Show Don't Tell: Micro-Budget Filmmaking

Noam Kroll

Each week, filmmaker Noam Kroll shares valuable insight into the world of micro-budget filmmaking, geared towards true DIY filmmakers looking to get out there and create their own films.

  1. 1d ago

    Directing Charli XCX With A Crew Of 3 & Playing Sundance, SXSW And TIFF In One Year With Pete Ohs

    In this episode, I'm joined by filmmaker Pete Ohs for his third appearance, and there's a lot to catch up on. Since we last spoke, Pete made Erupcja, a feature starring Charli XCX that he shot in Warsaw with no script, a crew of three, and the same Canon 5D Mark III running a Magic Lantern raw hack he's used on every film in his process. The film premiered at TIFF, in a year where he also had The True Beauty of Being Bitten by a Tick at SXSW and Obex, which he co-wrote, shot, and edited with Albert Birney, at Sundance. Throughout the episode Pete tells the full story of meeting Charli at 3am in a Lower East Side bar with Jeremy O. Harris just before Brat came out, and how the project survived Brat summer to shoot three months later, right before her world tour. We get into why he pitches actors an experience rather than an idea, how his "don't care" philosophy kept the stakes low even with a global pop star on board, why he finally signed with a manager, and how he wrote his first script in years using the exact same process: two weeks in a friend's backyard, three scenes a day, all in the Notes app. Topics covered include: Meeting Charli XCX at 3am with Jeremy O. Harris, weeks before BratPitching actors an experience instead of a scriptShooting every film on the same 5D Mark III with a Magic Lantern raw hackWhy "don't care" is baked into his process, even with a pop star on setHaving three films on the festival circuit at the same timeSpotting the carrot on a string and not chasing false opportunitiesWhy he signed with a manager now and not years agoWriting a feature in two weeks, three scenes a day, in the Notes appThe simple math behind his 70 to 80 minute featuresEveryone should make movies, but not everyone needs to see themBeing honest with yourself when your film isn't getting into festivalsWorking through the top ten festival deadlines and letting sales agents handle the restIntuition as a director's most important skill, and how to train it dailyHis new Patreon as a virtual DVD special features hubMuch More!Links from the show: Pete Ohs on Instagram Pete Ohs on Patreon Sign up for my newsletter for exclusive filmmaking insight each Sunday

  2. Aug 27

    4x Grammy Nominee Grace Potter On Making DIY Music Videos & Performing With The Rolling Stones

    In this episode, I'm joined by four-time Grammy nominee Grace Potter to talk about her new record Trespasser, the microfilm series she built alongside it, and the long road back to the film career she walked away from at nineteen. Grace left film school to become a rock star, signed to Disney in 2005, and wrote the song that closes Tangled, but she never stopped writing screenplays or thinking like a filmmaker. Her way back in started with a music video she wrote and directed herself, and she's been shooting ever since. Throughout the interview we get into her guerrilla approach to production, why she's trespassed on more locations than she can count, and what Mick Jagger taught her about instinct you have to earn. Topics covered include: Leaving film school to become a rock starSigning with Disney and writing the song that ends TangledHow songwriting and screenwriting use the same muscleWhy the first idea is usually the right oneDirecting her first music video, and the broken rib that followedGuerrilla shooting, trespassing on locations, and working fast Trusting the goosebumps as your creative compassThe Viper Room pitch that launched her film careerWhat Mick Jagger's silver jacket says about preparation and instinctAuditioning actors instead of musicians to build her bandWhy she chose microfilms over another music videoMuch More!Links from the show: Grace Potter - Website Grace Potter - Album & Micro Series Links Sign up for my newsletter for exclusive filmmaking insight each Sunday

  3. Aug 12

    Landing The GREEN DAY Movie "Nimrods", Rescuing "Coyote Vs. Acme" & Building A Fan Owned Studio With Legion M

