Just last week, on August 26th, we wrapped principal photography on Machination, our fifth feature film shot in the last four years. This was very much a film inspired by this new Covid-19 reality we live in, a story about a highly anxious woman named Maria who struggles to cope in isolation as a pandemic sweeps the world. Maria is forced to confront the monsters in her head, in the media, and in her past.
Maria in her bedroom, Machination Behind the scenes. Credit: Monika Kopčilová
We had the initial idea for the film during our own lockdown in April in Malta and spent a few days at the end of the month writing the first draft outline. May was spent redrafting and refining the outline. In June we approached cast, researched the equipment we would need as well as the VFX we wanted, and worked to fill gaps in knowledge for the story as well as the production, such as the specific mental health issues Maria was suffering from or how we could pull off a particular shot – a period that was a mix of development and pre-pre production. One month of official pre-production and rehearsal began from July 13th. Finally, in August, we went into a 10-day production period split into two halves – August 12th to 16th and August 22nd to 26th.
This was all done between Sarah working a full-time job and myself working on other projects, including still shooting our Cats of Malta documentary and planning a short film called Crossing Paths for the end of June. So until production, and perhaps the last couple of weeks of pre-production, we never dropped everything to simply focus on Machination, and Sarah didn’t stop working her day job until the first shooting day. That makes Machination a feature film done from first draft to wrap in four months, mostly part-time, during an uncertain time in the world where many productions shut down completely. And the budget was only €6000. And we still paid everyone.
This is how we did it.
Use Improvisation
Since we constantly preach and promote using improvisation, teach courses on the method and write e-books about it, it should be no surprise that this is our first tip. But it holds true. Writing an outline is so much quicker than writing a script. Here is a secret: the only three things you need to make a feature is the structure for your story and good actors. Plus a camera, of course.
Looking at the outline and shotlist together on set. Credit: Monika Kopčilová
Good actors are trained to explore all aspects of a character, they are fascinated by human behaviour, and they love to contribute ideas to complete a character. So good actors will elevate your ideas. They will find the character in rehearsal. They will become the character, and from there the dialogue will follow. Dialogue born from improv is much more natural and often more realistic than the words a scriptwriter can invent alone.
It also makes you more flexible as a director as the process demands change and flexibility. It demands trust and collaboration with your cast. The ending of Machination (though I won’t give it away) is different to what we initially imagined and was actually suggested by Steffi Thake, who played Maria. And we freely admit it is a better ending than what we first wrote. So use improvisation for the speed, but also for the openness it fosters, and the creative collaboration it will spark.
Location, Location
It’s become a cliché now to see a low-budget film set in one room or one location as a way to save money. But it does save money. And as long as you have a valid story reason for doing so it can work. Machination is about Maria trapped at home during isolation so 85% of the film is set inside Maria’s home.
Maria’s home is our apartment. So the location cost is zero. The other locations we featured were a wartime bunker for a dream sequence, a deserted beach, and a bus stop, bus ride, and empty road. The bus stop and deserted road were right near our apartment. We live in Mgarr, the closest thing to something you can call countryside on this tiny but overdeveloped island, so there are comparatively fewer people and cars out there.
To film the opening bus ride where Maria returns home from work we simply boarded a bus, paid our fare, and began filming. We chose a route we knew had few passengers. While to film a climactic scene where Maria runs out of her house into the night, we began after midnight to decrease the chance of cars and interruption further. If it proved impossible to shoot, we did have pick-up dates set in the schedule to try again and a different, truly isolated road in mind as a back-up (the location where we actually filmed Crossing Paths earlier in June).
Likewise, with the deserted beach scene, we arrived at one of the most remote beaches in Malta at 5:30am, ready to go for sunrise at 6am. Luckily, there were no people. Malta is very “relaxed” when it comes to the law so though camping was illegal on this beach, the two times we had scouted the beach during location hunting there were pitched tents in our way. But we did have a back-up beach to go to around the corner if we couldn't film at our first choice.
