An Indie Filmmaking Experiment: Two Actors, The Desert & $1,000 Production Budget

You have two actors, the open desert, and $1,000 production budget to shoot a feature film. Do you do it? For us, the answer was “absolutely!”

In the spring of 2016 I set out on a grand adventure, an experiment of sorts with fellow actress and producer Alexandra Boylan, director John K.D. Graham, and cinematographer Richard Galli. We trekked up and down mountains, just the four of us, for twelve days straight hauling gear and props to grab each shot for the feature film At Your Own Risk.

Written by Andrew Boylan, At Your Own Risk follows the story of two career-driven women who are hired to test out a unique geocache-inspired game deep in the New Mexico desert. What begins as a fun adventure quickly turns into something that neither of them had expected where nothing is as it seems.

How and why did we do this insane thing? I mean, who in their right mind would shoot a feature film with only four people and so little money? Well, when you have the right team that’s focused, tenacious, and up for anything, everything is possible.

I had been big fans of Alexandra and John’s work for many years watching them take three different feature films from conception to completion and selling to major distribution companies. At the time, I had made a number of award-winning shorts and digital series and was hungry to produce my first feature film. Aside from the fact that they were dear friends of mine, I knew that they were people I definitely wanted to collaborate with as filmmakers.

They had just come off of their third feature film and wanted to take a break and go back to their guerrilla filmmaking roots. At the same time, we were all interested in venturing into the world of “hybrid” or “self” distribution. This type of distribution means that there are no gatekeepers between you and your audience, and no big companies taking ridiculous amounts of money away from the filmmakers right off the top. It equalizes the playing field and puts power back in the hands of the creators. With this as groundwork, we set out to make a feature film for as little money as possible to test the land of this new distribution model.

One of the biggest mistakes that filmmakers make is trying to shoot something beyond their means, but the key to micro-budget filmmaking is looking first at what you have immediately available to you. We knew we had Alexandra and I as actors and John’s parents’ sprawling property just outside of Alamogordo, New Mexico where they shot their first feature film Home Sweet Home. We also had insanely talented cinematographer and camera person Richard Galli who shot their previous three feature films, editor extraordinaire Lex Benedict, and composing rockstar Sean Barrett all on board. Andrew Boylan then penned the script based on the tools and talent we knew we had and the type of story we wanted to tell. From there, we structured the film as a co-op, where each person would own a piece of the pie.

All in all, At Your Own Risk is something we are truly doing at our own risk. Pun intended. While the production budget was only $1,000, once all is said and done, to finish and distribute this feature film we are spending a total of $5,000. That’s it. Well, $5,000 and hours upon hours of hard work and elbow grease.

Now that this movie is officially released on iTunes we’ll know if this experiment will have paid off as far as a business venture. But more importantly, I think we’ve already succeeded. We made a movie on our own terms, in our own time, in a way that we wanted to do it. We are showing smart, capable, empowered women in a way that women in their thirties are rarely seen on screen, and with one of the lead characters being a minority female as well. We are telling a story for an underserved demographic who are desperate for stories that accurately reflect who they really are, and that is invaluable.

But we’d love to hear from you! Did we succeed in this grand filmmaking experiment? Watch for yourself and see what tenacity, innovation, and the love of pure guerilla filmmaking can create.

‘At Your Own Risk’ is now available on VOD exclusively via iTunes in 40+ English speaking territories. Please rate, review and share the love.

Filmmaker bundles that include a Behind the Scenes featurette and filmmaker Commentary are available at atyourownriskmovie.com.

Helenna Santos is an actor, writer, producer, and the founder of Ms. In The Biz. Follow her on instagram and twitter.