Show Don't Tell: Micro-budget Filmmaking

In this episode, I'm joined by Jesse Korman, director of Yellow Eyes, the possession horror feature now streaming on Screambox. Jesse has produced over 30 films, directed a long list of music videos, and fronts the band The Number Twelve Looks Like You.Yellow Eyes is his feature directorial debut, made as part of Joe Swanberg's five-film horror slate shot back to back in Chicago, all on the same budget.Jesse got the offer right before leaving on tour, which left him about six weeks to build a script from scratch with writer Mickey Solis (often over the phone between soundchecks) and get to set.Instead of writing first and budgeting later, they reverse engineered the story from the money and the schedule: one location, minimal cast, and spending concentrated on the moments that would really land on screen. The result was a 12-day shoot that never fell behind schedule.Throughout the episode we dig into the prep that made that possible, from shot listing and timing every scene with his DP to pre-rigging the enti

In this episode, I'm joined by filmmaker Joe Burke, back on the show to talk about his micro-budget feature Burt.Over the past year, Burt won Best Comedy Feature at Cinequest, Best Picture and Best Ensemble at Phoenix, was the opening night film at Anchorage, and landed a slot at Palm Springs International.It also got a full feature in the LA Times, was taken on a year-long theatrical tour, and is now being self distributed.Burt was shot in seven days for $7,000 with a three person crew, in black and white, no stars, built around a real street musician with Parkinson's. It was finished at the end of 2023 and then rejected by 28 festivals over roughly 14 months, including places where David Gordon Green, the film's executive producer, personally emailed on its behalf and got nothing back.Throughout the episode, Joe is candid about how close he came to leaving LA, and about the moment he stopped waiting on gatekeepers and went around them - ultimately finding success on his own terms.Topics covered include:Maki

In this episode, I'm joined by filmmaker Pete Ohs for his third appearance, and there's a lot to catch up on. Since we last spoke, Pete made Erupcja, a feature starring Charli XCX that he shot in Warsaw with no script, no crew, and the same Canon 5D Mark II running a Magic Lantern raw hack he's used on every film in his process.The film premiered at TIFF, in a year where he also had The True Beauty of Being Bitten by a Tick at SXSW and Obex, which he co-wrote, shot, and edited with Albert Birney, at Sundance.Throughout the episode Pete tells the full story of meeting Charli at 3am in a Lower East Side bar with Jeremy O. Harris just before Brat came out, and how the project survived Brat summer to shoot three months later, right before her world tour.We get into why he pitches actors an experience rather than an idea, how his "don't care" philosophy kept the stakes low even with a global pop star on board, why he finally signed with a manager, and how he wrote his first script in years using the exact same pro

In this episode, I'm joined by four-time Grammy nominee Grace Potter to talk about her new record Trespasser, the microfilm series she built alongside it, and the long road back to the film career she walked away from at nineteen.Grace left film school to become a rock star, signed to Disney in 2005, and wrote the song that closes Tangled, but she never stopped writing screenplays or thinking like a filmmaker. Her way back in started with a music video she wrote and directed herself, and she's been shooting ever since.Throughout the interview we get into her guerrilla approach to production, why she's trespassed on more locations than she can count, and what Mick Jagger taught her about instinct you have to earn.Topics covered include:Leaving film school to become a rock starSigning with Disney and writing the song that ends TangledHow songwriting and screenwriting use the same muscleWhy the first idea is usually the right oneDirecting her first music video, and the broken rib that followedGuerrilla shooting,

In this episode, I'm joined by Legion M co-founders Jeff Annison and Paul Scanlan to talk about the new Green Day comedy Nimrods, hitting theaters August 14, and how the world's first fan-owned entertainment company ended up behind it and Coyote vs. Acme after three years on the shelf.Jeff and Paul break down a model that doesn't exist anywhere else in Hollywood. Over 60,000 people now co-own Legion M, with an average investment of $500 and a minimum of $100, and they've raised roughly $30 to $35 million across the studio, individual films, and their new film fund. As Jeff puts it, their entire existence has cost less than the first ten minutes of a Marvel movie. Along the way they financed the William Shatner documentary in four days with two emails, produced My Dead Friend Zoe with Morgan Freeman and Ed Harris, and co-released Fackham Hall with Bleecker Street.We also get into the business realities most filmmakers never learn: why the group of people green-lighting projects narrows every year, and why your