I admit we didn’t use permits. We didn’t want to add the costs or deal with the bureaucracy involved. It was guerilla filmmaking, but done in such a way where we played the odds of success in our favour. Isolated locations, extra early morning or late at night starts, and quick shoots too – the longest guerilla shoot we did was three hours on the road in Mgarr in the middle of the night.
The one location we did pay for was a wartime bunker. Sarah put a call out for that location on social media and a stranger responded, offering to help and offering her home to use. We paid €100 for that location.
It goes all the way back to Robert Rodriques and his advice from the book Rebel Without a Crew – write a story based on what you have available to you. I don’t know if Rodriquez was the first to say it, but over 20 years later that advice still rings true.
Know Your Cast & Crew
We cast Steffi Thake in the role of Maria without auditioning her and without working with her previously. But we knew her work. We have been in Malta three years now. We had seen her in several theatre productions and knew she was talented. We watched her in a recent short film called Camilla and knew she had screen presence. We had spoken to her previously in person and via email and social media so we weren’t complete strangers. And she had the exact look we wanted for the film. She was our first choice. So we took a chance, approached her with the story and role, and she said yes.
That chance paid off. Steffi anchored the film and gave a very powerful performance as Maria, making the hard work of putting this film together worth it. It isn’t easy to carry the lead role in a feature film, and it is even more difficult when much of the screen time is your character alone. But she exceeded our expectations.
So know your local film scene. Participate. Work on other people’s projects, watch local productions, take notes of talent, see who is out there and work out who you connect with, make it easy on yourself when it is time to cast and crew your own production.
Maria’s anxiety starts to show through in her actions. Credit: Monika Kopčilová
And I do mean take notes. Seán James Sutton, who played Maria’s boss Ian, approached us when he moved to Malta a year ago just to introduce himself and share his showreel. It was a good reel and we added his details to our database – we do keep a database of every actor or composer or filmmaker who reaches out to us to connect. We may not be looking to work with anyone at that particular time we connect, but if you are good, and the right role comes along, we have our database and we remember you. Seán was the right fit for Ian. So we approached him with the role and we added another member to our cast.
We first met Andrew Bonello, who played Maria’s landlord Peter, two years ago over coffee. We knew he was involved in a local improvised troupe in Malta, and making improvised films ourselves, Andrew was a perfect fit.
The only difficulty we had (if you can even call it that) was casting Yorgen, Maria’s brother. We feel Malta has a shortage of talented male actors in the 30-35 age range. We also had a particular look in mind – we wanted a big and burly man in the role. So we did things more traditionally, putting out a casting call, and also asking friends in the industry for recommendations. Rambert Attard was mentioned to us by different people. And when he responded to the casting call, and sent in a very good monologue as an audition piece, we organised a coffee to chat. We don’t hold formal auditions with improv, rather we talk about character and story with actors, and just try to sense whether or not a particular actor would be a good fit for the role. Rambert came to meet us with notes about the character and ideas we hadn’t even thought of. Before the coffee was over, we knew he was perfect for the role. We cast him on the spot, and even cancelled other meetings with actors. We had found our cast.
Likewise, get to know crew you might want to work with. You can even test them on short films or micro-films to see how they work on set and if you gel together. I mentioned we filmed a micro-short called Crossing Paths at the end of June. It was a small production, all volunteer, but two crew members who volunteered to help on that film, Monika Kopčilová and Sarah Portelli, we would use in paid crew roles on Machination. We saw the way they worked on set and we wanted to work with them again.
We crewed the whole film with people we knew, had worked with previously, or who were highly recommended to us. One person, who would prove crucial, was our animal wrangler Robert Mercieca, and he was recommended by Steffi. Worms feature heavily in Machination and Rob sourced all the worms for us, dealing with the local suppliers he already knew and getting inside deals. Initially, we had thought to do this ourselves, but having Rob on the team saved us so much time, so much running around, and so much money I’m sure. The only role we had to advertise was for the special effects make-up artist as we never previously used a make-up artist for our improv films in Malta.
So get out there and connect. And if you can’t get out there because of this strange time we live in, connect online. “Find your tribe,” as Rob Hardy of Filmmaker Freedom would say.
