Low-Budget Short Film Making

“Cinema is a matter of what’s in the frame and what’s out.”

― Martin Scorsese

As I begin to create my own low-budget short films, it becomes increasingly important to consider what’s not inside the frame.

By this, I mean, creating characters that have a backstory, creating atmospheric settings, and choosing to show or hide information from the audience. I agree with Scorsese, in that Cinema is about creating a world that an audience can understand and be immersed in. Often this world is seen from the eyes of the protagonist.

I think the importance of focusing on whats on and off screen is more apparent in low budget short films, due to the cost and time restrictions. This almost demands that information is left out, if it can not be afforded and if there isn’t enough time to fit it in.

Finally, I enjoy that there are so many restrictions when creating short films on a budget, as they force the filmmaker to actually think in detail about every scene, character, setting, prop, dialogue, since it all takes time away from the 15minute runtime.