In this episode, I'm joined by writer, director, and bestselling comics author Michael Moreci, whose reentry into filmmaking came in the form of Revealer, a single-location horror film set in a 1980s Chicago peep show booth. He wrote the film in about ten days and it later premiered on Shudder.Since then he's co-written and co-directed the heist comedy Holiday Hold-Up, written on Syfy's Revival, and continued a long career in comics on series like Barbaric and Dick Tracy.Throughout the episode we get into the discipline that lets you write a feature in ten days, why he thinks directing is mostly pre-production and post, how the crew community at Flyover Studios in Illinois has become the lifeblood of everything he makes, and the hard lesson that the second film is harder to get made than the first.Topics covered include:Writing Revealer in ten days and more or less shooting the first draftWhy a thorough outline is what actually lets you write fastWearing the writer hat and the director hat, and why you can't

In this solo episode I break down the process of writing a musical score for the first time on my upcoming short film Crow.Topics covered include:Why the advice to "specialize in one area" was never right for meEditing the entire rough cut with zero music in 10 to 20 second chunksLocking in sound design before any temp score so music never becomes a crutchScoring all five cues out of order, starting with the final cue and working backwardsWhere the process stands now: rough guitar demos down, next up is re-recordingMuch more!Big thanks to Soundstripe for executive producing the film and sponsoring this episode.Check out their new Soundstripe LIVE tool at soundstripe.com/noamSign up for my newsletter for exclusive filmmaking insight each Sunday

In this episode, I'm joined by filmmaker and re-recording mixer Mark Hensley to talk about his micro-budget feature Clown and Out in Valley Village, which he shot guerrilla style over the course of a year with no crew, a cast of two, and a total budget of around $4,000 (half of which went to a single permit).Mark shares how he found the script through a Facebook writing group, cut a 200-page draft down to something shootable, and built a workflow around editing each scene the night it was shot so he and his actors could review the footage and reshoot anything that wasn't working.We also dive deep into his remarkable background in sound, from recording music at the Record Plant in Sausalito to mixing major network TV shows in LA, and the practical audio techniques every indie filmmaker should steal from his playbook.Topics covered include:Why shooting slowly over a year with no crew is a creative advantageOperating as a one man band with the S1H, an RS3 Pro gimbal, and lavs into cameraWhy no single plugin fixe

In this episode, I'm joined by Aidan Leary and C.R. Thompson, the writing team behind Monkey's Magic Merry Go Round. A micro-budget horror feature pitched as Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood meets Evil Dead 2, produced by mumblecore legend Joe Swanberg.Throught the episode Aidan and C.R. share the wild origin story of the film, from a screenplay written in just two weeks, to them living in the back of Joe Swanberg's video store just two months later after he bought it.We also get into the nuts and bolts of the 11-day shoot: directing without a first AD, running a crew of about a dozen people inside the Chicago Children's Theater, hiring set builders straight off PBS, and their lightning fast post-production process.Topics covered include:Turning a childhood nightmare about an evil monkey puppet into a featureFour-act structure vs. three-act structure, and the South Park methodUsing Joe Swanberg's own pitching technique to sell him the scriptJoe's best advice: the only wrong decision is no decisionIntentional continui

In this episode, I'm joined by actor and filmmaker Hannah Barefoot to talk about building a career as a working actor, her recurring role on NCIS: Origins, our new short film Crow, and the leap into producing and crowdfunding her own first feature, Wyoming Christmas Carol.Throughout the interview Hannah breaks down how she went from a string of day jobs to 80 film and TV credits, and how that's now led her into feature filmmaking.We also get deep into the producer side of indie filmmaking. Hannah shares exactly how she's financing Wyoming Christmas Carol through a WeFunder equity crowdfunding campaign, why fiscal sponsorship matters for filmmakers, and the practical steps for building pitch materials that actually convert.Topics covered include:Hannah's path from small-town Wyoming to 80+ film and TV creditsBurning out, quitting acting, and finding her way back in her late twentiesLanding a recurring role on NCIS: OriginsWhy the "small" no-budget projects are so often the ones that change everythingFinancing

