What kind of budget would you need?

What kind of budget would you need?

  • Under $50K

    Votes: 14 17.9%

  • $50K - $100K

    Votes: 12 15.4%

  • $100K - $199K

    Votes: 15 19.2%

  • $200K - $299K

    Votes: 10 12.8%

  • $300K - $399K

    Votes: 7 9.0%

  • $400K - $500K

    Votes: 7 9.0%

  • $500 -$999K

    Votes: 5 6.4%

  • $1million or above

    Votes: 8 10.3%
  • Total voters
    78
Luis Caffesse

Luis Caffesse

Admin
This is coming from a conversation I had with a friend recently - and I'm curious where most of the users here would land in this discussion.

How much money do you think you need to make a good feature film?

I'm not asking in general - I'm asking specifically how much do YOU think YOU would need to get a good indie feature made.

In an effort to keep this poll from having 30,000 voting options some of the higher choices have some wide ranges.
If you vote for the 500-999K just give me some idea of what you're thinking.

Just curious.
And I thought it might be fun to see what people are thinking.
:)
 
We are doing one for about 50K but idealy I would like to have 200K, mainly for a higher marketing budget and to bring on a recognizable face.
 
Honestly, I think I can do one under 50K. Most of my ideas are pretty basic in terms of scope, i.e. small cast, limited sets, and little to no special effects. I wouldn't need any known stars to pull off what I want to do plus I wouldn't need a big crew. So I think 50K would work out nicely. Though I would like to add that I have never made a full blown film before so I could very well be talking out of my ass and end up needing 1 million.
 
i've done two features now, each just under $50K. but this is after lots of negotiating on price in every respect.
 
My answer...as much money as I can get! Sure I could make a movie under 50k, but I'd be lying if I didn't say I could make it better with more money. Most of the extra money would go towards getting quality actors. I know enough to make something visually and aurally competent, but I can't act. I might luck out and find some no name who delivers a great performance for free, but generally, the better actors cost money.
 
Batutta said:
My answer...as much money as I can get! Sure I could make a movie under 50k, but I'd be lying if I didn't say I could make it better with more money.
Click to expand...

I guess I should have rephrased it and said what is the least amount of money you think you would need to make a good quality indie film.

Of course we'd all rather have more.
:)
 
I'm going between $100 and $200K mainly because of my area. With that much I could handle all aspects of production and still be able to pay the cast and crew. If I were somewhere else in the country that number would change pretty drastically. Or if I were going for casting in the tradition of Corrado then the number would change as well.

Interesting poll.
 
I think you have to further define "good". If you mean quality script, acting and shooting, you could probably squeak by at 50K if you plan well, have lots of skilled friends, and owe a lot of favors when the day is done.

If you mean "reasonably marketable", the price goes up. WIthout a name, the odds are ridiculously stacked against you for financial solvency. 200K minimum to get at least 1 name, which changes a lot of other things in the equation. Meaning that if you have a 50K budget and add a name for 50K, your budget is not 100K. You have to add in a lot of other crap to make that name work.

But if "good" just means "good"...yeah, 50K could get it done.
 
One (1) vote in from 300-399k. That would be getting 300-399k after finding a bad-ass script that I would then pay 50k up front for (lowball starts here), then proceed to dump 175k into pre,pro,post and 75k into marketing (which gets you nothing.)
 
I voted 50k-100k. I think whenever I try to make my first feature that's what I'll be trying to get and feel that that budget would be doable to keep a very dedicated cast and crew taken care of and have a little money set aside for a decent film festival campaign.

This would probably be for a smaller scale story and shooting somewhere like my hometown where we can get locations free/cheap and cash in on many favors.
 
Interesting. I had a conversation with a colleague the other day about the same thing. After you start adding things up, you can rack up WAY more than $50k...guys...

I've got a realistic budget written up for a feature script that I've got. I voted $200-299k, and I could easily see going beyond that.
 
Are we talking equipment as well here?

Even shooting a feature on film, you are looking at a ton of cash. You can run up to roll 100 on a feature. And that would be 1200 minutes. So, that works out to roughly a 13:1 ratio...I think?

Squeeking by with a 2:1 ratio, you are looking at 16, 400 foot cores. Which would be 5,120 ish dollars after purchase, and telecine. Meaning you can only shoot 180 minutes of film for a 90 minute film.

The price adds up. I personally go for 500k - 1 million. A million would be ideal.
 
$400-500K

Money can't buy happiness supposedly.. but you still need it to get quality people.
 
I vote for $1million and above, that should be around 50000Euro at the current exchange rate :D Just kidding..

I think it would be 200k-300k$, reading taorminas thread. Anything more would probably also be too much for me.
 
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