Funny Making a Movie How to Make a Movie With No Budget Funny

Anorthward unproduced characteristic script has a .3 percent adventure of being made in Hollywood. Brusque film ideas, on the other hand, tin exist made for significantly less coin, increasing their chances of being produced.

But writing independent short films takes a very specific skill set. With a limited production and narrative telescopic, knowing how to write a short motion picture starts with carefully curating your ideas.

Nosotros also include a helpful downloadable brainstorming cheat-sheet.

Let's swoop into 30 ways to brainstorm curt motion-picture show ideas you can really produce.

Brusque Film Ideas

1. Start with the catastrophe kickoff

This doesn't seem like a how to write a brusk film tip, so much equally a screenwriting lesson in general.

However, brainstorming short motion-picture show ideas that have their endings baked in up front, will brand your shooting script that much bacteria. It'll allow you lot to merely focus on the scenes and sequences needed to reach your desired ending.

Fifty-fifty if yous want to mankind out certain parts later, having a barebones skeleton is bully when a producer brings up budget.

Need FREE screenwriting software to write your short film?

StudioBinder has you lot covered - cheque out a sample script below:

Sample Screenplay | Made in StudioBinder

Did we mention the software is completely gratuitous?

And because StudioBinder is cloud based, you tin access your screenplays from any computer anywhere in the world. Manually relieve or let StudioBinder auto save while yous write. Our screenwriting software helps you professionally format along the way, and syncs across all of StudioBinder'south features.

SHORT Picture show Begin IDEA

2. Think nearly the medium of moving-picture show

The best brusque films (and films in general) always take advantage of the medium.

If you tin can observe a style to write a short film that is securely dependent on editing techniques, clever sound design, pic grammar, and storytelling so you lot will take something to take to festivals and elsewhere that pleases the viewers.

Christopher Nolan discusses Following

It will likewise show producers that y'all can think visually, and create an experience that works well for pic equally opposed to a novel or even short story.

When you lot watch a pic like Christopher Nolan's Following,you are entertained by a story that could work as a brusk story or even a novel, but it's effective every bit a motion-picture show because you can track things very hands while still being fooled.

SHORT STORY IDEAS

3. Look in your own lawn

Whether you're writing curt films, a television receiver pilot, or a feature film, you should always write what you know.

But this is even more applicable when it comes to tempering brusk motion-picture show ideas, every bit you lot tin shoot where yous live, piece of work, or if you're a PA, both.

These are film locations that are hands accessible and cheap to use — or, meliorate yet, gratis. In either case, you lot'll need to use a film location form template to fully secure your location.

You're probably closer than you retrieve to a unique location full of narrative possibilities.

Watch the entire curt film, Dig

Await to 2014 Sundance Film Festival selection, Dig, equally inspiration for your own brusk pic ideas. Shot entirely in the managing director'south backyard, it's a peachy example of how starting with an easy to admission location tin can yield something truly original.

Motion picture IDEAS

iv. Ready your short flick on a college campus

Into dystopian sci-fi? Lots of college campuses built in the mid-twentieth century feature cool, brutalist design — ideal short moving-picture show ideas for college students who want large-budget looks in small-upkeep packages.

But make sure you use our location tech scouting checklist and so you don't forget any signatures.

SCRIPT IDEAS

5. Research deserted places

How well-nigh horror? Yep, at that place are creepy forests and cemeteries all over the land, but there are besides abandoned hospitals, warehouses, and zoos. Enquire around, brand friends in the customs, and enquiry permit costs equally you brainstorm moving-picture show ideas.

This will require some reverse-engineering as you begin to construct short picture show ideas effectually physical spaces. But the payoff could be surprisingly fun.

To reach out to a location lookout for more short moving picture ideas like this, get to ProductionBeast, search "Location Scouts," and immediately you'll notice profiles you lot can message for advice.

Good Movie Ideas

half-dozen. Starting time with the prop

One of the last steps of writing a curt film is creating a script breakdown that details all the props, costumes, and crew needed to make your production come up to life. Information technology's the foundation for your budget, and not a bad place to start when brainstorming short moving picture ideas.

By creating a list of props, characters, and stunts to commencement, y'all automatically make your short picture show script that much more producible.

You can make a script breakdown using our complimentary script breakup template, or just plug your script into StudioBinder, where you can tag and enter elements that will auto-generate into lists for y'all.

