Very helpful! Thanks for posting! I struggle with lighting all the time. it's the last thing I think about and often the thing that gets rushed. I just finished shooting in what's supposed to be a dark room. I used the 45 degree light and side light quite often to cast lots of shadows on the faces of the actors. I also used back lighting to differentiate the actors from the dark backgrounds.

At those high altitudes I bet the solar panels worked great.
I don't know how any of this would work in reality but here's some alternatives:

- They sell hand cranked generators that fit in your pocket. You'll get more current with something like that (maybe) but you'll have at crank it for an hour or two to charge the batteries and you won't be able to do much else during that time. (that's what you pay Sherpas for)

-Another possibility would be to use film and a spring operated 16mm camera like a Bolex H16. then you only need batteries for your light meter and sound recorder. I've been wanting to try this out. I've been trying to think of a way to capture sound without electricity but none of the options seem practical.

He makes really good points! You're just having fun so don't take yourself too seriously. I've made one micro budget feature called Space Trucker Bruce (https://amzn.com/B00JL5M1TS). I'm working on a new one right now and my style has changed so much based on what I've learned.

My tips:
-Work on it a little every day. Stay focused. This is the hardest thing.
-Don't try to do it like the big guys.
-Make your film for the right reasons. It is a learning experience and should be about something you're interested in, not about getting rich and famous.
-Quality is overrated.
-Use cardboard for your sets
-Shoot evenings and weekends for a few hours.
-Write short dialog that's easy to remember. Your actor/friends don't have time to memorize.
-Plan each shot and storyboard. prioritize so you can drop a shot or two when you run out of time.
-Don't stress out. Like he says in this video: Don't take yourself too seriously.
-I have a superstition that three things will go wrong with a big shooting day. Be prepared.
-Try to please yourself, then your actors/crew, nobody else.

Shooting 12 or even 18 hours days is probably not a good idea in the micro to no budget category. I seldom make my friends and actors work more than about 6 hours. I'm just not paying them enough for long days.

Quality is overrated. You produce the best you can without spending too much money or time. People watch crappy movies and still like them.

I like that these filmmakers didn't waste a bunch of time with Festivals. It sounds like they had a very calculated and well thought out plan.
There was a time, let's call it the 90's, when festivals might have mattered. Now that we have online platforms like YouTube, Amazon, Vimeo, etc. Festivals seem like an outdated way to suck money out of filmmakers.
Make your movie, rent some theaters or use something like TUGG (Be sure to sell DVD/BLU-Ray copies in the lobby) then go directly online.
I put my movie "Space Trucker Bruce" (https://amzn.com/B00JL5M1TS) in a couple of festivals. They actually expect you to travel to the festival and even promote the movie once there! So spend a thousand or more dollars to travel to a festival to show your movie to a few hundred people? It doesn't make sense. Also as pointed out in this article, attending the Festivals that matter for distribution is like winning the lottery.