The Complete Guide To Making Your First Short Film

For complete and absolute amateurs

Photo by Jakob Owens on Unsplash

Making a short film is one of the most ambitious and rewarding creative projects you can do.

There are so many moving parts, so many different aspects, so many challenges and potential pitfalls, but also such an amazing finished project: your own mini movie.

If you’re thinking about making a short film, but you know nothing about writing, filming, editing, cameras, microphones, and editing software, it’s okay.

Every filmmaker has had to make their first film before, has had to take that leap from amateur dream to actual action.

In this article, I’ll walk you through how to make your very first short film, on your own or with a small team if you have one, and how to end the process with a project you truly love.

My story

Here’s some context.

I am no professional filmmaker.

However, I have made two short films before: both with a partner, both on a deadline, both filmed at home, and both huge learning experiences for me.

I’ve also taken an intro class for video production(and one for photography!), where I got some hands-on experience with different assignments and projects.

So, if you’re looking for someone who has an enormous plethora of experience and maybe a few degrees or Oscars, then this is probably not the right article for you.

If, however, you want to hear from someone who went from amateur to someone-who-has-actually-made-stuff fairly recently, someone who knows and remembers what it feels like to be just starting out, then I might have some things of value to tell you.

Now, let’s get into the good stuff.

The world of filmmaking looks, in a word, hella expensive(that was two words but who’s counting).

Every movie seems to have have huge teams, complicated machines, fancy cameras, an unconceivable amount of lights, elaborate setups, and most of all, sky-high budgets.

Unfortunately, you probably don’t have all of that stuff.