Cost to film a feature ? (what did u spend?)

Randall_Oelerich

Randall_Oelerich

Veteran
For those of you that have made an indie feature, what was your budget, genre, #actors, #crew? Not including equipment purchased. I am wondering, if I make a few shorts and learn as best I can some of the craft of filmmaking, what is a reasonable amount to budget for possibly making an indie feature on the cheap (assuming I write the script, direct, edit, produce, although I would probably want to hire a line [unit] producer to take some stress off of production)?

Yeah I have read the book titled something like how to make a feature film for under $10,000 but not sure that is realistic. I think "Once" was made for $50k, but that budget went up to $130,000 or so with additional post production to bring to the level for distribution. I know "Open Water" was made I think for more, maybe $150k-250k? Seems to me the key would be filming a story that takes place in a simple single easily available cheap location, use just a few actors (e.g. I always think the movie "The Dark" was genius at that; Sean Bean, Maria Bello).
 
Believe it or not, our budget on "Gig" was under $1000. So it can be done. But you need to have good connections and friends/knowledgeable individuals that are willing to help out for free.

When it comes down to it, the final outcome of your project is not really about money, but the level of skill you can attract to it.
 
Care to be more specific how you made a feature film for $1000? Are you sure you did not leave off a zero? That is amazing. I have been crunching numbers and I think I could make a feature film for $30k-40k, but I am having a hard time figuring less than that, paying actors $100/day, about 10 actors total, 20 days shooting, location rental, boom operator, lighting assistant, attorney ($2500), accountant ($2500). I could be more specific, but I am more interested in how you and others budget for a feature.

Doc Bernard said:
Believe it or not, our budget on "Gig" was under $1000. So it can be done. But you need to have good connections and friends/knowledgeable individuals that are willing to help out for free. When it comes down to it, the final outcome of your project is not really about money, but the level of skill you can attract to it.
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Don't forget to include

Transportation
Catering
Hotel/housing
All the lighting equipment you will be missing that you think you have
Cost of expendables (gels, bouncing boards, tapes, gaffers tape)
Props
Payroll Services
Festivals Costs
Soundtrack costs

all that good stuff :)
 
Our unique suspense/drama feature 'Tangled Web' cost about $1000 to produce.

First, it helps if you design your script to minimize expenses. 'Tangled Web' is seen entirely from the POV of webcams attached to the computers of the main characters. Since there is no camera movement at all, it was quite easy to design lighting so it could be changed quickly. We were ready to shoot the next scene before the actors had even changed wardrobe.

We dressed 3 different rooms in my house to look like rooms in the houses of 3 characters. Setup a camcorder and mic in each set, and cabled them so the characters could see and hear each other via a small TV in front of each person. (The TVs, from the back, looked like computer monitors.) We also ran cable to TVs in the room where the director was, so he (I, actually) could also see and hear everything.

Each scene was shot in real-time. Since the cameras were supposed to represent "webcams" and their view never changed, there was no need for multiple takes for coverage -- master shot, medium shot, closeups, cutaways, establishing shots, etc. This cut WAY down on the time required.

We managed to shoot the whole 72 minute movie in just 3 days. That saved us a TON of money!

Everyone worked on deferred pay. Catering costs were kept very low by the short shooting schedule. Special effects (including makeup FX) were kept to a minimum. We rented no equipment -- everything was borrowed. I've done the editing myself. Some of our $1000 went to specialized props -- two blank-firing pistols and a police detective's badge. We already had a Zoom H4 for audio recording, but we bought 2 Zoom H2's to complement it. After the shoot, we sold the H2's and recovered most of our money on them. (After all, they'd only been used 3 days.)

So that's one way a feature can be made for $1000. There are others. I know a guy here in Charlotte (who will remain nameless for now) who made a horror feature, complete with monster costume, for about $300. He even had 2 actors travel from NYC at their own expense to be in his movie.

Believe it CAN be done, then see what doors open for you!
 
My film 'Drawing With Chalk' ( www.drawingchalkpictures.com ) cost approx. $116,000 (over $60,000 of that was for equipment). We had a SAG Ultra-Low Budget Agreement with 7 SAG actors (two of those SAG actors was myself and my film partner Chris; funny when you have to pay yourself). With a SAG contract you are required a bond (costing us over 5g's to make sure we pay all SAG actors), a payroll service, hotel / food/ travel requirements for distant shooting locations, etc. Our crew ranged from $100 to $400 each per day. As it was mentioned previously, add in food (especially if someone is working for free you NEED to feed them very well!!!). Money adds up very quickly if you don't plan it out (and we didn't do a very good job at that...)

Our film is drama but is shot in a varitey of locations from NYC, to upstate NY to Washington DC. So locations will add to the expense.

We also shot in a more traditional sense of limiting to 3 to 5 pages a day (there were a few days we shot 11 pages due to location limitations). This was an expensive way to shoot, but it was the only way I could get what I needed.

I did save a lot of money since I'm doing all of the post work myself. My band did the music and I recorded everthing in my home studio (minus the drum sessions which only cost us about $800). Yes, you can shoot a film for little money, but always plan for the unexpected.

I wish you luck in your project and don't get discouraged. Just make the best movie you can with the resources you have.

Todd
 
I shot an 80 minute web series (the same length of a feature) for about $1500.

However I'm a student and we worked with non-union actors. Shooting was about 14 days. The reason why it was so short was because we shot about 8 pages of script a day. I don't recommend it because it means long days, at least 14 hours a day. However it did cut down on cost for food, which was the major expense because our equipment was borrowed from my schools Television Station. We only rented about 50 dollars worth of extra equipment (a few more gobos, a monitor, etc.).

