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I’m going to share 7 tips I think will help you hide low budget compromises. Even if you have a cheap camera and a cheap lens, you can still use these techniques to drastically change the look of your films.
1. Shallow Depth of Field
Shallow depth of field means you blur the background and focus only on the foreground. It is useful when your background is not worth showing. Shallow DOF is the trend nowadays.
Most low budget filmmakers don’t have good sets or locations. Most times you’re shooting in somebody’s home, and that home looks on camera as it looks in real life. A mess.
You could do a lot to make it interesting, but you’ll most likely never make it look cinematic. Hiding most of it is the best strategy.
You don’t need expensive cameras and lenses to make shallow DOF. Instead of buying a kit lens, buy a 50mm f/1.8 (Amazon, B&H) and something like a Canon 850D/T8i (Amazon, B&H) can give you really shallow DOF. You could shoot an entire film with just one lens.
2. Avoid white walls
White walls make poor lighting look worse. You need a lot of skill to make white walls interesting.
If you are forced to shoot in your own apartment or a friend’s place, paint the walls. Your landlord shouldn’t object if you’re doing a tasteful job. If they disagree, just paint it back – it’s still cheaper than building a set or paying for a location.
And it will make a huge difference to the way your film looks.
Another simple trick you can do is to use blue gels (Amazon, B&H) on a background light to make a white wall blue. Everything looks blue, but it’s better than nothing, because it hides white walls.
3. Use a Variable ND filter
An ND filter cuts down light if you have too much. A variable ND filter is one single filter that you can “tune”. More about filters here:
I suggest you buy a decent variable ND filter for your one or two lenses. Tiffen is good enough (Amazon, B&H). Pay attention to the filter sizes. You might need step up or step down rings. You’ll have one filter and that’s it.
Why do you need an ND filter? When you want shallow DOF you need to open your aperture. If you have a 50mm lens and you open it to f/1.8 you’ll find everything’s overexposed – especially outdoors or in bright interiors.
If you want shallow the DOF a variable ND filter solves your problem, and does it quickly and cheaply.
4. Keep your Shutter Speed at 1/50s
I’ve explained pretty much everything here:
Bottom line, keep your shutter at 1/50s for 24/25p and 1/60s for 30p.
5. Move the Camera as much as possible
Moving the camera is an art form, but you can start by buying a cheap slider (Amazon, B&H) and practicing. Here’s a beginner level video that will help you get started:
6. Cover your scene
Cover a scene in its entirety – for every shot. E.g., if you’re covering a scene in this manner:
- Long shot or master
- OTS and reverse OTS
- Close up and reverse CU
That’s five shots. Repeat the scene from beginning to end in every shot. Do it until you know when not to do it. These videos will help you:
7. Find Good Actors
Beg them, pay for them, inspire them. Do whatever it takes (ethically and legally) to get them on board. Actors are very important:
I hope you found this useful. Do you have any tips of your own to make footage look more cinematic?
Let me know in the comments below.
