Ep 48 HOW TO MAKE A MICRO BUDGET INDIE FILM, WIN AWARDS & GET A CINEMA RELEASE with the team behind ‘Guardians’

Director Mark AC Brown and actor David Whitney talk about how they made their new quite brilliant indie film Guardians.

How Mark made a film for his degree but it was a great experiment and not to be seen again. How he wrote a feature script for Nu Image but the ‘Expendables’ ruined it and how it is best to write something to make yourself for free or on a micro budget. What do have available to you ?

How when making an indie film, continuity is not as important as the story. How the establishing scene of a character is so important. But don’t waste time on drone shots. Then get the most amount of permissions you can get. And if not shoot anyway

Suzanne Smith – their DoP was a runner on a Brainehound (their production company) short and worked her way up. Made short film Beard with David and Mark and proved herself as a brilliant DoP and How having great all rounders like Fred Fournier and Joe Starrs as editor and 1st AD respectively is vital as is keeping your ‘team’ from your shorts/music videos and bringing them with you.

With low budget you have to juggle and Workaround people schedules and how ‘Withnails’ – Richard E Grant’s marvelous book was an inspiration (and The Wah Wah Diaries)

When you are supposed to be doing he scene in 4 shots but end up doing it in one but it’s one of the best moments in the film so don’t have to stick to your shot lists.

Tried to plan it but played the moment when it came to it.

Why post can take so long when you are asking for favours on a micro budget film

How they learned from other filmmakers and how they distributed their films – Ben Cookson, Fizz and Ginger’s Two Down and James Rumsey’s Drunk on love.

Mark wanted to have a cinema run so choose Our Screen to have a theatrical release. Then the release got extended as it sold out for the second night.

And how they opened a festival in a double bill with recent horror film IT.

Links

The Film: http://www.guardiansfilm.co.uk/
Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pq25LXWmsps&t=10s
Twitter https://twitter.com/guardiansbhf
Facebook https://www.facebook.com/guardiansfilm/
Mark AC Brown http://www.markacbrown.com/ Twitter : https://twitter.com/Brainehowndfilm
David Whitney http://www.davidwhitney.org/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/DWhitney

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Giles Alderson www.directedbygiles T: @gilesalderson

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