The MsBehaviour Files: Indie Film

One of my favourite books is the Diamond Age by Neal Stephenson, with a character who is a Racter or actor in interactive movies. Since Sin City which was filmed completely in green screen my ambitions to 'Ract' and become an indie film-maker have grown. I would love to make a film in my garage, with nothing more than a computer, a cheap video camera and some thespian mates.

There are plenty of great sites sharing tips and tricks for Indie Film-makers and start by getting your sound right. People will watch grainy footage, but not if they can't hear a word of dialogue. Professional lighting can be achieved on a miniscule budget, especially if you think creatively. For reflectors try a cheap silver car windscreen shade. Diffuse lights? Use a shower curtain or a white umbrella. Need a cheap Steadycam? Try a plastic bag.You can do everything a film studio used to yourself, and for a lot less money than Hollywood thinks you need. Just watch this re-creation of the beach scene in Saving Private Ryan, created by a three person graphic design team over four days, for the history programme 'Timewatch'. As for equipment, pro-sumer quality kit can be found for affordable prices these days. A professional tripod alone will still be around five times more expensive than setting up a budget studio at home. A HDTV 24p Widescreen Camera is what you need, for shooting at 24 frames per second to look like film. The 'p' means a progressive not old-fangled interlaced video format, and Widescreen means exactly what it says.

You don't need to go to film school to study filmaking. Learn how to turn your boring movie into a Hitchcock thriller, and watch the behind the scene guides on DVDs to learn as much as you can about the process. Gaming platforms are being used in innovative ways to create Machinima films, such as like Ben X which was shot in cyberspace using characters in the game Archlord. The virtual actors delivered their lines exactly as programmed and without pay, but they needed to manage crowd control on a virtual shoot just as in real life. Dealing with real actors is more difficult, but the internet can help you with funding, distribution and promotion.

A Swarm of Angels say they are Remixing Cinema to create what is being called Open-Source Cinema. The Angels are using Peer to Peer Distribution (P2P) with no Digital Rights Management (DRM) and their work is remixable under Creative Commons Licenses. The project is now well underway to create a " £1 million film
and give it away to over 1 million people using the Internet and a global
community of members" They have boldly refused any coverage by offline media, concentrating on online communication to encourage people to watch, share and remix.

Indie Go Go is a community launched in January 2008, that is designed to bring together artists and film fans for collaborations. They call their approach DIWO - Do It With Others, where first you build your audience and then you raise funds through them. They say "Filmmakers can raise money and awareness, find cast and crew, and gain credibility through the help of their number one resource: their fans."
It's a simple brokering service between film fanatics and makers - cutting out unnecessary middle men, and creating an alternative to the big studio system. Already The Lilliput has raised approximately $10,000 through Indie Go Go, and is currently being filmed in Poland.

Finding an audience to engage with and help make film collectively, seems a much better way than the current fund it, make it, then market it hard model. This way you'd only make films people actually want to see. So here's to the next wave of Open-Source Cinema, Machinima, Racters, and Digital Directors telling indie stories. What will you make? Tell us about it!

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As well as being TBI's strategist, Helen Baxter a.k.a. MsBehaviour runs dance-music label TMet Recordings, 3D animation company Mohawk Media and has a fortnightly slot on National Radio called 'Virtual World'.

17/04/08