Joel Haver Teaches What “No Budget” Actually Means

Movie Being Filmed by Karl Wolfgang Böhmer

The oscars define a feature length film as being 40 minutes long at least. That seems a little short, but at least it’s a definition everyone can agree on. Film buffs have long touted movies with budgets in the thousands, sometimes ten or even hundred thousand dollars as being “no budget” or “micro budget” films. A lot of young people getting into the world of films and film making are very discouraged hearing numbers like this. These big numbers make it seem like it’s impossible to create a serious or real film for anything under thousands of dollars. Joel Haver shows us that anyone can make “real” films with aboslutely no money at all.

In the case of Joel’s no budget movies, zero dollars is actually zero dollars. So far he has 15 feature length films on YouTube! For free. Yes, that’s right, and he’s going to make more. His movies aren’t for everyone, but they make a point. Art is for everyone. Anyone can make art that is valid and valuable to others.

He encourages people to just go for it, and make a movie. Even without any planning, script, or fancy equipment this is possible. In fact lots of Joel Haver’s work has no script. When shooting, Joel and his friends often just make up lines prior to shooting a scene. A movie made like this might not look like what you see in cinemas, but it can still have the ability to connect with people.

References

• Special Rules For Feature Film – General Entry Rule Two Eligibility from oscars.org