The document provides 10 rules for making low-budget "microbuster" films with blockbuster ambitions for £23,000 or less. The rules emphasize focusing on strong characters over spectacle, thoroughly preparing the script, utilizing available local resources as locations and crew, ensuring all crew take on multiple roles, prioritizing good sound quality over picture quality, and knowing when the film is good enough to be completed rather than striving for perfection. The document also introduces Wildseed Studios which funds small films with potential to succeed.

1. 10 Rules of the
Microbuster
How to make an award
winning feature film for
£23k…

2. What is Wildseed
and Who Am I?
Wildseed Studios is a next Generation
media company.
We have applied the VC model of investing
into tech companies to new IP. We make
mulptiple small investment into seeding
new IP and quickly back the projects that
connect.
My Name is Jesse Cleverly, and I am
Creative Director.
I have held senior editorial positions at the
BBC and have Executive Produced multi
million dollar drama productions.
I left that world for because of the
explosion of opportunities in digital where
everyone can produce and distribute high
quality media.

3. Case Study
Hungerford was selected for SC-FI-
LONDON ,and Drew became the youngest
director on record to have a feature film
screened at the NFT
Hungerford won Best Sci-Fi Horror at the
Berlin Independent Film Festival, received a
Special Jury Mention at Fantasporto where
actress Georgia Bradley, with no previous
screen credits, won Best Actress for her role
as Phillipa.
The film cost £23,000 to make
‘Microbuster’ are movies made
on micro budgets but with
blockbuster ambitions

4. RULE ONE
Character beats spectacle.
Spend a great deal of time on your
characters and their journeys.
Don’t attempt to compete on spectacle;
you will never win against a Hollywood
blockbuster.
Don’t build an incredibly complex plot that
requires extravagant set pieces to keep the
story moving.
Well worked character storylines will do all
the hard work of keeping the audience
engaged fare more than huge set pieces or
special effects - and cost far less to pull off.

5. Rule Two
Get your story straight
You are probably writing this yourself which
means the work you do on this is more or
less free - which means you should do lots
and lots of work on it.
Spend as much time as you can getting the
story structure right and making sure that it
was achievable on the slender resources
that you have.
If the script isn’t right the film is very
unlikely to work.
Don’t start shooting until someone whose
judgment you trust tells you it’s as ready as
it can be – or until you can pitch it to a
room full of people and not feel self
conscious once – which is a really effective
story test.

6. Rule Three
Use what you have got to hand
Write your script around the resources
available to you.
Live near a disused factory? Set your film
there.
Have a mate with a drone? Use it.
Have friends with spare bedrooms in a
particular location – shoot there and make
sure the cast and crew aren’t expecting
hotel accommodation.
Know someone with an amazing face –
write them a non speaking cameo – and so
on.

7. Rule Four
Everyone should have at least two jobs
Multi-taking is the name of the game.
Jobsworth’s kill the can-do energy you
need to get though this.
No one should be expecting to pay the rent
from your shoot – this is for the experience
and the chance to step up to roles above
their current level.
Sometimes this means you can’t use a
professional.
Someone needs to be in charge of Health
and Safety .
Insurance for low budget film is cheap and
essential if you want to hire any
professional equipment.

8. Rule Five
If you cannot do something, teach
yourself on YouTube
YouTube is truly an astonishing education
and ‘how-to’ resource. We needed a
special effects make-up artist – the
producer’s daughter taught herself to make
wounds and burns on YouTube
Sometimes though you just have to hire a
pro. One of our most valuable hires was
our acting coach, Sarah Perugia. Our cast
were unknown and Sarah helped us draw
some wonderful (award winning!)
performances out of them – performances
which became the bedrock for why people
love the film – they believe in and they care
for the characters.

9. Rule Six
The best camera is the cheapest decent
one you can get.
If you get an experienced camera person
involved they will have strong preferences
for particular camera and lens packages.
It’s important that you get pictures that are
technically up to scratch.
It’s more important that your camera is
robust, easy and quick enough to use and
above all cheap, preferably free.
The success of the film will not rest on the
quality of the picture once you get past a
basic quality threshold. Also, tripods,
dollies and even lights are your enemy -
they make everything slower unlike hand-
held shots in available light which are quick
to set up and adjust.

