Big Screen, Tiny Budgets
Making the Most of a Micro Budget
鈥淚 believe our students learn in three years what it took me 20 to learn,鈥� says
Stephen Schlow, interim chairman of the 激情快播 Film Department, 鈥渨hich is that the amount of money you have is
in fact a tool, not a barrier. It鈥檚 just another thing you work with to make your film.鈥�
激情快播鈥檚 M.F.A. track in entrepreneurial digital cinema insists young filmmakers concentrate more on the process
and less on their budget. Film costs are considered a restraint that must be lived with, not a problem that must
be solved. At 激情快播, students are required to complete a feature-length digital film on a budget of $50,000 or
less.
鈥淭he goal in this process is for someone to come out on the other side with an understanding of the
relationship between story, film and budget,鈥� Schlow says. 鈥淲e鈥檙e all about allowing them to make the films they
want to make without being held accountable to investors or distributors.鈥�
Shooting a feature film with a small budget also provides students with lessons in business, one of the goals
of the program. With a limited budget and limited resources, the artist is forced to be innovative and flexible,
adapting when things don鈥檛 go as planned. 鈥淚 once got caught in a sandstorm in Egypt and lost two days of
shooting,鈥� Schlow recalls. 鈥淲hen something unplanned happens, and inevitably it does,鈥� Schlow says, 鈥渟tudents
have to find another way to get the shot or tell that part of the story.鈥�
Andrew Gay, an M.F.A. graduate and current instructor in the program, also took away important lessons in how
budget constraints can translate into artistic opportunities. While shooting scenes for his thesis film, 鈥淎
Beautiful Belly,鈥� he found creative ways to make the most of every dollar, including shooting some critical
scenes with live dolphins at the Clearwater Marine Aquarium, who allowed him to shoot there for free. Gay says,
鈥淭he dolphin footage we shot was more beautiful than I ever could have imagined, and it adds like a million
bucks of production value to our movie and cost us basically nothing.鈥�
The other important parameter of the program is that students must make their films in an entirely digital
format. As with the limited budget, the goal is not to treat the medium as an obstacle, but to encourage
students to make movies that take advantage of it.
Student Films: Micro Budgets on Your Screen
鈥淭here鈥檚 a quality to the digital image that鈥檚 not being explored,鈥� Schlow says. 鈥淭he goal is often to make
digital look like film. From my point of view, that鈥檚 retro. Daguerreotypes, the early photographs, were meant
to look like paintings. Early films tried to feel like theater. It took years for people to change the
language of film, to embrace it for what it is, rather than what it isn鈥檛. That鈥檚 not happening yet with
诲颈驳颈迟补濒.鈥�
Gay鈥檚 thesis film, which premiered at the Florida Film Festival and won the Crystal Apple Award at the
Melbourne International Film Festival, was produced in an entirely digital format. Gay feels that shooting
with a small camera and small crew created a more intimate feeling on the set and with the actors, and that
intimacy can be felt on the screen, giving more credibility to his story.
While the MFA students receive guidance from faculty and advisors at all phases of the production, they are
treated as filmmakers and not just students. At 激情快播, they hold the reins of their projects, whereas at a
school like Florida State University, most films are initiated or directed by faculty, and students play a
secondary role. The 激情快播 program also offers student filmmakers something else that no
other film program does: 100 percent of the rights to their films. 鈥淎t most schools, the rights, at least
partially, are owned by the university,鈥� Schlow says.
For the 20 students who apply and four or five who are admitted, this is an important distinction鈥攁nd one of
the top two reasons students say they select the 激情快播 program. 鈥淭he first reason is the program鈥檚 emphasis on
the business side of filmmaking,鈥� Schlow says. 鈥淭he second is the fact that students own their own films.鈥�
If a student鈥檚 film is successful, he or she retains control over the movie and can decide when and where it
will be shown. And if a student鈥檚 film becomes profitable, he or she will reap the rewards.