If you had a $50k budget for a feature would you use the HVX ?
- Thread starter FilmBoy77
- Start date
DavidBeier
Veteran
It's hard to say.
I'm in talks to do a feature with some potential investors and numbers being floated around are as low as 50k and as high as 500k. Part of the thing I'm trying to do is keep things slow because we don't have a script yet and I know this will live and die by the writing and the acting (and maybe just a little of my directing assuming they still want me to direct if the budget gets big). Part of the problem you deal with is that, once you've got an idea, everyone wants to rush you. Producers, investors, actors, everyone! They get excited about the concept and want to start making plans without making sure there is a solid story foundation and that will KILL you. If you want to do your investors justice, make sure you work your script to death (good writing is re-writing) and make sure you plan everything out, get as many favors as possible, and make sure you spend every penny wisely. You're still not garunteed to make any money but at least you know, and hopefully they know, that you didn't screw around with their money.
As far as what camera to use; that's a tough call. My own difficulties are purely hypothetical since I'm operating under the princaple that there's only a snow-ball's chance in hell this will go through (don't want to get excited and then let down as so many are in this business). But lets say we actually get a budget of 500k (which my producer thinks we can but I'm not daring to hope yet). If that happens; then the question becomes what do we spend our money on? Do we use my HVX200 gear to shoot it and perhaps rent another HVX200 for B-cam? On the plus side of that, it would require save us money on renting gear and also require less people in the camera department. More than that, it would mean we'd have more money available to pay some of the actors who are interested; most of which are SAG. On the other hand, I'd worry if it wouldn't look professional enough on the big screen but ultimatly, I think spending our money on stuff outside the camera is more important. I'd love to shoot RED but I know that would make things more complicated on a number of levels. I had the same dilema on the short I'm finishing (my first in a while and probably 30-40 min in length). Shortly before shooting, I got an offer to use a RED for next to nothing instead of my HVX200. I turned it down because I knew it would be more instensive as far as the work flow went and would probably slow us down or cost more money as far as the crew went.
The best thing I can advise is what I plan to do once our script is done. FIND SOMEONE WHO SUCCESSFULLY DID WHAT YOU'RE TRYING TO DO! There's a director in town, from the same area, who put together a 1 million dollar film with SAG actors; a few decent names (I won't mention who), and is about to sign a distributer. He shot 35mm. As soon as I've got a script, I'm going to ask him out for coffee and just find out what he learned in his endever, what worked, and what didn't. I'm also going to try to meet with the head of a local studio that has produced a number of low-budget films and get a sense of how he's spent his cash.
It's good to admit ignorance (and asking here is a good first step). Other people know what exactly is involved and can help you out. Often, they'll talk to you for free since so many of them want to impart advice and tell their story.
If you really want to shoot on a 50k budget with an HVX200; I'd suggest the following:
1. Get an experienced DP with his own equipment (lights, C-stands, ect) and pay him the lowest he'll take (I got mine on my short for $100 a day and he was great).
2. Get an experienced sound guy with his own equipment (mixer, GOOD shotgun, lavs) and pay him the lowest he'll take.
3. Find some reliable catering. Food is so important for a cast and crew. Make sure you can find a reliable way to feed people and make them happy. This will cost you some money but try to find a friend who runs a resturaunt or something so you don't pay too much.
4. Get a good digital guy (someone perhaps who works with computers but not in film) and see if he'll work for free as a camera loader (bringing his own laptop). This would be a great way for him to get into the industry and get some experience. If not free, pay him the lowest he'll take but stress that he's getting some good exposure.
5. GET CONTRACTS!!!! Once you start paying people; you need a contract. I had my sound guy bail on me for a higher paying gig 12 hours before the shoot and it REALLY hurt us. Don't let this happen to you.
6. Have a post-production plan budgeted. Make sure either you can edit the footage yourself or you have a guy who can. Also, make sure you have a post-production audio solution planned.
Once you've gone through the above, you have a basic idea of what you NEED to spend money on. After that, see what's left, and see what you can afford to spend on locations and actors. Keep in mind, this is just a rough plan based on my recent short film with a 2k budget.
I'm in talks to do a feature with some potential investors and numbers being floated around are as low as 50k and as high as 500k. Part of the thing I'm trying to do is keep things slow because we don't have a script yet and I know this will live and die by the writing and the acting (and maybe just a little of my directing assuming they still want me to direct if the budget gets big). Part of the problem you deal with is that, once you've got an idea, everyone wants to rush you. Producers, investors, actors, everyone! They get excited about the concept and want to start making plans without making sure there is a solid story foundation and that will KILL you. If you want to do your investors justice, make sure you work your script to death (good writing is re-writing) and make sure you plan everything out, get as many favors as possible, and make sure you spend every penny wisely. You're still not garunteed to make any money but at least you know, and hopefully they know, that you didn't screw around with their money.