You can see an example of a script breakup beneath:

Script Breakdown | The Pirate Captain of Toledano

A script breakup will really aid you build a better idea, because it will help you call back about the production side of the equation. You will think more than nigh audio design, the amount of extras, costumes, and more.

Brusk Film IDEAS

7. Write well-nigh a day in the life

Take a look inside y'all, or, more specifically, take a look behind you — at what you did yesterday.

Did you come across someone? Did something happen at work? Was it actually totally boring?

Writing short films is all well-nigh economy. At that place might not exist enough for a characteristic in your day at the coffee store, just it could be a vehicle for some charming short film topics.

Motion-picture show IDEAS TO MAKE

viii. Write most character flaws

When coming up with your brusk film ideas, call back almost characters flaws for your protagonist. This tin can immediately brand your short film interesting.

For example, just await at Miles fromSideways who completely embodies pessimism. In mostly every scene from Sideways, you'll run into Miles frustrated with life which is also extremely entertaining to scout.

What if you want to make your main character extremely selfish? Look no further than Mark Zuckerberg from The Social Network. How nigh a character that doesn't believe in himself? Accept a look at Rocky Balboa or fifty-fifty Luke Skywalker.

How about a graphic symbol that is power-hungry? Merely wait at Walter White fromBreaking Bad.

If you lot desire to brand a good curt movie, make your lead character more interesting with graphic symbol flaws.

Right off the bat, this will make your main character more interesting, especially as a short film.

SILENT Film IDEAS

ix. Find an erstwhile family story

And going even farther dorsum, in that location's often rich material for curt film ideas in your parents' or grandparents' histories.

Recollect almost what makes you sit up and pay attending. Or, conversely, what disturbs you or prompts y'all to ask difficult questions. To quote mythologist and accidental screenplay guru Joseph Campbell: "Where you stumble, there lies your treasure."

One time you striking on something that resonates personally, test to see if information technology's an actual story or just a vignette.

SHORT Motion-picture show IDEAS VS. VIGNETTE IDEAS

A vignette is a funny, curious, or even harrowing experience that lacks dramatic tension. A story involves stakes, goals, and forrad movement.

In that location'due south commonly a central character who wants something and encounters obstacles to that desire. It's not rocket scientific discipline, and later on awhile it becomes easier to recognize the true potential of existent-life events for writing short films.

5 Infinitesimal Brusk Motion picture Ideas

x. Visualize your short motion picture ideas a storyboard

Have a swell thought for brusk film sequence in your head? Maybe yous shouldn't ask yourself how to write a short motion-picture show, but rather how to create a storyboard instead.

Creating a storyboard and building your short film ideas effectually one sequence can yield non but a great script, but something producible, as you can show your team of creatives exactly what you're thinking.

Y'all can either practise this past mitt, or use storyboard software that'll do the heavy-lifting for you.

Larn how to make a storyboard with StudioBinder

Funny Brusk Film Ideas

11. Create a moodboard

A mood board is basically a collage of visual references for a creative projection.

It is used to communicate the "look and feel" of your projection by showing visual inspirations.  It is near ordinarily used to visualize a script, but you can use them to brainstorm too.

Utilize a mood lath to make a collage of things that inspire yous.  Maybe you beloved turtles.  Or perhaps there's an album encompass that inspires you lot.  Find a gratuitous mood board template and insert items that inspire y'all.  Good ideas will follow.

Proficient Short Films

12. Option a genre, so twist it

As you brainstorm movie concepts, keep in heed that short picture show ideas need a strong claw or clever twist to stand out. And twists tin cost production anything.

By twist, I don't necessarily mean a surprise catastrophe (like Fight Order or Shutter Island). I mean an idea that's born of combining two classic film genres and subverting the expectations of both.

There are a limited number of genres, of course, but at that place'southward a huge variety of approaches to each — especially if yous mix and friction match them. Starting with a specific category tin can focus you by filtering everything through the same lens. A thriller gives you lot the opportunity to utilize intrigue and suspense; a romantic comedy sets the phase for the inevitable meet-cute.

You get the idea!

SHORT FILM IDEAS FOR BEGINNERS

13. Use irony to begin movie ideas

Play the "what if" game when writing short films and see what happens when yous add a character who seems out of identify. Or an unpredictable event that throws a wrench in the gears of your story world.

Irony is key hither.

It's the difference between curt pic ideas people remember and ones they forget the 2nd the movie'due south over.

SHORT FILM STORIES

14. Go inspired past other mediums

Books, songs, photography, live performance — fine art is congenital on the shoulders of previous art — and writing brusque films is no exception.

