To paraphrase Clint Eastwood’s character, Dirty Harry, in Magnum Force, a “video producer’s got to know their limitations.” This doesn’t mean settling. It means maximizing the effectiveness of the resources available and not worrying about the ones you don’t. Let’s be real, unless you’re Steven Spielberg, there are always resources you wished you could have on set that you don’t. Heck, I bet even Spielberg doesn’t always get the cast he wants.

So what if you don’t get the all of the equipment, locations and actors you wanted on your production? Focus on what you can control. And the thing you can always control is the story. Make the story the hero.

If you’re as old as me, you may remember the late 90s cinema movement called Dogme. The idea was to strip away the unnecessary and focus on the story and acting. It led to some great stories and performances that in some cases were poorly lit and recorded but none the less powerful pieces of cinema. These movies proved that a great story is the most important part of filmmaking.

When it comes to the production budget, at Fluid Films, we like to see how many resources we can afford on a project and then figure out how we can maximize those instead of worrying about the limitations.

For example:

If we can’t afford an expensive location how do we dress one we can afford to make it look it’s best.

If we can’t afford the most expensive camera package, figure out how to work within the limitations of the one we have.

If the actor we wanted wasn’t available, maybe we can tweak their part so we can get the best possible performance to fit the one we have.

These are just some ways we’ve thought of to make the most of the projects we’ve worked on in the past. To learn how we can help you produce great video with your production budget, contact us here.