Making a Short Film Alone

Summary by Krater

Filmmaker Joe Simon discusses how he shot, lit, and edited his sci-fi short film 'The Volunteer' entirely by himself during quarantine.

From the video

Answers: How did Joe Simon make his sci-fi short film The Volunteer during quarantine by himself?

• indie filmmaking during quarantine
• one-man film crew workflow
• location scouting for low budget film
• lighting with single light sources
• atmosphere aerosol for cinematic fog
• DaVinci Resolve video editing

What it concludes

• Building your story around locations you have available makes small-scale production look big without needing large budgets.
• Shooting during the blue hour or golden hour helps make a low-budget project look cinematic and polished.
• Using single-source lighting combined with tools like Atmosphere Aerosol adds depth, texture, and separation to interior scenes.
• Switching from Premiere to DaVinci Resolve for editing, color grading, and audio mixing resulted in faster workflows and fewer crashes.