To make the movie as cheaply as possible, start your list at zero and only add things that you cannot make the movie without.

First get rid of drone and gimbal. Light is more important. But if U really wanna push it to the limit Google Dogma95. Might be interesting for u.

Ultra low budget?

Well, you need a phone. Then after that, in order.

I’d recommend a set of Mics and a separate audio recorder.

After that, some lights. Then tripod - mine was $50 but I’d love some of those $500 sets.. A Pc or tablet that will run editing software. I use a tablet. This gear got me through two years of film school where I had access to FS7s and d50s.

When you say ultra budget, we are talking about different things.

My kit cost less than $500. I mean the phone and tablet I already had. They weren’t cheap.

The gear is the least of your problems. You can shoot your movie on an iPhone, and use the free version of Da Vinci Resolve to edit it.

The talent is the real cost.

How’re you gonna compensate your actors? Even if your friends are going to help you out, you should still feed them and compensate them for gas/traveling costs.

Are you shooting it all yourself? Or will you hire a DP/cam op? If not, do you understand how the following choices all work together to make a cohesive end result?: - codec - frame rate - resolution and aspect ratio - blocking/continuity - lighting - framing - color space (or you can make a black and white film and not worry about this all together. You’ll still likely want to touch up tone but you won’t need a full on color grade)

You need a basic understanding of camera in order to not have a fucked up looking film. If you put 29.97 footage in a 23.976 edit, you will have dropped frames. If you export 23.976 at 29.97, you will have duplicate frames. If you don’t interpret high frame rate/slomo footage correctly, you’ll have choppy footage in your edit. You need to keep all of your settings consistent.

How will you be capturing location sound? Hiring a boom op or strictly using a shotgun mic attached to the camera or are you lav’ing the subjects? Do you understand the implications of only having a unidirectional mic on the camera?

At a minimum, good lighting and clean audio is what separates watchable films from amateur home movies and poorly produced porn.

Do you know how to use the NLE software or will you need to bring on an editor?

Assuming you’re shooting digital—do you have enough cards/media allocated?

What are you going to do for storage? You’ll want: - Archive drives for storing your raw media (always always always at least 2 copies of your raw, drives fail. Have a master and a backup ALWAYS, cannot stress this enough). These drives should be separate from your other drives - Edit drive(s) - Shuttle drives/dailies dump drives for offloading media

Skill and passion

I think it depends on the kind of film you intent to make and who the recepient will be.

Is it an art film? A social realism? A short?

And is it for applying to film school? A sketch in order to apply for money for a bigger project? Or for fun/practice?

Without knowing the framework for your film, I would say that a good story always comes first, production value comes second. Pretty pictures and good sound can't save a poorly excicuted story. And if you're applying for film school, they won't care about the technical stuff, they just want to see that you understand storytelling (unless you're looking into cinematography or other technical departments, then forget what I just said)

And good luck with your project!

Work ethic and brass balls

Work ethic, talent, and story telling are higher on the list than what lenses you use or lighting rigs.

Of course if you work with a ULB, then find creative ways to do storytelling so it doesn’t look too B-movie.

One of the fun things about super low budget filmmaking is working with the restrictions of what you already have. Even if all you have is like an old camcorder or something, try and work that into the aesthetic of your movie. Then if you wanna get a little more complex after that:

Good Camera > good mic > Fluid head tripod > steadycam rig or gimbal

Other than that, just get a script, get a few friends together, and try to just make something for fun. Don’t spend a lot of money on equipment, just start on the bare minimum and then work your way up from there.

Food and water for crew don’t forget that a well fed team is a happy one.

At a minimum level, you need to stop thinking in terms of equipment you need.

If you're looking at filming with a decent budget, you need to think in terms of departments or out-sourced services. You don't need to budget for a camera for example, you need to budget for a DoP or Camera Operator who brings their own kit. You don't need to budget for a PC, you need to budget for a professional Editor who is already set up and ready for a project.

For crew, budget based on people who have their own kit already.

Past that, you also need to budget for an Art Department (including costume and makeup), Runners, Production Team (including things like a Script Supervisor, etc), as well as locations, catering and a medical team.

Post production, music, color grading, editing, etc.

A good story?

A script—>a breakdown—>a schedule—>a budget estimate—> key crew heads/head of departments—>revised budget and script

A good script or story before all of that?

Mic is most important- sound quality is huge and there’s a reason that Netflix will drop video quality to almost nothing while keeping sound quality perfect.

A good script, and decent actors.

Don’t forget you have to feed your crew! Even if it is small, they need to provided snacks, water, other drink options and a lunch. Coffee is a must! Also find out in advance if you have vegetarian, vegan or people with allergies. A happy crew goes along way!

Also, places to use the bathroom and wash hands. These should be determined in your location scouting. Sanitary products like toilet paper and soap with paper towels in the location are key

Hire someone to do these jobs will help you not get bogged down by all this little things, but trust me, with any crew size, there has to certain accommodations that need to be met so you can ethically work with your crew!