Filmmakers produce with pennies
“You don’t have to rely on a rich uncle to make a film.”
Filmmakers Helmann Wilhelm and Ava Torres shared this mantra when explaining why their micro-budget filmmaking workshop, coming up this Thursday at the Kitchener Public Library has such value in an industry often focused solely on value.
But it doesn’t have to be that way.
After film school in Toronto (where the pair met) Wilhelm, a Kitchener native and Eastwood grad found himself in the director’s chair, while Toronto-born Torres excelled in the producer’s role. After stints on major sets – with major budgets – like Suicide Squad and My Father and the Man in Black, Torres and Wilhelm began to focus on their own projects.
While the sets they trained on were studded with massive teams, costly sets, extensive cast, and lighting, sound and videography equipment that could break the bank, Wilhelm and Torres leaned on the micro budget model ($5,000, if you’re lucky). And they got noticed for it too.
“Starting out, a lot of people use their technology or status to intimidate in the film scene,” says Wilhelm. “We were using our living room lamp as lighting and didn’t want to be labelled as amateurs. But once we gained recognition we thought we should promote it, and encourage people not to be afraid to work with what they have.”
Their title, Through Rose Colored Glasses was a film in selection at that National Screen Institute of Canada, and the pair has also made it on bill for the Orlando Film Festival, the Cannes Short Film Corner, and the Holly Shorts.
From there, the duo’s micro-budget filmmaking workshop was born, and, in Wilhelm’s case, brought back home.
“We wanted to bring this back to his roots,” says Torres. “There’s this mythical belief that you need a huge budget, that you need to go to LA. But really, you can make something in your backyard, you can make something in Kitchener.”
The workshop will focus on that kind of ingenuity: the research required for granting and funding models, the creativity to capitalize on natural sets and lighting, and largely, the importance of not getting caught up in what Wilhelm calls “pixel counting.”
“It’s not about how much your camera costs,” says Wilhelm. “The equipment and all that other stuff complements the narrative of a film, but it’s not the main feature.”
Wilhelm and Torres are hosting their micro-budget filmmaking workshop at the Kitchener Public Library on Thursday, September 22, from 4-7p.m. Admission is free.
Photos by: Leo Lai.