Guerrilla Filmmaking Techniques – Paranormal Activity

Guerrilla Filmmaking Techniques

photo credit: moonfletcher

Oren Peli is the first time director behind the smash hit Paranormal Activity, an excellent example of guerrilla filmmaking techniques. Oren did not go to film school and most of his training consisted of operating a video camera for his University's TV station.

How he made his hit film is however a textbook example of how guerrilla filmmaking techniques can create a blockbuster successful movie on a tiny budget. I'm going to go through some of the key points of how he did it in this post.

Guerrilla Filmmaking Techniques -The Idea

Oren admits that he has been afraid of ghosts and ghost movies his entire life. He decided that maybe he could make something positive out of that by making a ghost movie. Read more

Guerrilla Filmmaking Examples

Guerrilla Filmmaking Examples

photo credit: Sérgio Savaman Savarese

There are many guerrilla filmmaking examples that are well documented and are great sources for learning filmmaking.

Recent Guerrilla Filmmaking Examples

Among the best recent examples is Paranormal Activity which was produced for a budget of $15,000 and went on to gross $150 million. The first-time director, Oren Peli, used one video camera and shot the movie in his house. Read more

Guerrilla Filmmaking 101

guerrilla filmmaking

photo credit: mononukleoza

Guerrilla filmmaking is defined as independent filmmaking on a very low budget using whatever you can find.

The risk of guerrilla filmmaking techniques is that you might do something that someone doesn't like and they sue you for all you're worth. But if your net-worth is zero, what do you have to lose?

Since many of the people reading this blog have budgets that will require guerrilla filmmaking I thought it would be fun to explore and share some of the techniques I've learned and get your feedback on what has worked for you. Read more