In 2017, the average budget of an Australian film was estimated at $8.7 million. So when Ted Wilson says he made his debut feature for $80,000, it sounds like chump change — except that Wilson financed the film from his own pocket.

Wilson isn't alone: while filmmakers often apply for Australian government funding (through Screen Australia and state counterparts such as Screenwest and Film Victoria), getting that support can be difficult: only 8 per cent of the total budget for Australian films in 2017 came from those agencies — in contrast to a figure of 41 per cent in 1995.

Wilson is one of a growing number of filmmakers funding their films via alternative routes.

His feature Under the Cover of Cloud will premiere at Melbourne International Film Festival (MIFF) this month, alongside two other independently financed Australian films: Geneviève Bailey's documentary Happy Sad Man, and Jordan Raftopoulos's West of Sunshine.

Bankrupt but proud

An actor and stand-up comedian by trade, Wilson wrote, directed, produced and starred in his debut feature: Under the Cover of Cloud.

He describes the film as "a bit of a hybrid: it's got aspects of documentary and aspects of fiction".

It follows Ted (Wilson, playing himself) as he returns to Hobart to visit his family (played by Wilson's actual family) after losing his job. Ted is determined to write "something beautiful about cricket", and becomes fixated on interviewing Tasmanian cricket legend David Boon.

The 88-minute film took three years to make and was entirely funded by Wilson.

Ted Wilson wasn't eligible for Screen Tasmania funding even though he set and shot the film in his home state of Tasmania. ( ABC RN: Hannah Reich )

"I'm almost bankrupt but I'm very proud [of the film]," he says.

Wilson says that in 2015 he sought but wasn't eligible for Screen Australia's development funding (his script exceeded the stipulated 90-page limit), and was ineligible for Screen Tasmania funding because he wasn't living in the state at the time (despite having been born, and lived most of his life, in Tasmania).

"I think one of the problems we have in this country is a systemic issue of a whole lot of bureaucrats and businessmen in decision-making roles in the industry," says Wilson.

"I think that's very telling when you have a look at the content we produce."

He says he also approached Screen Australia, Screen Tasmania and Film Victoria for "completion funding" after the film was accepted into MIFF, but that they "[wouldn't] give me funding because I didn't have [a] distribution deal".

"Getting into MIFF is so important. My film would have disappeared if it didn't get into a big festival, and that's the root of an independent filmmaker — you need to get that kind of acclaim, and then people will look at it [your film]."

Ted Wilson's family were initially reluctant to be in his film, but they now "have a snapshot in time of three generations of a family," he says. ( Supplied: MIFF )

Happily, Wilson's low budget dovetailed with his artistic vision, which was influenced by the cinema-verite style of John Cassavetes, a pioneer of American independent filmmaking through films including Faces, Opening Night and A Woman Under the Influence.

For example, says Wilson, casting his family in the film was good for the budget, but also suited the aesthetic he was going for:

"He [Cassavetes] spent a lot of time working with actors to create realism, whereas I made a lot of effort to capture realism, to make everyone really comfortable … I was myself around my family … so they felt comfortable in themselves."

The pulse of documentary-making

"I've loved working in a really independent way," says documentary maker Geneviève Bailey.

"I guess one of the big factors for me is being able to maintain a very strong relationship with the participants in my films."

Bailey's good friend John was the starting point for her film Happy Sad Man, premiering at MIFF.

The filmmaker describes her friend as "at once the happiest and saddest man I have ever met".

She began filming him seven years ago, and ended up making a film that "explores happiness and sadness through the eyes of five very different men in my life".

Bailey says being independent meant she could follow John's story without the pressure to finish the film. ( Supplied: Geneviève Bailey )

Bailey self-financed her previous (and debut) feature, the 2011 award-winning documentary I Am Eleven — a strategy that she says "created an environment of total freedom".

"We really wanted to make sure when making Happy Sad Man that we still felt that creative freedom in being able to really immerse ourselves in these men's stories. But doing that without funding wouldn't have been possible," says Bailey.

In 2015, Happy Sad Man was selected for Good Pitch Australia, an initiative linking up social impact documentary films with potential investors.

"Good Pitch are … like the fairy godparents of documentary in Australia," Bailey says.

Gayby Baby (2016), That Sugar Film (2015) and Frackman (2015) are all Good Pitch alumni.

Bailey's Good Pitch donors and partners (including SANE Australia, Black Dog Institute and the Rugby Union Players' Association) funded the entire production and post-production of the film.

"They [documentaries] have their own pulse … When I used to do fiction, comedy and drama films, you're very in control of the schedule. Whereas with documentary, you're following people's real lives and you don't know what's going to happen," Bailey says.

"The challenge of financing a documentary is that often it goes over time, the shooting period is extended, the editing period is extended and that can be costly … With making Happy Sad Man, I probably didn't think it would take as long as it has, but I'm really glad that it did."

Luckily, Bailey's Good Pitch partners had "a deep appreciation for the time it takes to make films, so we were never rushed," she says.

Bailey says that the events that happen to John, the titular Happy Sad Man, at the end of the film, would never have made the cut if they'd been pressured to complete it.

"Being independent … [means that] at the end of the day if there's something I want in the film or I want cut out of the film, I've got the final word — which is quite rare I think, so I treasure that."

'Fervency and energy'

First-time feature filmmaker Jason Raftopoulos had been working with producer Alexandros Ouzas on a bigger-budget project that they'd been intending "to develop through the traditional kind of methods and funding bodies".

But then he woke up one day with this thought: "We need to be shooting, and shooting quicker then it would take, the two or three years, to get this film up."

They decided to change tack entirely and to make what Raftopoulos describes as a "a very low-budget feature" based on one of his short films.

Raftopoulos (right) says they shot in a low-cost "documentary style". ( Supplied: MIFF )

Raftopoulos wrote and directed West of Sunshine, which tells the story of Jim, a Melbourne man caught between repaying a loan-shark, keeping his job and looking after his son.

Through private investors and deferring payments, they were able to start shooting a mere eight months after the director's "epiphany".

"[We shot] in a style that I really love, which is almost a documentary style on the street," Raftopoulos says.

That style also kept costs down.

"It was just a really beautiful way of making something with a sense of fervency and a sense of energy that I'd kind of admired from masters from the past, like John Cassavetes and those independent heroes that went out and just shot films," he says.

"[But] probably the take-home message, when you're doing it this way, is that you don't have time and you just have to cut corners."

When cast and crew are providing their services for a deferred payment, time is limited. They ended up shooting 32 locations in 18 days, only doing two takes for some scenes.

Raftopoulos says West of Sunshine is "a thesis on love and letting go of trauma in order to be present". ( Supplied: MIFF )

Screen Australia did give West of Sunshine post-production funding, which meant they were able to finish the film.

West of Sunshine premiered at the 2017 Venice International Film Festival and now it's coming home to play at MIFF. Raftopolous is understandably chuffed.

"Getting a film made is honestly like climbing up a mountain with a pair of thongs. It's so difficult. Just getting a film made is a miracle and anything else that happens, if it finds an audience or if it gets into a great festival or if you get to release it — that's just absolute gravy."

The Melbourne International Film Festival runs until August 19.