I did a webinar about scriptwriting last night with Jason Brubaker (to get his excellent free ebook about film-making, go to www.FreeFilmMakingBook.com; and if you haven't done so yet, have a look at my screenwriting blog at www.ScreenWritingSuccess.com). I had an email this morning from one of the people who heard the webinar and I thought his question might be of interest to you, too.
Basically he was asking how you can get past the frustrations of not having much in the way of resources when you want to make a film--other words, how to cope with having little money, equipment, access to actors, etc.
Here's my suggestion:
I think it would be good for you to get started with something not too ambitious--even a one to five-minute short film would be a great start.
You can shoot this with a Flip camera or even the video feature of a digital camera. If you don't have one, I'm sure a friend or family member would let you borrow theirs.
There is free or almost-free editing software around. I use iMovie and find it sophisticated enough to take care of most of what I'm doing, and there are many others for PCs.
In terms of actors, check out the drama departments of local colleges and amateur dramatic groups. I guarantee wherever you are, there are people around who want to act and would love to be in a short film.
Try to be as imaginative as possible in the methods you use. Just as an example, when a character talks about his childhood, if you had unlimited resources you might do a flashback with him as a child, his family, maybe an event like a birthday party with loads of guests.
Instead, you could do some child-like drawings of that kind of event, as though they were drawn by your character as a child, and showing really what happened (which might be different from what he remembers or tells other people), and cut shots of those into the sequence. That could actually have a bigger impact and feel fresher than a typical flashback.
For each instance where you find something you'd like to do but don't have the resources, brainstorm creative alternatives.
Sometimes limitations call for the greatest creativity, so I hope you'll take yours as a challenge rather than as obstacles.
I've found that to be true of just about everything, not just film-making.
(For innovative approaches to setting and reaching goals, get my book, "Focus: use the power of targeted thinking to get more done," available from Amazon or your other favorite online or offline bookseller.For more information, see www.FocusQuick.com)