Try visiting a gallery or museum and see if any of the paintings spark brusk film ideas.

You might discover that the most abstract images provoke the clearest sense of what you want to write in your screenplay.

Poems are great places to notice textile for shorts; they tend to be cursory, and they go out plenty of room for artistic interpretation as yous begin moving picture concepts.

Brusque IDEAS

15. Discover the essence of classic films

Quentin Tarantino is a master of uncovering lost cinematic treasure and using it equally currency for his ain scripts.

This should be the easiest homework for short moving-picture show ideas ever: Watch some classic movies and reduce them to their essence.

Pure imagination

Is there a cadre principle of that film noir or that Hollywood musical that you could adapt to a ten-infinitesimal telling? Or peradventure in that location's a single moment in that three-hour historical drama that grabbed you lot, simply it wasn't explored to its potential.

DON'T WORRY ABOUT Existence ORIGINAL (WITH A CAPITAL "O")

New brusk pic ideas are all about putting fresh spins on old ideas. There are only and so many plots, after all, but no one else volition create the verbal same story formula you volition.

Short Horror Picture show Ideas

xvi. Be a news hound

Current events might not be pleasant, but they do tend to be rife with drama and tension. There are many ways to portray war, injustice, and political strife without hitting the smash likewise squarely on the head.

Again, narrow your focus to one specific person or one incident. Find the universal theme in the pick someone made, or didn't make, and typhoon an outline based on that very simple situation.

Brainstorm film ideas past scouring news sites and take a deep-dive into some of the wildest stories of our times.

And don't let the facts hang you up — the more you invent, the less y'all'll have to worry about life rights or copyright issues.

Best Brusk FILMS

17. Rework an erstwhile headline

If today'due south news is also overwhelming, practice a quick Google search for the headlines of yesteryear.

Limit your investigation to a detail subject or region. The easier it is to contain curt film ideas inside the limits of infinite and clock time (a minute, an hr, a day), the easier it'll be for you to write a compelling screenplay.

WRITING Brusk FILMS

18. Listen to the voices

When was the last time you were in a buffet and overheard a line too adept to be true?

Except, of course, it was true. Stay glued to your notebook and write down those perfect snatches of dialogue. Then generate some character descriptions and encounter if they lead you to funny brusk film ideas.

Heed for setting-specific dialogue

Oscar winner Kenneth Lonergan is particularly gifted at communicable these accurate snippets of dialogue, especially when it comes to writing exposition in picture.

HOW TO WRITE A SHORT FILM

19. Freewriting to discover short moving picture ideas

Sometimes if y'all're stumped, information technology helps merely to write.  Writing longhand, "Stream of consciousness" mode pages will requite you unpredictable results.  It is a way of capturing ideas that you lot didn't know you had.

Author Julia Cameron calls these "Morn Pages" considering she recommends writing three pages every morning.  The thought here is consistency.  The more yous practice it, the more ideas volition come and the better they'll exist.

HOW TO MAKE A SHORT MOVIE

20. Kickoff writing short films, arc beginning

Sometimes the class itself can lead to interesting curt film ideas. Create a vanquish canvass with a articulate emotional arc.

A tragedy will brainstorm with the hero in a state of happiness or grace and end with an epic fall where he or she loses everything. A classic one-act will reverse this dynamic. Then at that place'south everything in between — but try focusing on a single trajectory with express twists and turns.

Past knowing where your story has to get, you can and then strip away story beats that could inflate your budget. Keep your coin organized and accounted for with a budget template.

Short Moving picture IDEAS FOR STUDENTS

21. Brainstorm movie ideas around life events

Weddings, funerals, anniversaries, birthdays — these are all dramatic events past nature with the added do good of being limited in scope.

Choose a central character who'due south experiencing one of these events and you might exist on your way to some perfect short film ideas.

SHORT FILM SCRIPT IDEAS

22. Transcribe the sound from a picture show you haven't seen

Thinking exterior the box is crucial for catching ideas. Writing something, annihilation, is ameliorate than a bare folio.

So, find a film you lot haven't watched yet on Netflix or YouTube and find a scene with express dialogue. Plow away from the TV and write down what you hear. Hither'south a great clip to practice with.

What story does the audio tell?

Transcribing the sounds tin can unlock bang-up ideas. At very least it will go y'all thinking about scene deportment and writing them down. For fun, compare what you wrote with the actual scene. Information technology will probably be pretty dissimilar but that'due south OK — what you described might be better!

