also within reason to ask friends and relatives without causing them to use their life savings. The play probably won’t bring back what you put in money-wise. But, it will definitely be rewarding and if it’s good and gets reviews can lead to much bigger things.