10. Rule Seven
Sound is more important than picture
While you can get away with a lot in terms
of picture, if your sound recording is not
good the film will be unwatchable.
Get a decent sound kit and try and get
someone on sound that knows what they
are doing.
Good sound will save you days and
thousands of pounds in post-production
and will help the audience to engage with
your film.
Bad sound will shut them out of the story
and kill it. Keep some money back to go to
a great post-production house they will add
a huge amount to the film

11. Rule Eight
Take advantage of ‘prosumer’
technology
You can achieve and incredible amount
with an edit machine that will cost you less
than £2,000.
This is a revelation to anyone who has
been brought up using the post houses of
Soho.
With a £2k computer, which one of the
crew ordered the bits for then assembled
themselves, and a Adobe Creative Cloud
license, you have a complete post
production facility on your desk that will
take you from edit to grade if you want it to.

12. Generated by scenechronize on 4/15/2015 at 10:12 AM PDT
Story Day Scene Time to Shoot Scene Summary I/E Day 8ths Set Location
10.00 23a 0.5hrs, 1hr They sit in the barn - Sarge and Phil explain what happened to themINT DAY 10.00 2 5/8 BARN BARN
10.00 24 0.5hrs, 1hr Chloe and Sam sit with Adam who has his head in his handsINT DAY 10.00 0 4/8 BARN BARN
11.00 25a 1hr Phil comes to, realises that she's had the transfusion, they untie herINT DAY 11.00 1 1/8 BARN BARN
11.30 24b 1.5hrs Sam and Chloe walk outside, spot Cowen and Phil, the ship is heardEXT DAY 11.30 1 0/8 BARN BARN
13.00 LUNCH
14.00 26 1hr Phil is shaky, Cowen and Adam try to get the bug off her and she screamsINT DAY 14.00 0 4/8 BARN BARN
15.00 30 1hr They wake up - Sarge and Chloe are gone. They leave, Sam picks up cameraINT DAY 15.00 0 2/8 BARN BARN
16.00 DRESS FOR NIGHT
16.30 29 0.5hrs Sam and Chloe talk - she says they're the only family they have leftINT NIGHT 16.300 1/8 BARN BARN
17.00 29a 1hr Sarge and Cowen talk INT NIGHT 17.001 2/8 BARN BARN
18.00 29b 0.5hrs Sam and Kipper giggle in the darkINT NIGHT 18.000 1/8 BARN BARN
18.30 29c 0.5hrs Chloe sleeps - someone comes in and kidnaps herINT NIGHT 18.300 1/8 BARN BARN
End of Day # 1 - Shoot Saturday, April 18, 2015 7 5/8 pages
09.30 23 1hr They arrive at base, find PhilEXT DAY 09.30 0 4/8 BARN BARN
10.30 25b 1hr Sarge, Hop and Ricky move the bodiesEXT DAY 10.30 1 6/8 BARN BARN
12.00 LUNCH
13.00 25 4hrs The battle rages - Phil is infected. Blood transfusion.INT DAY 13.00 1 0/8 BARN BARN
Possibly more 'Woods Travelling'
18.00 31 1hr They find Sarge dead EXT DAY 18.00 0 2/8 BARN BARN
End of Day # 2 - Shoot Sunday, April 19, 2015 3 4/8 pages
10.00 12a 1hr The boat proceeds down the river - travelling shotsEXT DAY 10.00 0 1/8 RIVER RIVER
11.00 17a 1hr The boat continues up river - they see something nasty TBCEXT DAY 11.00 3 2/8 RIVER RIVER
12.00 13 0.5hrs They come to a house scope it out with binoculars - it seems abandoned, they get out of the boatEXT DAY 12.00 0 1/8 RIVER - OUTSIDE OLD PEOPLE'S HOUSERIVER - OUTSIDE
13.00 LUNCH
14.00 19 2hrs People on a bridge - it's a trap. They jump into the water and alien ships arrive. Body falls on cameraEXT DAY 14.00 0 2/8 RIVER - AMBUSH BRIDGE RIVER - AMBUSH B
16.00 11a 0.5hrs They see burning London, find a boat on the beachINT DAY 16.00 0 0/8 LONDON BEACH RIVERBANK
16.30 16 1hr On boat - see a crowd of children. Cowen throws them the apple, Adam shoots in the air to scatter themEXT DAY 16.30 0 2/8 RIVER WITH SILENT CHILDREN RIVER WITH SILEN