    In this episode, I'm joined by Legion M co-founders Jeff Annison and Paul Scanlan to talk about the new Green Day comedy Nimrods, hitting theaters August 14, and how the world's first fan-owned entertainment company ended up behind it and Coyote vs. Acme after three years on the shelf. Jeff and Paul break down a model that doesn't exist anywhere else in Hollywood. Over 60,000 people now co-own Legion M, with an average investment of $500 and a minimum of $100, and they've raised roughly $30 to $35 million across the studio, individual films, and their new film fund. As Jeff puts it, their entire existence has cost less than the first ten minutes of a Marvel movie. Along the way they financed the William Shatner documentary in four days with two emails, produced My Dead Friend Zoe with Morgan Freeman and Ed Harris, and co-released Fackham Hall with Bleecker Street. We also get into the business realities most filmmakers never learn: why the group of people green-lighting projects narrows every year, and why your movie ultimately boils down to its trailer, title, and key art. Paul walks through the New Year's Rev to Nimrods title change, and tells the story of pitching Green Day on a Comic-Con panel only to be told that punk rock bands don't do panels, which is how Billie Joe Armstrong ended up performing from the roof of an ice cream truck while the band threw ice cream at the crowd. Topics covered include: How a fan-owned studio works, and why it has advantagesGetting to 60,000 investors one at a time, and the goal of reaching one millionThe three ways to invest: the studio, individual films, and the film fundHow Legion M polls its community to decide which projects to pursueThe community response that pushed them toward Coyote vs. AcmeJeff's contrarian take on David Zaslav and the shelving decisionWhy they went after Nimrods and Obsession out of TIFF, and what happenedThe title change and the marketing balancing act around a Green Day audienceThe Comic-Con activation with Billie Joe Armstrong and the ice cream truckWhy distribution should be the first thing a filmmaker thinks about, not the lastJeff and Paul's definitions of a great directorLinks from the show: Legion M - Website Sign up for my newsletter for exclusive filmmaking insight each Sunday

  4. Aug 1

    Writing A Shudder Horror Feature In 10 Days & Making A Micro Budget Paranoia Thriller With Michael Moreci

    In this episode, I'm joined by writer, director, and bestselling comics author Michael Moreci, whose reentry into filmmaking came in the form of Revealer, a single-location horror film set in a 1980s Chicago peep show booth. He wrote the film in about ten days and it later premiered on Shudder. Since then he's co-written and co-directed the heist comedy Holiday Hold-Up, written on Syfy's Revival, and continued a long career in comics on series like Barbaric and Dick Tracy.Throughout the episode we get into the discipline that lets you write a feature in ten days, why he thinks directing is mostly pre-production and post, how the crew community at Flyover Studios in Illinois has become the lifeblood of everything he makes, and the hard lesson that the second film is harder to get made than the first. Topics covered include:Writing Revealer in ten days and more or less shooting the first draftWhy a thorough outline is what actually lets you write fastWearing the writer hat and the director hat, and why you can't wear both at onceSplitting one narrative feature between four directors, one per characterClarity of vision as the thing that makes every on-set decision easyHow an abandoned Air Force base became Flyover StudiosBuilding a crew community that stays, grows, and moves laterallyWhat writing for a cable series taught him about what he doesn't wantWhy comics training makes you fast, economical, and better at editingSomehow holding the Dick Tracy comic rights, and the value of just askingAll of this and much more on today's show! Links from the show: Michael Moreci on Instagram Tessellation official site Revealer on Shudder Flyover Film Studios Barbaric from Vault Comics Sign up for my newsletter for exclusive filmmaking insight each Sunday

  5. Jul 24

    Behind The Scenes: Writing My First Musical Score

    In this solo episode I break down the process of writing a musical score for the first time on my upcoming short film Crow. Topics covered include: Why the advice to "specialize in one area" was never right for meEditing the entire rough cut with zero music in 10 to 20 second chunksLocking in sound design before any temp score so music never becomes a crutchScoring all five cues out of order, starting with the final cue and working backwardsWhere the process stands now: rough guitar demos down, next up is re-recordingMuch more!Big thanks to Soundstripe for executive producing the film and sponsoring this episode. Check out their new Soundstripe LIVE tool at soundstripe.com/noam Sign up for my newsletter for exclusive filmmaking insight each Sunday

  6. Jul 17

    Shooting A $4,000 Feature With No Crew At 61, Mixing Emmy-Winning TV Sound & Why "Write The Film You Can Shoot" - With Mark Hensley