Keep Crew Small
We were set to film just as the second wave of Covid-19 was hitting Malta and the cast and crew were beginning to worry. New restrictions would be introduced with the government limiting gatherings to 15 people. But we were never in danger of reaching that threshold. The maximum cast we used in any single day was two. Our busiest day only featured a crew of six. Most shooting days were done with a crew of only three or four.
Behind the scenes of shooting on Day 5, the 16th August, our small cast and crew minus Steffi taking on various roles.
Everyone multitasks. Sarah would co-direct or AD, co-produce, be the production designer, in fact be the entire art department, set dress, prop buy, design the colour palette of the film, plus organise and buy all the costumes, step in and help record sound as needed, and either cook or organise the catering every day. I would direct, schedule, produce, organise the contracts and the money, pick-up and return the gear, be the DOP, operate the camera and sound, set up the lights, keep track of the time and schedule. Our production assistants would double as our photographers, shoot behind the scenes, help Sarah with the art department as needed, help me with lights or blacking out windows or hold a reflector and so much more.
Small crews tend to be easier to motivate and work harder – there is no someone else to do it so nobody stands around. Because of this I find things move quicker. When everyone around you is working hard and you yourself lead by example your crew will follow. There is nowhere to hide.
Conversely, as I write this, I am also crewing for a few days on Jurassic World which is filming in Malta. Now, I know our micro-budget film is hardly comparable to a multi-million dollar Hollywood blockbuster, but every time I am on a set like that the amount of excess always strikes me as such a waste. So much time for so many crew is spent standing around doing nothing at all. It reminds me of a filmmaking joke:
How many PA’s does it take to screw in a light bulb?
Nine...
One to do it and eight others to wish they’d been asked.
Machination would also be the first time I would DP on a feature. I had done camera operating previously but never served as my own DP until now. It gave me a chance to learn more about lighting and really think about the shots I was getting and all the technical aspects. Because we wanted to keep things ultra small, I forced myself to step out of my comfort zone and take on a new role and learn by doing.
Sacrifice
Improvisation trains you to be flexible and open to change and this attitude extends to all aspects of the production. When we first wrote the outline for the film we envisioned ‘microbe monsters’, a physical manifestation of the germs Maria fears and sees around her. This would take the form of slime and would be done through CGI, however in order to do this, we would need a greenscreen setup in our apartment, a post production coordinator to oversee the technical aspects on set, and expensive visual effects.
One company quoted us $55,000AUD for the visual effects. Another was more reasonable at approximately €5000 for post and we strongly considered this offer but at the same time our film was developing further through rehearsals, the characters were growing, and the story was changing. We realised we could make Maria’s fears manifest another way – using live worms to represent decay and being dirty and more aspects of her character. And we could do this all practically without the need for any CGI, cutting a big portion of potential cost.
In the early outlines, we also had a night scene of Maria driving in her car, panicked, and for safety reasons we were going to film this in a greenscreen studio. We had done similar studio shoots in the past and went about getting quotes and options in Malta. But again realised we could change the story and it would still work well, maybe better, if we eliminated Maria’s car entirely and had her taking the bus surrounded by people, heightening her fear of the pandemic further. Cutting the car scenes would save us another few hundred euro.
We make films with the aim to make a profit. We want to do this full-time without the need for freelance gigs or day jobs to help get by. More often than not, we invest in our own work, primarily to maintain all the rights and control, but also because we enjoy making films too much to spend time chasing money and investment that could take years. We don’t care about festivals (in 2020 with everything moving online anyway do they matter?), we don’t care about awards, we care about the bottom line.
And to have a chance of success, especially in a saturated market where the worth of a feature is at an all time low, the budget needs to be kept as small as possible. So be willing to sacrifice to cut costs. Nothing in your story is sacred. You can always find another way, cheaper, often more creative, to achieve what you want.
Rehearse
It may seem counterintuitive when you want to speed into production but spending time on rehearsals is crucial. We had a month-long rehearsal process with our cast, holding nine different rehearsals, some solo with Steffi, others with Steffi and every other character in the film, no matter how small their role was.
