Commandments for Ultra-Independent Filmmaking

Ted Hope posted a list of “No-Budget Commandments” on Truly Free Film yesterday, which he put together with his colleagues when his production company, The Good Machine, was starting out. It’s interesting to see how many of these we abided by when making Stranger Things without ever having encountered the list or even many people who think along these lines.

Adeel Akhtar (Mani) between takes, STRANGER THINGS

Bridget Collins (Oona) on location, STRANGER THINGS

Some of the principles we followed included writing to direct and writing for what we knew and what we could obtain. Writing for our location and for our actors also helped us enormously with co-directing, as we hadn’t imagined up vastly different versions of the characters or locations from each other. We knew we had to be flexible filmmakers and we always wanted to make an intimate film, so that one came easily. For anyone planning to make an independent film without a huge amount of money behind them, I would definitely recommend checking out the full list of commandments.