Making a film can be fun and creative; but it also can cost you some serious money. Unless you have loads of cash you can draw back on, you will need to find a must less expensive way to get your film made. There are some things you can do, and your film can still have the look you want.

The Screenplay

The first thing you will need is a screenplay. It's possible you can find a writer who will sell you the rights for the film, but if they are well established, it will cost you quite a bit. Other writers might sell you the rights at a better price, especially if they are less known.

You could go to a university or college and check their english departments for writers; many aspiring authors will take university and college classes in English working for their degree. Some of these writers might just take on the experience of writing a screenplay, it's good experience and a great piece for their portfolios.

A film school is another prospect. Screenplay writers often take classes here to hone their skills in film and how to write a screenplay. Again, if they are unproven and haven't found work yet, they may volunteer their work or charge you at a much lower cost to gain the experience.

You could adapt a play into a film. It would take a bit of re-working of course to add the camera shots and angles, and of course the dialogue would have to be cut somewhat; but it's possible. You will have to secure the rights for the film though if you wish to make any money off of it.

The other option is, you could write it yourself. There are books you can read on the subject, about how to make the characters interesting; and how to make the story move along at a good pace. If you aren't a great writer though, or find it tedious, you might want to find someone else who enjoys it. It really is a labor of love.

Finding Cast and Crew

This may not be that hard as it sounds either. There are always actors and crew members looking to spice up their resumes and portfolios; and new actors and production crew, are more likely to work for free or for a small fee.

To find actors, you can go to the local high schools, especially if there is a performing arts school in your area. Do this if your film has any teenagers in them, as it's a great way to find actors who have an idea of what they are doing. Colleges with performance programs in them are also a great way to find actors. You can advertise on their message boards with times and places for auditions.

You can advertise in the newspaper, this will cost you a bit depending on the size of your ad; but it can be worth it. You can advertise on local sites of Craigslist or Kijiji. These ads are free and reach a lot of people. You could also post in libraries on their message boards, or some stores in your local area if they will let you.

For production crew, you can probably go to most of the same places to find them. Colleges have production programs where you will find many who would be willing to help you. It's great experience for them and great for their resumes. Again, you can advertise on local websites and newspapers.

There are also some independent websites you can look on too, for example IndieAccess.com, filmmaking.net and any number of other resources online.

Finding Locations to Shoot Your Film

Finding places to shoot your film will take a bit of searching around and some luck. Depending on the places you wish to shoot in, you will need to get permission from some people.

Shooting in parks, on the street and any other public place will require a permit. These can be obtained at a price from the city or town you wish to shoot in. You will have to know the length of time you will need the area, as it will have to be roped off or in some way blocked off from the public. You will only have that length of time to shoot it in, so make sure you are certain of your times and stick to it.

If you plan on shooting in stores or restaurants, you will need the owner or manager's permission and possibly a permit. You will be distrupting their business, so they might want you to keep it short or to shoot when the store is closed.

If you are shooting in a school or library, again you will need permits and most likely be shooting after hours.

Funding Your Film

Finding funding for your film might be a bit of a challenge, but if you keep it to a budget, it should prove less of a problem. There are resources you can tap into for this.

First, save up for it. Use your own money as much as possible. Make up your budget, including everything you believe you will need to pay for.

If you need to, ask friends and family for funds. A lot of the time they will want to support you in achieving your dream and you can give them a producer credit; which will thrill most people. If possible try to pay them back in a reasonable amount of time.

There are grants and loans from different arts councils and organizations you could try to tap into. They were created for the development of the arts and they try to help out when they can. Just make sure you have your budget with you and it should be specific.

Bank loans is another path you can take, of course with interest rates, make sure you only ask for what you need. You will need some sort of collateral before they will loan you the money, but it's another possibility.

You could also have your own fundraiser. A garage sale, bake sale, sell some items on eBay and use the funds for your film. It could take a few of these types of fundraising efforts until you have enough.

Post Production

Once you have shot your film, you will need to edit it and get it ready to be seen. There are some good programs you can use on your own computer at home. Windows Movie Maker and iMovie are two good ones; both are easy to use and are free. The drawbacks to these programs is their limited range of what you can do with them. But they are excellent for new filmmakers and the transitions are seemless.

Other editing programs are available to use on your own computer, there are free ones also. Some programs you might wish to use are: Motionbox an online editing tool, Jaycut, also an online tool and fixmymovie are good alternatives.

Special effects are another post production task for some films. Again, there are programs you can use from home that are either free or are fairly cheap to use. They may take some playing around with them and a learning curve, but you can do the effects for yourself at a much better cost to you.

Programs like: Special Effects, Adobe After Effects, Animoids 3D Movie Maker and Abrosoft FantaMorph Pro might be good things for you.

Of course if you are a film student or were one, your school might well let you use their own facilities as well.

Creating a DVD

Now that your movie is completed you want to burn it onto a DVD or upload it to Youtube. Well the YouTube part is easy; just create an account and upload it and you are done.

Creating a DVD to try to distribute is a bit more complicated, but not much really. Computers nowadays have DVD burners in them and programs like Windows Media Maker in order to burn DVD's. Even Movie Maker has a burner side to the program. They are quick and easy and in minutes or so your movie will be watchable on any home DVD player.

If you wish to distribute your DVD's to more than just family and friends; it's a good idea to have more than one DVD, as well as a package design for the cover.

There are programs for home computers that can do this; and even HP computers have a neat program called Lightscribe which enables you to burn an image on your DVD itself.

If you wish to have more than one copy, plus cover art and image on the DVD you could always go to websites like Cafepress where you can upload your media; movie, images and text and they will create the DVD for you. You can also sell it on their site or just buy however many you need. There are other companies locally that can do this for you as well. Just take a look online and in your yellow pages for ones close to you.

There are ways to make your movie without busting the bank so to speak, it just takes a little effort to find the funding and the right means to get it done.