Making cheaper films (that don’t suck)

So often it feels like films either have a big budget… or they suck.

But that’s just not true.

You can make great films with no money and still find an audience. I’ve done it myself multiple times.

Let me give you two quick examples.

$200 Film > $2,000 Film?

Back in 2015, when I was making monthly short films for my YouTube channel, the one that found the biggest audience cost me the least.

It was called The Neighbor.

We shot it in my apartment, in one day, with just a few friends.

Total cost → about $200 (mostly spent on lunch).

It didn’t have impressive production value, fancy camera moves, a scary monster, or action set pieces.

But it had interesting characters and a fun premise.

And slowly, it built momentum, found an audience, and today it has over 200,000 views.

The most expensive of the monthly shorts I made? It cost about $2k, and almost 10 years later it still hasn’t broken 8k views 😅

So… why do so many low-budget films suck?

I think it’s two things:

1. Most filmmakers haven’t learned how to write a strong story with what they already have.
2. They don’t know how to bring on help (even when they have no money to offer)

To help with number 1, I’ve made a lot of YouTube content (and a hell of a mini-course if I do say so).

But what about number 2? This is something every filmmaker has to learn eventually.

And the sooner you do, the sooner your films stop feeling like overwhelming stress-fests that also kind of suck 🙂

When I Finally Leveled Up:

When I made my first feature film, Bad is Bad, I was 20 years old.

I had made a lot of short films, but I’d only ever worked with friends, so I didn’t know what a “real” crew was supposed to look like, or how they operated.

But I knew we couldn’t pull off a 98-page feature with just our usual DIY crew.

So I decided to go for it.

Bring on pros. Level up.

The problem?

We had $6,000 total. And we’d just spent $1,500 of it on our camera (the legendary Canon 5D Mark II).

That left $4,500 to shoot a full-length film.

No money for proper rates. No connections in Richmond, Virginia’s film scene (did it even exist?).

And worst of all, no real idea how this worked.

Besides a few DIY short films as calling cards, we were starting from scratch.

Putting Ourselves Out There

We posted flyers at the local film school, seeking crew members.

Weeks went by… Crickets.

We kept trying other ways to get a crew.

Eventually, through Craigslist of all places, we found a DP who was crazy enough to join our project for just a $20 per diem and back-end points.

He drove in from across the state, and crashed at my parents’ house for three weeks.

And he shot the hell out of that movie.

That one connection leveled up the entire production.

The rest of the crew? I found a couple of friends who volunteered to be our sound mixer and 1st AC, and trained them up myself over an afternoon.

Was the film a technical marvel? Absolutely not.

But we kept the shoot simple. We planned meticulously. We wrote to our resources.

And you know what?

• We came in on budget, and wrapped on time
• Had a great time during the shoot (couldn’t believe how much easier filming was with a real DP on board)

Oh and the film?

• It went on to get nearly 7 million views on YouTube alone
• It earned back 10x its budget across YouTube and Amazon, allowing me to actually pay back my DP his back-end points many years later

That film changed my life.

And I could’ve never made it without that DP… and the courage to actually try to crew up.

This is Where Most Filmmakers Stall

The truth is: the longer you wait to bring on help, the longer your work will plateau.

You’ll stay overwhelmed.

You’ll make fewer films.

You’ll hit a ceiling creatively and practically.

Meanwhile, your peers will move ahead because they know how to bring on help and delegate.

That’s why I made something I wish I’d had back then.

The Crewing Up Playbook

This is the ultimate crash course in how to build a real film crew without a big budget.

I’ve included:

• Templates & email scripts for outreach and job postings
• Step-by-step advice for negotiating rates (even when you have zero budget)
• A clear breakdown of who you need and who you don’t
• A plug-and-play Crew Deal Memo template
• Real-world tips to get people excited to join your project without being sleazy

More important than that, you’ll get the confidence to start, even when you don’t know where to start.

You’ll soon be working with pros and collaborating like a real director.

You’ll stop feeling stuck.

And you’ll start making better films with less stress.

🎉 Beta Launch for the First 50 Filmmakers

Right now, The Crewing Up Playbook is just $27 during this beta test run.

That’s 70% off the final price, but there’s only 50 spots available and they’ve been going fast.

​👉 Click here to grab it now​

Don’t let fear or a lack of budget hold you back from better filmmaking.

Favorites this week:

📚 Book: Grant by Ron Chernow

This biography of Ulysses S. Grant is the one I should have read first, before trying to slog through his incredibly dry and not-very-transparent memoirs.

For example, Grant didn’t mention his career-spanning issues with alcohol once during his memoirs, but Chernow gives a very balanced view of his struggles, besides revealing a ton of personality and depth across the rest of his life.

I’ve been flying through the 48-hour-long audiobook, still a long way to go.

One fun anecdote: Grant was forced to resign from his military career early on due to issues with alcohol. When he got a second chance to rejoin at the outbreak of the Civil War, he strategically kept his abstinent buddy John Aaron Rawlins at his side throughout the war to keep him sober.

It mostly worked, but when Grant would occasionally fall off the wagon, he’d get a serious berating from Rawlins. At first, his staff was amazed that the all-mighty Grant would accept a scolding from a military inferior, but Grant would take his lumps appreciatively. Turns out Rawlins himself had serious struggles with alcohol before embracing abstinence, so it seems like they figured out sponsors before AA was even a thing.

📹 Video: Total Pixel Space​

This is the first AI film I’ve loved, partially because it’s an appropriate use of AI, and partly because it’s a truly interesting concept.

Let’s make some movies.

-Kent​