This somehow feels like a prank to me. I can’t be the only one. Who comes in and says, “I’ve got a movie idea. I’ve got no script. I’ve got no crew or cast. I’ve got no experience. Let’s rock.”
Dirk, I appreciate your enthusiasm, but ideas are a dime a dozen. Making a movie of any scope, big or small, is a massive undertaking. It’s hard enough with even a battle tested crew on hand. With zero experience or funding, you’re doomed to fail before you even start. The moment things get too hard or the project becomes too time consuming, your unpaid crew and cast will abandon you.
Just because this is a passion project for you doesn’t mean that it will be for them.
More over, making a movie often involves many legal hurdles which I have no doubt that you’re unprepared to handle. You’re going into this thing blind.
I’m going to offer you a small piece of advice. Scale things back.
Tell the story that you want to tell, but change the format. All you need is a camera to record some video and your PC to edit it all. Craft the exact narrative that you want. No crew. No cast. No screenwriter. You and a camera. That’s it. The end product might not be as pretty or as polished as a big work of fiction, but you’ll get your point across and within budget. Best of all, in the end, the only one you’ll have to blame for failure or laud for success will be you.
There’s a saying that you’ve no doubt heard. “You get what you pay for.” When you’re unable or unwilling to pay for a cast or (pre)production crew, you can’t be shocked when you get overwhelmed by applications from people who know as much (or less) about how to make a movie than you do. Anybody willing to work for free likely needs the experience and exposure. If they had either, or both, then they’d be asking for a paycheck.
Go with your strengths. A documentary may not be as glitzy, but you can still tell a story. It’s all in the editing. This is something you can well do on your own. Cut your teeth on this and maybe, with more experience under your belt, you might be able to draw in support and funding for a small indie work of fiction down the line.
You’re setting yourself up for failure if you reach for that brass ring with no “riding experience” at this point. Dream big, but set realistic, attainable goals. Even Steven Spielberg had to start somewhere.