    In this episode, I'm joined by filmmaker and re-recording mixer Mark Hensley to talk about his micro-budget feature Clown and Out in Valley Village, which he shot guerrilla style over the course of a year with no crew, a cast of two, and a total budget of around $4,000 (half of which went to a single permit). Mark shares how he found the script through a Facebook writing group, cut a 200-page draft down to something shootable, and built a workflow around editing each scene the night it was shot so he and his actors could review the footage and reshoot anything that wasn't working. We also dive deep into his remarkable background in sound, from recording music at the Record Plant in Sausalito to mixing major network TV shows in LA, and the practical audio techniques every indie filmmaker should steal from his playbook. Topics covered include: Why shooting slowly over a year with no crew is a creative advantageOperating as a one man band with the S1H, an RS3 Pro gimbal, and lavs into cameraWhy no single plugin fixes bad dialogue, and rescuing scenes with tools like DX ReviveHaving actors re-run scenes as audio-only safety takes to patch dropouts in postWhen emotional production sound beats technically perfect ADRShooting guerrilla style in LA, and why a boom mic is the one giveaway to avoidKnowing your coverage in advance instead of shooting every scene wide-medium-closeRenting vs. buying gear, and why becoming a filmmaker means owning a cameraWhy anybody can become a filmmaker, even starting at 55 with zero experienceSign up for my newsletter for exclusive filmmaking insight each Sunday

  7. Jul 5

    Partnering With Joe Swanberg & Shooting A Puppet Horror Feature In 11 Days - With Aidan Leary & C.R. Thompson

    In this episode, I'm joined by Aidan Leary and C.R. Thompson, the writing team behind Monkey's Magic Merry Go Round. A micro-budget horror feature pitched as Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood meets Evil Dead 2, produced by mumblecore legend Joe Swanberg. Throught the episode Aidan and C.R. share the wild origin story of the film, from a screenplay written in just two weeks, to them living in the back of Joe Swanberg's video store just two months later after he bought it. We also get into the nuts and bolts of the 11-day shoot: directing without a first AD, running a crew of about a dozen people inside the Chicago Children's Theater, hiring set builders straight off PBS, and their lightning fast post-production process. Topics covered include: Turning a childhood nightmare about an evil monkey puppet into a featureFour-act structure vs. three-act structure, and the South Park methodUsing Joe Swanberg's own pitching technique to sell him the scriptJoe's best advice: the only wrong decision is no decisionIntentional continuity breaks as a creative safety netEditing lessons: temp sound effects, test screenings, and killing your darlingsWhy editors often make the best directorsMuch more!Links from this episode: Film on Instagram Aidan Leary on Instagram C.R. Thompson on Instagram Sign up for my newsletter for exclusive filmmaking insight each Sunday

  8. Jun 26

    From 80 Acting Credits To Producing Her First Feature, Plus How To Actually Crowdfund A Film On WeFunder - With Hannah Barefoot

    In this episode, I'm joined by actor and filmmaker Hannah Barefoot to talk about building a career as a working actor, her recurring role on NCIS: Origins, our new short film Crow, and the leap into producing and crowdfunding her own first feature, Wyoming Christmas Carol. Throughout the interview Hannah breaks down how she went from a string of day jobs to 80 film and TV credits, and how that's now led her into feature filmmaking. We also get deep into the producer side of indie filmmaking. Hannah shares exactly how she's financing Wyoming Christmas Carol through a WeFunder equity crowdfunding campaign, why fiscal sponsorship matters for filmmakers, and the practical steps for building pitch materials that actually convert. Topics covered include: Hannah's path from small-town Wyoming to 80+ film and TV creditsBurning out, quitting acting, and finding her way back in her late twentiesLanding a recurring role on NCIS: OriginsWhy the "small" no-budget projects are so often the ones that change everythingFinancing a feature through WeFunder equity crowdfundingFiscal sponsorship, 501(c)(3)s, and why they matter for indie filmmakersShooting in-character photo shoots to sell a project more effectivelyMuch more!Links from the show: Wyoming Christmas Carol - WeFunder Wyoming Christmas Carol - Instagram Hannah Barefoot - Instagram Sign up for my newsletter for exclusive filmmaking insight each Sunday

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Each week, filmmaker Noam Kroll shares valuable insight into the world of micro-budget filmmaking, geared towards true DIY filmmakers looking to get out there and create their own films.

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