How to Embrace Creative Limitation in Filmmaking

Limitations are probably the last thing you want when you are making a film, but if you embrace
them, then you could end up making something truly creative.

Evolve your story around your limitation

As filmmakers, we love to daydream about the most amazing stories we would like to tell one day.
It’s natural, that's why we do it. So when we finally dip our toes in the water and start working on
our own projects, a lot of the time we are trying to emulate what we love seeing on the big screen.
But the problem is, especially when we are just starting, that is an almost guaranteed way to fall flat.

See, at the beginning of our filmmaking journey, we are all lacking resources. We don’t have
budgets, gear, crew, actors, and access to locations. And that could be frustrating, even
discouraging.

Limitations are not necessarily bad—they can drive creativity

Try to think of the resources you have available first. Not the story, but the resources.

Have access to a car and two actors? Great, write a story about them driving around.

Have a cool unique item at home? Make it the centrepiece of your story.

Only have Legos? Make a stop-motion film.

You get the idea. Think of any object, location, or person you actually have available to you, and then
write a compelling story involving only them.

Any-sized budget can run into limitations

There are plenty of great films that originated from creative limitations and went on to become
highly successful.

Take for example Buried starring Ryan Reynolds and directed by Rodrigo Cortés. The entire movie
takes place in a single dark coffin. It could have been filmed anywhere, by anyone. It had a budget of
$2 million and grossed over $21 million.

Another great example is Paranormal Activity, written and directed by Oren Peli. It was filmed with a
home video camera which was almost always set on a tripod to eliminate the need for crew. With
just two actors and a single location, the movie gave the fans a truly unique experience at the time.
And with a budget of just $15,000 it grossed over $190 million in the box office.
Some key takeaways

 Identify what your resources are and then write a story

 Keep it simple and use only what you have available to you
 Don’t be afraid to experiment. Give the audience something they haven’t seen before

In conclusion, remember that when you have too many options, it could sometimes lead to creative
paralysis. You can get overwhelmed and unsure of which direction to take. With creative limitations,
however, you can explore more interesting and less obvious solutions.

10 Solutions To 10 Common On-Set Problems

Production is probably the most exciting part of filmmaking, and it's also where a film or series lives
or dies. I'm not trying to scare you, but it's important that you understand how tenuous the success
of your project is at this stage. With that in mind, what follows is a list of the most common
problems that might arise on your film set and how to deal.

PROBLEM: Cast member is late

SOLUTION: Utilize the extra setup time wisely. Run lines or rehearsals with other actors, test out
more ambitious lighting or camera set-ups, or, if possible, film scenes or angles where the missing
actor isn't needed.

PROBLEM: Cast member doesn't show up

SOLUTION: Already have a second set of scenes that people are prepared to shoot, and cobble
together a new shot list based on who is actually on set and available. Depending on the cast
member's eventual excuse and how many scenes you’ve already shot with them, you might need
to consider recasting. Everyone can be replaced. Sometimes, you can even replace them with an
extra or a crew member.

PROBLEM: Crew member is late or doesn't show up

SOLUTION: Always, always already have a backup plan, especially for people you don't know very
well. When shooting the pilot for my web series, Brains, my cameraman didn't show up after the first
day, because he lost his camera and all of the first day's footage. Thankfully, I had brought my simple
camcorder to set to record behind-the-scenes videos, and we ended up using that camera for the
rest of the season.

PROBLEM: Not enough extras

SOLUTION: Get creative with the angles you're filming from. Spread people out to make the room or
space look fuller, add lots of movement so it appears busy, or have extras dress up in multiple outfits
throughout the shoot, so it doesn't look like you're reusing a person. Also, consider changing the
location slightly‚ Rebecca Shoptaw, creator of the show Middlemarch, once filmed a party scene
with only one extra by changing some sections of the scene to take place in a hallway leading to the
party, and filming against walls to add party sounds in the background later.

PROBLEM: Actors haven't memorized their lines

SOLUTION: If you're doing a traditionally filmed show (where a single scene is filmed from multiple
angles), either film the actor who hasn't memorized last, to give them time to practice, or film in
small chunks. You're going to piece together the scene from many takes anyways, so focus on a
small section at a time instead of going through the full scene all at once. If you're filming found-
footage style, meaning you can't cut to different takes during the scene, find somewhere in-world to
hide the script, or reschedule the unmemorized scenes for later in the day. In a lot of ways, an
unmemorized actor is as bad as an actor not being there at all, so depending on the circumstances,
consider recasting.

PROBLEM: Someone has to leave early

SOLUTION: Restructure the day so that the person or persons who have to leave early do all their
scenes first. Sometimes, this will mean filming all their coverage or angles where they're the only
ones in frame, and then having a different person read their lines when you get coverage of the
other people in the scene. Other times, it means prioritizing your shots, and figuring out what the
bare minimum you need to get done is. You might have to sacrifice a beautiful yet complicated
setup, but that's the risk of filmmaking on a shoestring.

PROBLEM: Someone gets hurt

SOLUTION: Stop filming immediately! Bring a first aid kit to set just in case, and if they're willing to
continue working, take a break and have a conversation about what went wrong and how to avoid
the safety risk in the future. As someone who shot a zombie series, I am no stranger to injuries on
set, but as long as you take as many precautions as possible and are communicating with everyone
clearly, everything should be fine.

PROBLEM: You forgot/ran out of craft services

SOLUTION: Pay for delivery or send a nonessential crew member to a nearby fast food chain. A
hungry crew is bad, but hungry actors are impossible, and this is a cost you're just going to have to
deal with. In the future, try to plan better by buying nonperishable food in bigger quantities than you
think you’ll need. It won't be the most nutritious crafty (do try and provide people with an actual
meal), but it's better than nothing.

PROBLEM: Your planned location is unavailable or only available for short windows of time

SOLUTION: Once again‚ this is why you have a Plan B for everything. If it's unavailable, is there
somewhere else you can go? Better yet, can you rewrite/restructure the scene so it takes place
elsewhere? If it's only available for a short window of time, plan a rehearsal beforehand so the shoot
itself goes smoother.

PROBLEM: You're scheduled to film outdoors and it's raining

SOLUTION: You can go about this a couple of ways. First, could your scene still work in the rain? For
my show, we ended up having to film a scene in the rain and it turned out better than the original
plan. We just rehearsed all the blocking indoors before heading out. If your scene can't be filmed in
the rain, though, can you and the available actors film a different scene somewhere indoors?

This is an inexhaustive list. Every set is different and comes with its own unique moments of stress.
But listen to me: you can do it. There are horror stories from no-budget sets and there are horror
stories from multi-billion dollar ones.

Once you've wrapped principal photography, your finished product is in sight, but it's not over yet,
by any means.