Put Every Penny on the Screen

Making a low budge documentary is very difficult due to the fact that the director must use their money very carefully. Every penny that they have must show up on the screen to ensure the best documentary possible. This means that a director has to cut back on locations and difficult camera shots. With each location costs emerge that do not show up on the screen such as traveling, unloading equipment, rigging lights, and if the budget is available laying dolly track. This is a very expensive process, which means that the director must constantly ask if the location is needed to add to the story. If the director can cut out one or two locations from the original script, it will save money without compromising the documentary.

Budgeting for a documentary is much like building a house. A house can be built for a million-dollars or it can be built with fifty thousand dollars. The one million-dollar house will have all the bells and whistles possible where as the fifty thousand dollar house will only have the basics. The final product is still a house. It is important to remember that the house is not defined by all bells and whistles that it has but by the quality of the story that it produces. One can make a quality house for fifty thousand dollars just as one can make a quality documentary on a low budget.

It is often feared that with a low budget comes low quality documentaries this is not true. If a director can cut extra expenses such as unneeded locations he will be able to add to the quality of the documentary later in the production process. A low budget documentary does not mean low quality it means that every penny is put on the screen and not waisted on behind the screens expenses. (Learning Filmmaking Online)

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