Micro-Budget Features: A Discussion

What happens when the need to create supersedes the resources at your disposal? What can be achieved through ambition and sheer determination? Independent filmmakers have often turned to micro-budget filmmaking to realize a project when the more traditional options are not available.

Join filmmakers Dillon Garland, Chelsea Comeau and Noah Brown as they discuss their journeys making films for extremely small budgets and lots of heart. They will discuss the do’s and don’ts of micro-budget filmmaking and will offer tips and tricks to make what little budget you have to work with soar.

This conversation will be moderated by Filmmaker and AFCOOP Programs Coordinator Henry Colin.

Dillon Garland
Dillon Garland is an award winning Director, Writer, and Producer for film & television, as well as Founder/President of River Point Studios. His work includes the 2022 miniseries “The Last Divide”, along with the 2018 film of the same name, and the 2014 film “Afraid To Speak”. Outside of those projects he’s also written, directed, and shot well over 50 different film, TV, & music video projects throughout his nearly 15 year long career.

Chelsea Comeau
Chelsea Comeau is a Halifax-based filmmaker in Nova Scotia. She is the director of the award winning feature film ‘Creepy Crawling’ and ‘The Human Limit’. Her short films as a director include, Frostbite: A Walking Dead Fan Film, Bring Me Home, When I Met You and Daddy.

She has worked as a cinematographer on feature films such as, Afraid To Speak, The Last Divide, The Human Limit and Lakeview, as well as multiple music videos for artists like, The Stanfields, Gloryhound, Like A Motorcycle and The Town Heroes.

Noah Brown
Noah Brown is a filmmaker and film technician living in Halifax, Nova Scotia. He has written and directed multiple short films with varying runtimes, as well as a feature length film which Brown also co-produced.

In 2020 Noah’s short film ‘Kindred’ screened at multiple local festivals and was admitted to festivals across North America, from New York to British Columbia.

More recently, his feature film ‘Sifting’ debuted on Eastlink Television in 2022, just after picking up acclaim at the London, England based film festival the Monkey Bread Tree Film Awards, where it picked up nominations for both ‘Best Feature Film’ and ‘Best Lead Actress’.

Host or Publisher Atlantic Filmmakers Cooperative