In this episode, I'm joined by writer-director-actor Cory Thibert to talk about his debut feature Mild Life, a coming-of-age film that premiered at Woodstock Film Festival and went on to win Best Canadian Feature at the Victoria Film Festival.Mild Life follows Lawrence, a drummer whose world gets thrown off beat when his girlfriend wants to leave their hometown just as he's stepping into a caregiver role for his parents, who both live with cerebral palsy. The story is drawn directly from Cory's own life - both of his parents have cerebral palsy, and he cast actors with cerebral palsy to play the parents for authentic representation.Throughout the inteview we discuss the challenges of going this personal with your work, why "the more specific you are, the more universal you are" advice is true, and how to mine your own experience to create more meaningful stories.We also break down his 14 day shoot, 98 page script, 5 person skeleton crew, and the 2 camera / always-rolling coverage strategy that helped him reac

In this episode, I'm joined by filmmaker and graphic artist Jason Laurits to talk about his debut feature Love's Company (starring Rachel Dratch), and the unique two-decade creative journey that led him to directing his first feature in his 40s.Jason breaks down how the film started with a single absurd thought ("what would happen if you actually kidnapped a celebrity?") and grew out of his love for Misery, Sunset Boulevard, and Ruthless People.He shares how he taught himself to edit in order to cut a proof-of-concept teaser that he used to raise money, attract a team, and ultimately land his cast.We also get into the realities of shooting a 95-page feature in just 15 days on a micro-budget in Louisiana, how his line producer helped him build a crew from scratch in New Orleans, landing Rachel Dratch through a single well-placed connection, and the constant on-set math of combining and cutting shots to never once go over schedule.Topics covered include:Using a teaser, poster & pitch deck to raise money for

In this episode I'm joined by filmmaker Nick Toti - one half of the DIY filmmaking duo behind the viral 80-second short Dead Grandma, the TIFF Midnight Madness sensation It Doesn't Get Any Better Than This, and the upcoming feature Homebody.Throughout the episode Nick breaks down the decade-long origin story of Dead Grandma, from an improvised game he invented while working as a nursery school teacher in Austin to a 35mm short film that blew up in Variety and landed him on this podcast.We also discuss how his $5,000 found footage feature It Doesn't Get Any Better Than This unexpectedly landed in TIFF's Midnight Madness, the unconventional theatrical-only release strategy he's used to screen it across multiple continents without a distributor, and why Nick is now trying to convince A24 or Blumhouse to fund a studio remake of Homebody.Topics covered include:The real-life origin of Dead Grandma and how it developed over a deadeCo-directing with his wife and creative partner Rachel KempfShooting on 35mm film - an

In this episode, I'm joined by actor, filmmaker, and musician Nathan Xia to talk about his unconventional path into the industry - from making YouTube sketches with a flip camera to acting in studio projects, getting repped as both an actor and writer-director, and developing his deeply personal feature Adam's Song.Throughout the conversation Nathan shares how he fell into acting out of necessity while co-directing a scrappy COVID road trip feature with his roommates, and how that unexpected pivot eventually led to representation, festival success, and a role in Danny Madden's Downbeat.He also breaks down the relentless hustle behind landing his producer at Vanishing Angle, getting into the Blacklist Project Lab after 14 rejections, and signing with management company M88 - all before turning 26.Topics covered include:How Nathan discovered filmmaking through a flip camera and YouTube sketchesMaking a $2,000 road trip feature across six states during COVIDFalling into acting out of necessity - and finding it o

In this episode, I’m joined by filmmaker and YouTuber Blake Calhoun to talk about his new feature film Casey Makes A Mixtape, his long-running channel iPhoneographers, and his highly entrepreneurial approach to building a sustainable filmmaking career.Throughout the interview Blake shares how he got his start selling work to Warner Bros. after finding an audience on YouTube, and why he believes every filmmaker should consider having a YouTube channel - even if they don’t want to become a “YouTuber.”We also dig into the making of Casey Makes A Mixtape, a 1981-set coming-of-age feature that Blake made on a micro-budget.He breaks down how he wrote the script around resources he already had access to, directed and DP’d the film himself, used a small crew, incorporated iPhone footage alongside RED Komodo, and even licensed well-known songs on a tight indie budget.Topics covered include:Why indie filmmakers are inherently entrepreneursBlake’s early success in web series and selling a show to Warner Bros.How YouTube

