How to film a bank robbery (on a limited budget)

Ready to film a bank robbery for a short film? Wondering how to do it without breaking the budget or spending the rest of your life in preproduction (or both)? Here are some ideas.

Planning. Start with the script. Sketch out a storyboard of the shots you want, the important moments. What kind of pacing do you want? Is this going to feel like a documentary? a music video? an action sequence? confused and disorienting? are you aiming for some sort of coherence – and if so, what is the source of the coherence that’s holding the action together?

Location. Do you actually need a bank in order to film this script? Or can you simulate a bank by using the lobby of a different type of company? Do you know someone who can allow you to film during weekends without requiring payment? Will the location allow you to film without posting a security deposit or rental payment? Draw the choreography – where the actors will be, where the cameras will be, how everything will move through the space.

Costume. How will you identify the robbers? Try the local Army Navy surplus store for guard and police uniforms, as well as “bad guy and girl” clothes.

Special effects. Figure out what you need and have resources to accomplish. Do you need toy guns or some menacing looking object for the robbers to wield? Something to make a bright flashing light to represent the firing of arms, or as a proxy for some sort of explosive? Will you be firing blanks during filming (add a bunch of cost if the answer is yes)? Can you add foley effects and/or animations later as a proxy for having explosives going off on set? Will you use animated graphics to describe the path of people running through an imagined building facility or to annotate what they’re thinking during a scene? Will you use voiceovers recorded in studio later, mixed with music soundtrack, instead of live recorded audio during the location filming?

Other equipment. Are you filming on equipment that will render the final product a tad blurry, pixelated, and otherwise a bit messy? Will you be going for a shabby-chic cinematography, using that messiness in an intentional way? Or are you filming in HD?

Script. Do you have a bank robbery screenplay ready to film? If you don’t have a story in mind, here’s my Bank Robbery/Heist short film screenplay.

Happy filmmaking!