How To Make A Cheap Movie Set

Tin can't get that location you need? Build it!

[Editor'south Notation: Zach Daulton guest authored this article afterward successfully building a garage set.]

When writing the script toMayfield, I was really inspired past the architecture of the old Murphy Theatre in Wilmington, Ohio and wrote my script with that location in mind. The script was completely finished when I took my showtime visit to the theatre; I actually tried to visualize all of the scenes in that location. The dressing room written for Mayfield had then much graphic symbol, and unfortunately the dressing rooms at the theatre I rented did not. With bright white walls, fluorescent lighting, and a greyness concrete floor, nothing about these rooms fit the script.

At this point, it was time to make a decision. Practise I hire an extra two days at the theatre to set up dress and shoot in the dressing room at $500/day? Or do I save that money and build it somewhere else? At the end of the solar day, a dressing room is actually simply a rectangle with a mirror in information technology, so information technology was obvious to me that it could take been done anywhere.

Why build a set up, anyway?

I wanted something that seemed very onetime and distressed with a forest floor and grimy mirror. I as well wanted something that had the same vibe as the balance of the theatre did. Later I realized what I wanted out of the dressing room, we began to search for the location.

Once you start building cheap sets and using every fleck you take, you'll find yourself becoming a pack rat.

Locations are really hard to find when yous don't have a lot of coin and y'all're making an indie short picture with no programme for a financial render. Then the first thing I did was phone call all of my friends who owned real estate to run into if they had anything open I could infringe for a couple weeks, but each place had a problem that would arrive impossible to shoot. I edifice had a perfect look, just no electricity and was located on a very busy street with a lot of loud traffic. I considered just using a regular bedroom, simply about bedrooms are really tight with very express space for lights and other gear. I didn't call up I would get all the shots I wanted. When I talked to my DP, he suggested finding a location with an open up ceiling then nosotros could top lite it. That's where the garage comes in.

Finding the right garage

The actor who plays James Mayfield (John Riley) has a garage with a 12' loftier ceiling. It was a perfect place to build a set because at that place was plenty of electricity, nosotros could peak light it, we had some sort of temperature control, and access to a kitchen to brand all the food for the crew. The merely problem is that at that place was currently already a set built in there from a western John had directed a few years prior.

Yous don't know what's available to you until you ask about 100 people and hear 'no' about 99 times.

I had to convince a human being in his seventies to assistance me tear down his line shack cabin ready built in his garage and build another set in there. Equally you lot can imagine, he was a little reluctant to sign up for all this work, just in one case he saw how passionate I was about this project and how much work I had already put into information technology, he agreed to help me. ( Side note: It turns some people actually respond to passion. If you lot want to get people passionate well-nigh your project, discover a way to requite them ownership in their part and show nonstop appreciation for everything they do.)

Use what's available

Indie filmmakers really smooth when they are resourceful and brand the most out of what they already take. No one is impressed when you lot build a great set with a huge budget because it'due south expected. However, if you can build a great ready with little to no money, people start to notice.

Once the space in the garage was cleared, it was time to build the set. We already had part of a woods flooring, so we backed it into the corner so we wouldn't have to accept a ton of support for at least 2 of the walls. A producer on the film used to own a haunted house, and so we traveled to a barn where he kept about 200 set walls and sorted through them until we found about 12-xiv that were salvageable and good enough to build our dressing room.

Nosotros made the whole thing look one-time by rubbing coffee on it.

We used every piece of bit we could observe to get the walls up and make the trim. It might seem like luck to run into a bunch of ready walls, merely we did everything nosotros could to run into as much "luck" as possible. Y'all don't know what'due south available to you until you lot enquire near 100 people and hear "no" nearly 99 times. Once the walls were up, nosotros painted it with a mixture of leftover paint we had from painting a room in our house, and some reject $five gallon paint from Lowes. I spent most $forty in bead board to put around the bottom edge of the fix, and stained it with leftover stain I institute in my shed from a home comeback project years ago. We fabricated the whole thing expect quondam by rubbing coffee on it.

I know my advice for building a cheap set sounds a lot like "but have everything already and you lot'll be fine," but it's all most taking inventory of what you accept available, and when to recognize when something tin can be useful in the hereafter. One time you start building cheap sets and using every bit you take, you'll find yourself becoming a pack rat. For example, last twelvemonth I had a contractor build a deck on my house and told him non to get rid of any scrap wood because I wanted everything. So now I have a shed full of wood he would have thrown away, but is perfectly good for building sets at no extra price!

Finding the stuff you don't have

Naturally, at first we took inventory of everything we had to use in a dressing room that would fit the mood and story. Unfortunately, it wasn't a whole lot. Going to Craigslist or Goodwill for props and furniture seemed like a proficient idea until I realized everyone on Craigslist wanted existent money for vanities, mirrors, dressing shades, old theatre seat, etc. Spending anywhere from $75-$300 per set piece wasn't really in our budget, particularly since we needed to infringe a truck to get become them. I besides didn't desire to own all of the items after buying them considering I have limited space to shop potential props and don't accept the time to resell them.

After asking around and talking to our atomic number 82 histrion, I establish out he knew someone at a theatre playhouse. We gave them a call and begged them to let us go through all their props they had in the building. We managed to option up about 75% of what nosotros needed to make full the dressing room with one-time theatre stuff. I know favors similar that don't come to everyone, merely yous never know until you ask, and if you ask, be willing to return the favor and add together value to them too.

I bought an old mirror from Goodwill and aged it following a YouTube tutorial (after ruining two other mirrors). Once the large stuff was taken intendance of, information technology was like shooting fish in a barrel to print old theatre posters now in public domain and throw clothes everywhere.

I spent about $300 to become exactly what I wanted in a location that nosotros had admission to for 2 months instead of paying $1000 (plus props expenses) to rent a space for two days that would take been much less suited to our moving picture.

Building the bath

The script too chosen for a bathtub scene, so nosotros congenital a bathroom right by the dressing room. That procedure was almost identical to the dressing room, except that nosotros didn't have more than wood floor, so we drew "boards" on a slice of leone that was stained with our leftover stain. We were also able to easily fill up the tub with a garden firm and bleed it right exterior the garage door. (I did take to spend $75 on a claw foot tub at a junkyard, only those are actually hard to find for free.)

Lessons of accommodation and decency

Filmmaking is all well-nigh adapting to a state of affairs and making the best film you can with the tools available. Although it seems like our experience worked out perfectly and nosotros kept getting lucky, that'due south not the case at all. Every moment of success we had was the upshot of a dozen failures and a lot of hard piece of work. Nosotros just kept adapting to the situation and problem-solved along the way.

Besides, y'all never desire to exist the guy (or girl) who burns bridges. If someone extends him or herself to you and donates their time or property, be willing to pay it back. Not only is information technology important to maintain those relationships and build a network, merely it's also function of being a decent person.