Making a Short Film in South Georgia

Georgia has a film industry, and most of it is north of Macon. But short films, documentaries and branded narrative work get made down here too, and there is real advantage in it: locations nobody has seen on screen, people willing to help, and no permit lines. Here is what a short actually requires.

Start with the script and the schedule

A short film is made or lost in pre-production. The script needs to be locked before anything else is planned, because every change moves the locations, the cast and the day count. From a locked script we build a shot list, a schedule and a list of what each scene needs: people, props, vehicles, light, time of day. A ten-page short is usually two or three shoot days if the schedule is honest.

Locations

South Georgia has farmhouses, storefronts, churches, dirt roads, river landings, gyms, diners and open country within a short drive of Douglas. Most of it belongs to somebody who will say yes if asked properly and given a date. Ask early, get it in writing, and plan for the power and the parking as well as the look.

Crew and gear

• A director of photography who has done narrative work, not just events. Lighting a scene to be cut with other scenes is a different skill.
• A sound recordist. Not a camera microphone. The single most common reason a short looks amateur is that it sounds amateur.
• Cinema cameras and lenses, lighting and grip. We rent all of it and we bring it to our own productions.
• Someone whose only job is continuity and the schedule.
• A plan for feeding people. A crew that is fed works. A crew that is not, quits at four.

Post-production is half the job

Editing, color grading, sound design and mixing, music and titles. A short that took three days to shoot can take weeks to finish properly, and the difference between a finished film and an assembled one is entirely in post. Budget time and money for it from the start. If the film needs original music or a voiceover, our studio records it.

Festivals and distribution

Decide before shooting where the film is meant to go. A festival short has a running-time sweet spot and technical delivery requirements. A branded short for a business needs cuts for social and a version for the website. Knowing the destination changes the edit and sometimes the aspect ratio.

For a look at how a shoot day runs, read what a shoot day actually looks like. For scheduling expectations, how long a video project actually takes.

Budgeting honestly

The parts of a short film budget that first-time filmmakers leave out are food, transportation, insurance, sound, and post-production. The parts they overspend on are the camera and the number of shoot days. A film shot on a modest camera with excellent sound and a careful edit beats one shot on a cinema camera with a boom operator who was also the driver. Put the money where the audience will notice it: performances, sound, light and the edit.

Branded narrative for businesses

Some of the best short-film work we do is for businesses that want something better than a commercial: a story about the farm, the shop, the founder, the town. A five-minute documentary about a family business is watched to the end in a way a thirty-second spot never is, and it lives on the website and at events for years. It is planned like a film and it is shot like one, which is why it works.

Frequently asked questions

Can you help develop the idea, or do I need a finished script? Bring either. Development and pre-production are part of the service.

Do you cast? We help find local cast and connect with actors in the region. Casting scope depends on the project.

What about drone shots? Establishing shots from the air are one of the most effective tools a short has, and we fly them as part of production.

Do you do documentaries? Yes. Documentary work is planned differently, with more shooting and a longer edit, and we talk it through before quoting.

32 Productions is in Douglas, GA. Call (912) 592-3376 to talk about a project.

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