On the flip side, if there's any project I've learnt from -that would be the low budget ones and personally funded projects, they really push your limit and stretch you as you make compromises. I'm not the type that shies away from a challenge especially if it's a story I'm so sold to tell. 

I'll love to share some pointers you should consider as you embark on your next low budget gig.

Be the juggler: 

Shooting low budget requires you wearing many hats. My background in visual effects really helps me in juggling a number of roles when there's financial constraint. After production I've had to sit through hours of edit, colour and effect work which would normally cost me a lot if I have to employ the services of an editor, colourist and effect artist.

All hand on deck: Have a list of people you've worked with. With low budget you are forced to call on favours, this would be difficult if you haven't been giving any. It's always a good habit to help friends out from time to time so that in time like this it won't be much of an issue calling on them. 

Don't over promise: Low budget is what it is. Don't raise expectation, in all situation it is safer to 'under promise' and 'over deliver'. That way nobody is disappointed rather everyone's happy,  if you are making compromises let people know the reason and why you're are moving from Plan A to Plan B earlier, rather than having to explain yourself at project completion.

Be realistic: I'm sure you've imagined how awesome the shoot will be, with the best of cast and crew, state of the art equipments and cameras but you can see how unrealistic that seems compared to the available budget. Don't be a dreamer, your time will come. Work with what you have available and don't wear yourself thin.

More time:

Low budget isn't on anybody's top list bear that in mind, as you are working on your low budget production or passion project other paid jobs must not suffer, your schedule still remains your schedule, your client wants their job on the front burner so your low budget gig will have to wait. What you don't get from having enough money you will most likely get from having enough time. It's also important to consider that people will not always be available when you need them work with their time, just hope they are reasonable. After all they are just helping a friend out.   

Spend that Money: Low budget doesn't mean No budget, you're still responsible for paying equipment rentals, it might come at a discount from a friend but you still have to pay a fee, it's really easy to call on friends and they rally round you but it would be unfair of you to make them incur expenses on your behalf, make sure you're responsible for logistics and welfare. You can't use them all day and leave them hungry or stranded at the location. Don't push your luck. It's easier to ask a friend to play a part for you for free than ask an editor to sit through hours of edit only for a pat on the back.

Give credit and referrals: It's important to appreciate your crew and anybody that supported the project in whatever capacity, remember its a community words will go round, you'll be talked about, there's always the possibility of another creative collaboration somewhere down the line and you want to be remembered as someone people love working with. Help your crew members by mentioning them and the part they played, most importantly remember to refer them when there's a production with a good budget.

Support the community: 


The community can use some great vibes, get into the social space, make mention, hashtag, like, tag, comment and support people and works that interest you, sometimes your word of encouragement or likes might be all the other person need to keep going. 

Next time you're working on your low budget make sure you're adequately prepared for it. And don't forget when the money is good, the more the merrier. To ba lowo je kawon padi e jen be ;)

Sample videos shot with zero budget.

It was a thrill while it lasted, a familiar terrain for me, low budget with all the worries that come with it, after a few weeks of deliberating planning and re-planning I put up a crew to actualise the aim of bringing the visuals to the big/small screen.

PRE PRODUCTION

With no named budget to the shoot, I knew it was going to be a challenging yet rewarding one, we had to revisit the script a number of times till we got around a number of issues, which meant watering down the story. A pity.

As we've always done with low budget and personal projects, we rally round friends, the major issues were locations, costume and styling those factors were out of the control of the studio. We had trashed the script down to the barest essentials -no more luxurious locations and the usual extravagance that marks today's music videos, we decided on 2 locations. First, an exotic beach somewhere away from town where we have our privacy, away from the interference of normal beach crowd; second, a penthouse or roof of a lounge, we were lucky with the former but the later was a bit of challenge so we went for a roof around the artiste's neighbourhood, with proper camera angle we were able to pull it off.

PRODUCTION

We set of with a minimal sized crew, it was a long drive from town but it was worth it, we got to the beach somewhere close to La Campaign Tropicana and set off on another endurance journey with cast, equipment and crew member. It was a basic setup, within 30minutes makeup, styling and set up we were ready to shoot. We had fun with the elements. It went wonderfully well, by sun down it was a wrap.

Shot on a Blackmagic Cinema Camera with Canon 50mm prime, Tamron 24-135mm and Canon 70-200mm with x2 extender (love the added softness), a drone didn't work out this time around. Production still shot on a Canon 5D MKII and Canon Rebel.

POST PRODUCTION

Shooting RAW Cinema DNG gave me the freedom of pushing my grades a little further in post, the shoot took place on a hazy harmattan afternoon which added a little to the greying out of the flat profile straight from the camera. The usual round tripping from Davinci Resolve to Adobe Premiere back to Resolve helped not just in having a smooth edit and colour workflow but also helped me save time as I was working with pretty heavy files.

