6 GET CORPORATE/AGENCY SPONSORSHIPS OR PRODUCT PLACEMENT DEALS
Making a documentary about the history of video gaming? Why not see if the good people at Atari or Activision will support your project with grants or donations? Want to highlight the plight of teen mothers? Why not seek funding from a national charity that shares the same mission? Look for natural allies in your mission who have deeper pockets than you. While not appropriate for many docs, some subject matter or doc genres may seek a product placement deal to show a sponsor’s product onscreen in exchange for value.
Trying to line up product placement deals for the documentary, Paper Chasers, which is about hip-hop entrepreneurs, we did not get any cash (typical for indies). But we did convince sponsors to supply specific budget items such as food, drinks, wardrobe, and discounted hotel, car, and RV rentals, which freed up precious dollars in our micro-budget.
7 USE ORIGINAL MUSIC
Why pay an expensive fee to use a popular song or stock music from a library when there are thousands of independent musicians looking for exposure? Most of these fellow indie artists will gladly give you prerecorded tracks. Better yet, you can easily find talented musicians and composers who will even create original music for your project for free or a fraction of the cost of the average music license. Original music tailored to your project can be an inexpensive, but powerful storytelling aid.
8 USE PUBLIC DOMAIN FOOTAGE
Did you know that there are hundreds of hours of footage and thousands of
historical photos and musical recordings available for anyone to use free of charge? This is mostly historical material on which the copyright has expired. In other words, it is in the public domain. Try a Google search for public domain photos, footage, or music. You’ll nevertheless have to pay to have material transferred or copied, but it’s still a great bargain. In the same vein, you can investigate whether your interview subjects have old photos, videos or home movies they’d be willing to let you use for free.
9 USE NATURAL LIGHT AND CHINA LANTERNS
You can avoid the cost of rentals and the hassle and setup time needed for professional lighting instruments by using available lighting instead. Position your subject strategically to use the natural light on location. As illustrated in the lighting section of [my Shut Up and Shoot Documentary Guide], you can get some beautiful lighting with a simple house lamp, inexpensive china lantern, or sunlit window and a reflector. Staging your shooting and interviews outdoors is also a common way to get around professional lighting.
10 LOG AND TRANSCRIBE YOUR OWN FOOTAGE
Transcripts and logs are a doc necessity. However, professional video transcription is costly even on the low end. If you have 20 or so tapes to log and transcribe it could break your budget. Enlist an intern, a good friend, or just do it yourself. You’ll be much more familiar with your footage, plus you’ll save hundreds or even thousands of dollars to boot!
