With the price of silver strong as ever, and the global recession shrinking our filming budgets, here are 8 helpful pointers that might help you shoot more film this year!

1. Student Discounts

If you’re in film school, you should already be abusing your discount privelidges! Kodak have always discounted film stock for students to encourage brand loyalty when all you budding Cecil B Demille’s hit the big time and make those big project orders! Get in touch with your local Kodak head office wherever you are based to enquire about this discount.

2. Shoot at 18fps

If your movie doesn’t require sound, then you could be wasting film. 18 fps is quick enough to look seamless in most cases, and even when there is a lot of motion in the scene, the results can be excellent. Not to mention you’re only using 75% of what a 24fps shot would require. After telecine you can use a video plugin to artificially render more frames in, a process called ‘interpolation’, bringing the movie up to 24fps and making it look super smooth.  For an excellent example of that, check out this video: http://www.vimeo.com/1644064

3. Change your filmmaking style

Do you tend to shoot a lot of scenes that last too long ? Sometimes we can get caught up in the wonderful details of a shot we’re proud of, and linger too long on it – wasting film. Yes, Kodachrome 40 *will* really bring out the reds in these flowers, but do the audience need to see this shot for so long?

4. Editing in camera

Think before you shoot! When will you start filming, and when will you END filming? If you’re indecisive, you’re likely to hold the trigger down just to make sure. Don’t put yourself in that position, plan ahead.

5. Choose your actors carefully

How serious are the people in front of your camera? If this is a feature film and not a home movie, you want to be sure that the actors are fully aware wasted shots means your money is wasted! If you can find actors that deliver results every time, go for them.

6. Shoot expired film

Film that’s just past its expiry date is often still fantastic looking – and only the super critical eye can recognise expired film that’s been around more than 5 years in cool storage. In fact you may even find that expired film gives a unique look that makes your movie more recognisable. Get on ebay or the for sale sections of filmshooting forums and let people know you want cheap film!

7. Buy in bulk

Even if you can’t get much of a bulk discount on film, you can usually save a bundle on postage costs by buying all your film well in advance and keeping what you don’t need in a freezer (sealed of course).

8. Shoot black and white

The processing costs on black and white film are often less, and in America the cost of black and white Super 8 from Kodak is less than colour stock. However, if you’re in the UK, shoot colour to save costs! For some strange reason colour stocks are cheaper in the UK, so shop around and see what you can get for less money.

Related posts:

1. Choosing a Filmstock