Directing | The Athletic Nerd

Producing A Low Budget Short Film

50 POSTS ABOUT INDEPENDENT FILMMAKING

We filmed The Climb over a weekend in May 2010 for about $300. It was the first project we developed after I launched this blog so there was a ton of coverage here.

There are posts about every topic including budgets, screenwriting, stories from the set, post-production, marketing, promotion, trailers, posters and more.

Now that the film is completed I thought it would be useful to gather every post in one place. So check out the entire story of how we produced The Climb.

WATCH THE ENTIRE FILM HERE

Pre-Production

Low Budget Filmmaking: The Climb’s Budget

The Climb’s 1st Location Scout

Screenwriting: Rewriting The Climb

Meet The Cast Of The Climb

Storyboarding When You Can’t Draw

Designing The Tattoos

The Director Of Photography

First Tattoo Sketches And Tests

No Budget Filmmaking: Producing A Short Film

The Need To Edit A Movie

Improving The Screenplay

Pre-Production Day

Final Make-Up Tests

Wardrobe And Props

Rehearsing A Short Film

Tweaking Your Screenplay

Directing Short Films: The Calm Before The Storm

Making Progress

Making A Short Film: The Little Details

Final Location Scouts

It Begins!

Production

Technical Specs

Can’t Complain About Early Call Times

I Dislike People Who Honk During Filming

Destiny’s Tattoos

I Don’t Like To Hold The Camera

Rushing To Capture Footage

A Computer, Some Footage And Me

How The Weather Almost Killed Our Short Film

Directing Short Films: Playing Through vs The Climb

That’s A Wrap!

Post-Production

Editing A Short Film: Little Moments

How a dialogue heavy script became a quiet movie

Short Film Editing: Is This Scene Boring?

Tough Cuts: Letting go of a scene

Taking on the opening scene

Editing a short film you directed: The Annoying Part

Editing a short film: You have to start somewhere

I got stuck editing my short film

We Have Picture Lock

Marketing & Promotion

Short Films, After Effects & Video Copilot

The Climb’ Trailer

Planning The Trailer

A new poster for The Climb has arrived

First official still from The Climb

Does this poster sell my independent short film?

The Climb’s poster is here

Commentaries

The Climb: A Journey Ends

The Climb is finished

The Climb: One Year Later

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budget, Directing, Editing, Filmmaking, independent film, low budget, low budget filmmaking, producing a short film, promotion, Screenwriting, The Climb, trailers

Brass Meeting: 17 West’s Upcoming Projects

Back at it!

The Climb is currently in post production and Strings is coming along up in Sudbury, Ontario. (More on that in the coming weeks.)

What’s next?

Eric and I got together recently to answer that very question.

We’ve been developing 2 shorts for a while now. I finished the screenplay to the first a while back and after a few more revisions, we should be ready to move on to budgets and logistics.

The second short film is based on an idea Eric has had in his head for years. Now we are working out the details of the story together and it’s almost ready to be scripted. I’m looking forward to delivering a script he’ll be excited about.

This latest round of meetings has centered around the future of our production company and where we want to be in the next few years. So we also talked about finances and plans to promote our existing films like Playing Through.

It’s fantastic to sit around talking movies again.

We now have a plan that goes back to the original 17 West Formula.

I write. Eric Directs.

Beyond that, we also went over plans for The Climb’s release as well as future web site updates and features.

There really is a lot to be excited about.

Back to work! Tons to do.

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What!? Peter Jackson Directing Hobbit Films!

June 25th, 2010 | Posted by jasonmckinnon in Movies - (0 Comments)

The Lord of the Rings are legendary movies. They are inspiring works of art. The main reason is Peter Jackson’s unbelievable and visionary directing.

I always wanted him to return to film The Hobbit. Sadly that wasn’t the case but he went out and found, in my opinion, the perfect subsitute: Guillermo Del Toro! Two fantasy titans working on one of the most beloved fantasy stories of all time!

However, as many film fans and fantasy geeks already know, Del Toro left the production due to lengthy production delays a few weeks ago.

While devastating to everyone looking forward to his vision of The Hobbit, many clinged to hope that Writer/Producer Peter Jackson would return and direct the movies.

Today, it’s being reported that he has indeed agreed to return.

If it’s true, this is fantastic news!

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Producing A Short Film: Making The Climb

When I directed Playing Through, I was constantly updating a diary that detailed every single aspect of the entire production.

I wanted to change things up for The Climb.

Instead of describing the entire weekend shoot in long drawn out posts, I decided to focus more on the main story lines of our shoot and keep things a little lighter.

Much like I did with the Pre-Production process, here is a recap of how we filmed, The Climb.

Next up:

Post!!!

Stay up to date on 17 West Productions News

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Directing, how to produce a short film, low budget filmmaking, low budget short films, making The Climb, no budget short film, no money short film, producing a low budget short film, production, short film productions, short film tips

Producing A Low Budget Short Film: Pre-Production

17 West Productions, recently wrapped another low budget short film called The Climb.

We started pre-production right around the time I began this blog. As a result, there are a ton of posts on this site dealing with virtually every aspect of the production process.

Click here to catch up on The Climb

Right now, I’m just about finished rolling out a series of posts on our 3 day shoot and I’m planning a recap as soon as the final post is published.

I also thought it would be a good idea to collect all of the posts I’d written leading up to the shoot.

Many of them deal with the challenges of producing a short film on a low budget. It certainly wasn’t easy…

Click here for a detailed look at how much the movie cost us to make.

Hopefully, this gives you a look at how we pulled off our latest short film.

The Climb will probably be our last low budget short for a while as we are now actively planning some bigger and more ambitious films. However, it was definitely a fantastic experience!

Stay tuned for more on The Climb’s production process including more on the actual production as well as in depth details on the post-production process.

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Design, Directing, how to produce a low budget movie, low budget filmmaking, low budget short films screenplays, no budget short film, no money short film, pre-production, producing a low budget short film, Screenwriting, storyboards

Producing A Low Budget Short Film

50 POSTS ABOUT INDEPENDENT FILMMAKING

Pre-Production

Production

Post-Production

Marketing & Promotion

Commentaries

Brass Meeting: 17 West’s Upcoming Projects

Back at it!

What’s next?

I write. Eric Directs.

What!? Peter Jackson Directing Hobbit Films!

Producing A Short Film: Making The Climb

Post!!!

Producing A Low Budget Short Film: Pre-Production

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