In this episode, I sit down with filmmaker Wade Patterson to discuss his micro-budget feature Death Cipher - a contained thriller shot in just 12 days for only $4,000.Throughout the interview, Wade shares how multiple failed feature attempts led him to radically simplify his process, why he embraced a single-location concept shot in his own apartment, and how limitations ultimately became the film’s greatest creative advantage.We also dive into the realities of making a feature with almost no money, wearing multiple hats as writer/director/cinematographer/editor, navigating festival rejection, finding distribution through Filmhub and Tubi, and much more:Why several failed feature attempts led to Death Cipher The mindset shift that led Wade to design a film around his resourcesShooting the film over weekends and treating each room like a company moveCreating props, puzzle elements, websites, and pre-shot video materialHow prioritizing actor comfort and a relaxed set environment improved the workWhat changed in

In this episode I'm joined by filmmaker and entrepreneur Stefan van de Graaff, whose $75,000 micro-budget feature Simmer landed on HBO after going viral on Facebook. Stefan also co-founded a video agency that grew from a two-person team into a 100-employee business before selling for $17 million, which we discuss at length.Throughout the episode we talk about Stefan’s unconventional path - from Midwest filmmaker to running a digial advertising business. We also cover how his commercial production work became the foundation for financing and producing indie features, and what it took to scale from a scrappy first feature to a $1M international production.Topics covered include:How uploading Simmer to Facebook led to 1M views and sales agent interestHow indie films without stars can land on major platforms like HBOFinancing a micro-budget feature with personal funds, partners, and partial fundraisingThe jump from a $75K film to a $1M feature using tax incentives, grants, and talent dealsWhy having the right pro

In this episode, I sit down with Academy Award nominee and ASC Award-winner Curren Sheldon to discuss his gritty new narrative feature Beatdown - a boxing drama made for just $60,000.Throughout the interview, Curren shares how his background in vérité documentary shaped the film’s style, why he cast real fighters and non-actors, and how they filmed key fight scenes inside a live event with 4,000 spectators.We also dive into the practical realities of transitioning from documentary to narrative, self-financing a feature for under $60K, navigating today’s distribution landscape, and tons more:Why The Wrestler was a key stylistic reference for BeatdownThe doc-to-narrative transition: what gets easier, what gets harderUsing non-actors (real boxing personalities) without losing story controlShooting inside a real “Toughman” event with 4,000 extras and a tiny window to filmHow he sold two prior films to Netflix, and what it took to break throughA practical cinematography mindset shift that instantly elevates visual

In this special episode, we celebrate today’s release of our new feature film Teacher’s Pet - Now available where you rent or buy movies!Two days ago, we hosted a special advanced screening for members of my filmmaking community, and they took part in a virtual Q & A afterward. This episode includes the full live session with myself and lead actor / producer Luke Barnett.Topics covered include: Achieving high production value on a budgetLuke’s approach to bringing levity to a dark characterThe casting process & landing great actorsMoving from a $0 production into a larger projectOur hardest days on set and how we problem solvedDirecting & DP’ing the film simultaneously Much moreWatch the film on Apple now: https://itunes.apple.com/us/movie/teachers-pet/id1868537677 Full list of platforms where you can watch: Amazon Prime Video (US, CA)Apple TV (US, CA)Google Play / YouTube (US, CA)Fandango at Home (US)Comcast / Xfinity (US)Cox (US)Spectrum (US)DirecTV (US)Dish (US)Altice (US)Verizon / Fios (US)Tel

In this episode filmmaker Alec Goldberg joins the show to break down how his micro-budget comedy pilot Soft Boil went from a bootstrapped production to a blind submission acceptance at the 2026 Sundance Film Festival.We talk about Alec’s path from documentary and commercial work into scripted narrative, how a key creative partnership with lead actor / co-writer Camille Wormser shaped the project, and what it took to pull off a festival-ready pilot on $30,000 across a handful of shoot days.Topics covered include:Why Alec believes casting + voice was the “X factor” (and how to recognize it)The tactical micro-budget choices that mattered most (locations, rehearsals, scheduling)How to direct comedy with improv-friendly actors without losing the spine of the sceneThe producer “role-splitting” approach that let Alec focus on directingHow Alec thinks about finding your “voice” as a filmmaker, and why it's so criticalThe films and filmmakers shaping his taste (Kaufman, PTA, Von Trier, Aronofsky, Kubrick)Links from th