My typical colour workflow, basic grade of the flat profile then I applied one of my favourite 3D LUT, isolated specific parts further and pushed the grades some more. Easier said than done, that amounted into 52 hours in edit and colour grading, off course I played around with a number of looks before settling for the final look.

I fired out my XD ProRes render and back to Premier where I added my tittles and effects shot from Aftereffect, nothing fancy just graphics, finished off with additional sound and voila! video rendered and delivered.

Pushing the grades

Enjoy the music video we shot with next to nothing, Goodlove by Ebzy Lese.

There's no sure safe way to approaching a beauty shoot, everything depends on your direction, from styling, makeup, lighting, choice of lens to location of shoot. In most cases the client might allow you go to town and be really creative and expressive, in some cases you have to work within certain constraints to make magic happen.

On this particular project I had a bit of creative freedom but my team and location were picked for me by the client, which means I had to work with people I've never worked with before. No biggie. As a creative it is important that you get along well with people, you must be fun to work with and not a bore or brute, the process is highly collaborative so in other for you to birth your vision everyone must bring out their very best, so it's up to you to make sure that happens.

PREPPING: It is important to have a chat with everyone in your team, get a little familiar with them before the shoot, share your direction and enjoy their inputs too. Working with models can be a little tricky if you don't start off on the right footing. Convey the looks you are going for, it's a good idea to have a sort of reference like mood board and style frames or magazine clippings. For me my Instagram like page works just fine.
Things might not take off automatically you'll have to really keep up the momentum, when they are not there yet don't lose your top, flatter them when they get things right they'll do even better. Especially with models it's allowed flirt, tease, make them laugh. Stripping their inhibitions will be to your advantage.

LIGHTING: Take your lighting seriously, it can make or wreck your shoot, nothing conveys the mood better than lighting, you don't necessarily need those large Profoto lights but they are well worth the price. Lighting accordingly means using all available lights and modifiers to your advantage. I somewhat take an artistic approach to lighting than getting really technical with the use of light meters and light ratio calculations. It's just a personal preference to light take test shots, reposition, analyse and fire away, for me what I see is what I get. 

For the shoot we went with the client's location, I didn't need a heavy lighting setup, the place was well lit with the right temperature, the walls of the showroom serves the purpose of having big reflectors, for the indoor shoot I placed a softbox to the left of the models at 45 degrees properly lighting the face, a reflector to model's right softened the shadows, ambient light from ceiling bouncing off all the walls gave a somewhat washed look which wasn't too far from what I had in mind. For the outdoor shoot, we shot just when the sun was setting, No harsh highlights, no light set up just reflectors to kick in a little more light on the features and details.

STYLING: More than 40percent of the success of your shoot is dependent on styling. Proper styling means putting into consideration the colour, composition, texture of all apparels, adornments and look of your subject. It's important you allow the stylist some leeway, she's there to complement your effort, the eventual look is a result of both of you putting heads together. As a rule I tend to push to get as many looks as possible, which really helps when I'm sorting and finishing off. 

POST PROCESSING: Yeah, like most photographers I know this is also my sweet spot, but I have a rule of thumb that keeps me in check. 'Keep it light' The sheer awesomeness of Adobe Photoshop, Lightroom and the likes can make you lose yourself and all the hard work you've done during shoot. With advancement in software technology, the computer can now adjust nifty features like temperature, ISO, lens profile and camera calibration with the meta data available on your RAW format.

I must say here unless you are working on a cosmetic brand refrain from over pushing certain tools and plugins in these software, it totally wrecks your work and your work looks amateurish, but you don't know this because you are trying to impress yourself how good you are with plugin and filters.

I advise just a little bit of this and a little bit of that. You don't need to touch all the dials, let them be.

DELIVERY: So you're done editing and you're thrilled at your work it's time to deliver to the client; wow your followers and impress your buddy on the other side of the planet. It's really important to archive your work properly even before delivery. Have dedicated hard drives for RAW files, edited and finished files, project files and export format files. I'll leave file format and extensions for another post but it is really important to have a decent directory of projects for the sake of your sanity. Kick off high resolution JPEGS renders to send to client inbox, delivered on a CD or drive or print hard copy delivered in hardcover format. For your social media endeavours save medium resolution onto a dedicated directory so you don't mix 'em up. 

GEAR: I purposely saved this for last as young creatives can get overly obsessed with the cool stuff. I get asked all the time most cases people even guess what model or gear you used, which I find a little funny, this hustle is more about the art not about technology, people make epic stuff everyday with the most ordinary equipment.

And Yes! I shot using a Canon 5D MKII, Canon 70-200mm f2.4 and a Tamron 24-135mm f3.5, Cool stuff Huh!
That's it folks, we'll get a little technical sometime soon as I share my workflow first hand in a working environment, please share with a friend and look forward to the next post.