The point is for the actor to spend time as the character, build the character, and explore as many different aspects of their psyche and their relationships as you can, so by the time you do get on set the actor has a clear picture of the character and can simply ‘be’. From here they react authentically to what is unfolding in front of them and the dialogue comes naturally. This actually means a faster production as the actor knows the character so well that they don’t need take after take to nail the scene and performance.
Steffi and Rambert go back in time to their childhood during rehearsals.
You may wonder what do you actually do in rehearsals when there are no scenes or lines to learn? The answer is many different things. Solo rehearsals would consist of discussions about the character but also scenarios where Maria would simply be the character, at home relaxing, or getting ready for work, or going for a walk, or getting a phone call to inform her something had happened to a family member. Give the actor time to live in the skin of the character.
Rehearsals with other actors would include scenarios where the characters acted out their past together, such as Maria’s landlord Peter springing a surprise house inspection on her. We would also discuss their relationships and in the case of Maria’s brother Yorgen we would come up with the family tree and explore their past at different stages of their lives, every time adding more and more layers to each character, building a solid and real person as much as possible.
Our mentor Robert Marchand, who teaches a process called Character Based Improvisation based off the films of Mike Leigh, explains that as a director you want to do most of your talking early, in rehearsal, so each point and each question is thoroughly discussed and dissected, and by the time you get to set there is nothing left to say. The actor simply knows the character inside and out. The last thing you want is one of those moments that directors fear on set where an actor asks, “what’s my motivation?”
The rehearsal process also led to many story changes for us too as we observed and discussed Maria and her relationship with Yorgen and the people in her life. It would spark new ideas and directions for us in the outline. Or something wouldn’t work in the outline given how the characters would interact with each other. So we would be constantly taking notes and making adjustments to the outline as we went. Only as the final rehearsals ended and we approached production week, did we write the final version of the outline to guide us through production.
So don’t skip rehearsal. It’s as important for you as it is for the cast.
To Pay or Not to Pay
Earlier I said keep your budget as low as possible. But often, the highest costs you will incur are cast and crew wages. It’s why keeping cast and crew small saves much money. But there is another way – everyone can volunteer their time on the film and in turn you can offer to defer wages and pay people should the film make money. You can even add additional incentives like profit share for cast or key crew in an effort to give everyone a greater stake in the film and its success.
We have certainly done this in the past and I won’t dismiss doing it again in the future. But despite your best efforts, no film is guaranteed to return its budget. So cast and crew may never be paid. This enters into a debate that has been going on in the film world for decades: are you exploiting cast and crew by asking them to work for free? It is a question we will discuss in a future article.
But I am proud to say we paid everyone on Machination (except for two crew members who asked to come volunteer on set for a day to learn) and we still kept the budget at €6000. Since I will be doing the editing myself, using another €4000 in post production to complete the film is feasible, thereby giving us a total budget of €10,000.
Our wages were low. €100 a day for our lead actors. €80 a day for our crew. But it is better than zero, and for Malta, which is a low income country, it is actually standard. I won’t go into details but in our three years of living in Malta, Sarah and I have both worked on a number of productions from international films to television to corporate production houses where the wage isn’t even as high as that.
And these wages were all flat rates, no matter how long the day went. We had only one day that went the typical 12 hours but we also had another day that only went 90 minutes. So it is possible to pay your cast and crew something, even if it is a token fee, and still make your micro-budget film at a very, very low cost. Your cast and crew will be grateful and feel more valued. After all, we all like to be paid for our art.
Conclusion
We are filmmakers. If you are reading this chances are you are too. We make films and it is far from the easiest calling out there. Sometimes it seems you need to move mountains to make your film but it doesn’t always have to be so. It can be done cheaply, quickly, and contrary to the project management triangle (fast, good, cheap – pick two), it can be done well also.
So find a way to tell your story with the resources you have or find a story to tell with the resources available to you. Making something is always better than doing nothing. It is better than talking about what you would do if you had this or that. With each film you grow, you learn, you add to your experience and portfolio and you create your own opportunities. Get out there and film; this pandemic has shown us life is too precious, too short, and too unpredictable to do anything else in life other than what you love.
This article was written by Ivan Malekin of Nexus Production Group