As far as what camera to use; that's a tough call. My own difficulties are purely hypothetical since I'm operating under the princaple that there's only a snow-ball's chance in hell this will go through (don't want to get excited and then let down as so many are in this business). But lets say we actually get a budget of 500k (which my producer thinks we can but I'm not daring to hope yet). If that happens; then the question becomes what do we spend our money on? Do we use my HVX200 gear to shoot it and perhaps rent another HVX200 for B-cam? On the plus side of that, it would require save us money on renting gear and also require less people in the camera department. More than that, it would mean we'd have more money available to pay some of the actors who are interested; most of which are SAG. On the other hand, I'd worry if it wouldn't look professional enough on the big screen but ultimatly, I think spending our money on stuff outside the camera is more important. I'd love to shoot RED but I know that would make things more complicated on a number of levels. I had the same dilema on the short I'm finishing (my first in a while and probably 30-40 min in length). Shortly before shooting, I got an offer to use a RED for next to nothing instead of my HVX200. I turned it down because I knew it would be more instensive as far as the work flow went and would probably slow us down or cost more money as far as the crew went.
The best thing I can advise is what I plan to do once our script is done. FIND SOMEONE WHO SUCCESSFULLY DID WHAT YOU'RE TRYING TO DO! There's a director in town, from the same area, who put together a 1 million dollar film with SAG actors; a few decent names (I won't mention who), and is about to sign a distributer. He shot 35mm. As soon as I've got a script, I'm going to ask him out for coffee and just find out what he learned in his endever, what worked, and what didn't. I'm also going to try to meet with the head of a local studio that has produced a number of low-budget films and get a sense of how he's spent his cash.
It's good to admit ignorance (and asking here is a good first step). Other people know what exactly is involved and can help you out. Often, they'll talk to you for free since so many of them want to impart advice and tell their story.
If you really want to shoot on a 50k budget with an HVX200; I'd suggest the following:
1. Get an experienced DP with his own equipment (lights, C-stands, ect) and pay him the lowest he'll take (I got mine on my short for $100 a day and he was great).
2. Get an experienced sound guy with his own equipment (mixer, GOOD shotgun, lavs) and pay him the lowest he'll take.
3. Find some reliable catering. Food is so important for a cast and crew. Make sure you can find a reliable way to feed people and make them happy. This will cost you some money but try to find a friend who runs a resturaunt or something so you don't pay too much.
4. Get a good digital guy (someone perhaps who works with computers but not in film) and see if he'll work for free as a camera loader (bringing his own laptop). This would be a great way for him to get into the industry and get some experience. If not free, pay him the lowest he'll take but stress that he's getting some good exposure.
5. GET CONTRACTS!!!! Once you start paying people; you need a contract. I had my sound guy bail on me for a higher paying gig 12 hours before the shoot and it REALLY hurt us. Don't let this happen to you.
6. Have a post-production plan budgeted. Make sure either you can edit the footage yourself or you have a guy who can. Also, make sure you have a post-production audio solution planned.
Once you've gone through the above, you have a basic idea of what you NEED to spend money on. After that, see what's left, and see what you can afford to spend on locations and actors. Keep in mind, this is just a rough plan based on my recent short film with a 2k budget.
Last edited:
davbeisner
Well-known member
This may well be the best advice I've seen on this thread yet. You've got to ask people who have already accomplished what you want to do. And take them out for breakfast--it's usually one of the easier meals to schedule and it's also the cheapest meal for you to pay for and still get good food (it's hard to mess up breakfast!).
My $0.02--and realize this comes from lots of theoretical knowledge and no practical experience since I'm just getting into videography myself--there are a LOT of good scripts out there that are as-yet unseen. I'd suggest going to a local college or university that has an excellent English Literature department. Sit down with some of the english lit students, outline your needs (i.e., needs to be contemporary for costuming sake; needs to be in a city for location's sake, etc) and see what they might be able to come up with. As a former college student myself (and not so long ago) I can tell you that your average college student would DIE for an opportunity to make a little money on the side. And for an english lit student to be involved in writing the script for a movie could be a pretty big thing. And you can usually hire college students fairly cheaply
.For example, the college I went to has an annual film festival. The scripts in most of the movies were fantastic. The student DPs were usually really good (some better than others) and many of the movies were quite moving. I remember one that actually brought tears to my eyes at the end! The only thing that kept the films from being something that could make great strides was the fact that they were made with cheap equipment and little to no lighting or audio. That ruined most of them from a production standpoint (some students did quite well by bringing in their own equipment to supplement what was assigned to them by the film department at the college).
I had one other pithy piece of advice that I thought of as I read through this thread that I was going to leave for you, but I've now forgotten what it was! Oh well. I guess it wasn't that important.
Mickey Munday
Well-known member
you can only plan but for so much on distribution unless you're buying your own product, lol. so please enlighhten us since you've been making movies for over 30 years (and i'm not being a smart ass here either i'm asking because i don't know).
other than the festival route, selling over amazon/web type of thing, the typical straigt to dvd route or trying to get AE's/studios interested in buying it.....what else is there to plan?