How I Made My First Feature Film (for less than $10,000)

Prior to the pandemic, I had no filmmaking experience. During lockdown, I used the extra time to attempt making my first feature film. For the second time.

Quick back story. My 1st attempt at making a movie was in 2017. A friend of mine, who also plays a role in this movie, asked me to take a look at his short film. After watching he said he wanted me to help make it “better”. I gave it some thought and decided I would do it under one condition. It needed to be a feature.

We made it as far as me finishing the new script.

Fast forward to 2020, I couldn’t perform live music anymore so I was getting bored. I decided to write my next feature but this time be in complete control so it’d actually be made. With no filmmaking experience at all, unless you count my experience on my own self produced talk show, I made my first feature film for under $10,000. Here’s what I learned.

The cast and crew after a long day of filming

Writing the Script

If you like writing, writing is easy. With no budget in mind and the idea that I had to mimic million dollar movies, I realized focusing on few characters would eventually cost less money in production. I didn’t have a budget, because I didn’t have a ton of money. So in every revision I eliminated roles and scenes that required extra actors or days…