18.00 20 0.5hrs The boat is holed - time to proceed on footEXT DAY 18.00 0 1/8 RIVERBANK RIVERBANK
End of Day # 3 - Shoot Monday, April 20, 2015 4 1/8 pages
10.00 17 1.5hrs, 1hr They find a camp on the island, the fire is coldEXT DAY 10.00 0 4/8 ISLAND IN THE RIVER ISLAND IN THE RIV
11.00 17a 1.5hrs, 1hr Adam teaches Chloe how to use a knife - the group find him and argueEXT DAY 11.00 3 3/8 ISLAND IN THE RIVER ISLAND IN THE RIV
12.30 LUNCH
13.00 TRAVEL 1/2 hour
14.00 18 1hr, 2hrs They travel down the river - and stop to help a kid who says his parents are in troubleEXT DAY 14.00 0 5/8 RIVER OUTSIDE SAILING CLUB SAILING CLUB
15.00 18a 1hr, 2hrs They arrive and are ambushed. Adam shoots the two men, Chloe kills BrianINT DAY 15.00 0 4/8 SAILING CLUB SAILING CLUB
17.00 20a 1hr They travel through a field - see a family being killed by an alien shipEXT DAY 17.00 0 1/8 BEAUTIFUL FIELD WOODS
Possibly more 'Woods Travelling'
End of Day # 4 - Shoot Tuesday, April 21, 2015 5 1/8 pages
10.00 10 2hrs Group arrive at rebel base, find bleeding female doctor who circles Manchester on the map. The group resupplyINT DAY 10.00 1 0/8 REBEL BASE CID BASEMENT
12.00 10a 2hrs Cowen and Adam argue about going to Oxford or ManchesterINT DAY 12.00 1 2/8 REBEL BASE CID BASEMENT
12.30 LUNCH
13.30 3 1hr Bob goes through Chloe's bag, Sam tells him to stopINT DAY 13.30 1 1/8 BOB'S DEN IN TUNNELS CID BASEMENT
14.30 3a 1hr Cowen, Adam and Kipper arrive in the tunnels and argue with BobINT DAY 14.30 2 4/8 BOB'S DEN IN TUNNELS CID BASEMENT
15.30 3b 1hr Bob talks to Cowen about how they each got there - Cowen says they are looking for PhilINT DAY 15.30 2 4/8 BOB'S DEN IN TUNNELS CID BASEMENT
16.00 TEA BREAK
16.30 4 1hr Cowen talks to Chloe - shows her picture of Phil. Adam appears and is angryINT DAY 16.30 0 4/8 ELSEWHERE IN TUNNELS CID BASEMENT
17.30 7 1.5hrs Chloe sees Bob with the Bayonet - wakes the group up, Bob goes crazy, Adam kills BobINT DAY 17.30 0 2/8 BOB'S DEN IN TUNNELS CID BASEMENT
Rule Nine
Shoot the core of your movie first, then
pick up the connective tissue.
People will give up time to work on your
film if it isn’t going to go on for too long.
Shoot the core in 9 days then have 3 days
of pickups. The 9 days were incredibly
intense but achievable .
Shoot the spine of the story during the first
nine days of the shoot, edit it together, and
then come back to pickup what you need.
Plan your days carefully, stick to your
schedule, have weather cover if you are
filming in the UK, avoid lengthy travel
between locations– those hours stuck on
the motorway are supremely unproductive.

13. Rule Ten
Know When Good Is Enough
Performance energy trumps perfect
composition every time.
They say a film is never finished, you just
run out of time. That can be a killer attitude
if your director runs away with it.
Everything has to be good enough to
justify its place in the film, but perfection is
a multi-million dollar ambition.
Do not strive for perfection - know when
good is good enough.
Show just enough of a visual effect for the
audience to buy it but not long enough for
them to start looking at how it was done –
he’s on to the next thing in a flash.

14. THAT’S IT
Contact:
Jesse.cleverly@wildseedstudios.
Buy the movie:
itunes: http://wild.sd/itunes
Google Play: http://wild.sd/google
Amazon: http://wild.sd/amazon
Watch us on Youtube:
https://www.youtube.com/user/wildseedcomedy
https://www.youtube.com/user/wildseedscifi
https://www.youtube.com/user/wildseedstudios