SHORT STORY IDEA Listing

23. Put yourself in the 1st Advertizing's shoes

This relates to the points about using physical places as inspiration to brainstorm movie concepts.

Meet how much high-pressure drama you tin can squeeze out of 2 or 3 people trying to escape a independent space (e.g., bathroom, cellar).

Retrieve like a 1st AD

Many v-minute short film ideas have been triggered past these sorts of forced crisis situations — and they tend to make for inventive editing and cinematography techniques.

Read up on script breakdowns, so you tin can budget how much your script would cost.

HOW TO WRITE A Curt FILM

24. Brainstorm movie ideas around life events

Writing short films tin can exist daunting, but a simple algorithm tin can help milk shake things up and delete your inner critic.

Try a Mad Libs-style randomizer online to see what comes up. It's a fleck similar spinning a roulette cycle, only you might find a useful chemical element or two in the suggestions. It's the glue you put betwixt ideas that makes your work stand up out.

HOW TO MAKE A Brusque Picture

25. Get way overboard

The beauty virtually coming upwards with new ideas is that yous are only limited by your imagination. Try this practise when you lot brainstorm picture ideas: accept a regular, boring character and image the most farthermost state of affairs they might notice themselves in.

An example of this would exist Daniel from Mrs. Doubtfire who starts wearing a nanny'south outfit then that he can spend time with his children, which he otherwise would non have.

Mrs. Doubtfire...get it?!

HOW TO WRITE A SCRIPT FOR A SHORT Motion picture

26. Ideate with a shot list builder

Simply like storyboards, shot lists are easy ways to visualize your project earlier you type a single word. Thinking of camera gear up-ups before you've written anything may experience counter-intuitive.

Notwithstanding, yous'll know exactly what yous need to accomplish. And what rentals you should pursue. Get-go sketching out your ideas with this storyboard template.

For example, perchance you only watched an Alejandro González Inarritu moving picture and you noticed really unique camera angles. Why not recreate information technology?

Build your story with a shot list

In StudioBinder, you tin can easily generate a shot list without having an existing screenplay. Create a new shot list, add together shots, and group them however you like. It'll give your screenplay direction and make finding a DP a breeze with job sites like ProductionBeast.

HOW TO Come UP WITH STORY IDEAS

27. Write a logline first

This seems similar a no-brainer for writing short films, or whatever type of moving-picture show, but having a great logline tin can fix nigh of the issues.

Attempt making a logline and running information technology by your inner circle. Because it's simply a judgement, it's easy to try out a bunch without much difficult labor.

SHORT VIDEO IDEAS

28. Fish out of water story

This brusque pic technique has been proven to work for many successful brusk films and feature films.

For this blazon of story, take a person out of their normal environment and put them in a radically different one. Their interactions with this new environment create endless comedic opportunities. This example fromElf could part as a short film on its ain.

Elf: a classic "fish-out-of-water" story

SHORT FILM TOPICS

29. Analyze a film grapheme

Sometimes the best brusque moving picture ideas are the simplest ones that focus on characters instead of extravagant scenarios.

Just take a look at Pixar'due south Storytelling Formula which focuses primarily on building compelling characters instead of overly-complicated sequences. Or maybe even developing the most compelling adversary.

Brusk Movie PROMPTS

30. Finish writing brusk film ideas and exit at that place

And connect with product freelancers to come across what they'd like to shoot, light, sound mix, and color correct.

You tin can cut your budget in one-half, if your crew is working on your short motion-picture show movie for complimentary. The best style to concenter high-quality talent is by creating a projection that would be perfect in your crew's respective reels.

As your list of things to incorporate (an underwater sequence, Steampunk costumes, etc.) increases, your screenplay volition exist begin to accept shape.

Finding crew like this is as easy equally searching on Facebook or using dedicated job boards like ProductionBeast where you tin immediately connect with film crew.

UP Side by side

All-time brusque films

If you lot're looking for more inspiration to aid you begin movie ideas, why not watch some examples of the best always? So you lot'll exist to build your own curt films that volition win awards and get the attention of producers and executives. We accept a list of short films in each genre so in that location is something for anybody.

Up Next: The best brusk films →

30 Ways to Begin Short Film Ideas

Download the print-friendly curt film ideas checklist for Free.

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Source: https://www.studiobinder.com/blog/short-film-ideas-you-can-actually-produce/

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