Now normally I read that indy feature will shoot about 5-6 pages of script a day (and I think a hollywood film does about 2 1/2 pages a day). Although 5-6 pages is still packed, it's more manageable, and I would recommend it. Although it means more shooting days which = more money, but it doesn't wear down your crew. We would always reach a point in shooting where our cast and crew just shut down and we took twice as long to do what was on our schedule.

As a student our crew was all working for free. Mainly other students or graduates looking for credit.

But considering my experiences, next time around we're going to get grants and hopefully pay people as it was a pain working with volunteers all the time.
 
"Voices" so far has cost $25K, but it may reach $30 to $35K before it's all over.

We didn't use Union Actors (I didn't see the point in Atlanta) and everyone was defered pay. We used the money for equipment and food only. Nothing else. Could we have borrowed equipment? The answer - from who? Most people out here barely have a DVX let alone anything in HDV or higher and most will not let you use their equipment. Editing and post done by myself and one other person.

What I have learned - i.e. am learning (I'll write in depth about this in the 24 Diary once I'm done) is that you can shoot Non-Union, provided you find good non-union actors, and try and put a famous musician in the movie for your celebrity connection. I'm going through it right now, and maybe it's over kill. Not even sure it's worth it, since Georgia is a right to work state, I could have been SAG and still worked non-union people on whatever pay I wanted to give them. But I'm learning. What we are attempting to do is add one or two people with a little celebrity on them to the movie after 95% of the movie has been shot. So we can use them to aid us in the festival circuit, while not having to pay them for the whole movie.

We'll probabyl go SAG next time though and forget the hassle. But it could work for someone who needs a boost, especially if you know a friend of a friend of a friend. :-)
 
DCP said:
My film 'Drawing With Chalk' ( www.drawingchalkpictures.com ) cost approx. $116,000 (over $60,000 of that was for equipment).

I wish you luck in your project and don't get discouraged. Just make the best movie you can with the resources you have.

Todd
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Todd! Wow! That trailer is so good. I really want to see your movie. And I don't say that often, but if your movie was at Blockbuster I'd be going to get it once I got off from work! Wow! Double Wow! Really good work and great trailer! :beer:
 
"Night for Day" www.nightfordaymovie.com and "Video Guys" www.videoguysthemovie.com , two feature lengths shot at the same time using many of the same non union and some union actors, cost about 30k each. Mostly equipment and crew and actor care and feeding, some locations, etc. Editing and most all post production were done by me personally so there is a savings there. Sound editing, mixing and mastering and music composition, orchestration and performance I have the huge advantage of having very talented friends in that field who are working with me as partners, so that is the other big saving. Plus, really, many talented artists getting on board and donating their time and talent with the hopes of exposure and maybe some success on the back end.
 
I am thinking the script is huge, the blueprint of course, the right script could make making one's own indie easy or hard, successful or fail. I need to come up with the concept and write a screenplay for a feature so the feature can be shot fast, cheap, minimal number of actors, few or one location, few or no special effects. Write around available locations. Working on third feature screenplay, but I am going to start thinking of a screenplay to write just to use to make my own feature film, unless I can find a way to make one of my already written feature scripts work-- my first feature I wrote, a supernaturally thriller, is one I worked with using the guidance of paid consultant/mentor (Margo Prescott, Prescott Consulting), I have fallen in love with that script, I would so love to make that film myself (I actually cried reading through my third rewrite when I got to the climax scenes, the story moved me so much emotionally). But my supernatural thriller has some CGI I am not sure I could pull off myself with Adobe After Effects, etc., I will have to research that more.
~Randall

chapelgrovefilms said:
...First, it helps if you design your script to minimize expenses. ...
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One thing (among many!) I feel I am in the dark on is estimating payroll services, an accountant, attorney fees, to cover my arse regarding paying people, IRS hoops to jump through regarding payroll and tax forms and all-- that stuff scares me more than Freddy Kruger showing up in my bedroom in the middle of a dream. Any way to estimate such costs?

Charlie06 said:
Don't forget to include
...
Payroll Services
Festivals Costs
...
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I don't suppose you or somebody here would care to share a film budget spreadsheet in the form of a PDF or other? That could help me and other aspiring filmmakers plan out better the funds needed to make a feature, preproduction, raising money, etc.?

I do have Dov S.'s bool Reel to Deal, but his lower budgets might be out of date considering DV and less guerilla budget, it would be nice to see some budgets from actualy filmmakers here.
 
Yeah I read that in Dov S.'s book I think. Celebrity looks really good on a DVD jacket, and helps get distributorship more so he says. Dov says you can get just about any famous actor to show up on set for a day for say $20,000 (give that the script is not embarrassingly bad) and that brings star power to a film, as you can put that star's name on the poster, DVD cover, etc.

jls4 said:
...What we are attempting to do is add one or two people with a little celebrity on them to the movie after 95% of the movie has been shot. So we can use them to aid us in the festival circuit, while not having to pay them for the whole movie....
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I shot "Torn" which is over at Maverick at the present time for about $4,000.
the only thing I spent money on really was equipment and supplies. The actors worked for free, the locations were free and our days were so short because of intense pre-viz we were done before I they got hungry. If had 30k it would have much better, but I am sastified with the final product. Not bad for a 2 man crew.
 
Randall_Oelerich said:
Yeah I read that in Dov S.'s book I think. Celebrity looks really good on a DVD jacket, and helps get distributorship more so he says. Dov says you can get just about any famous actor to show up on set for a day for say $20,000 (give that the script is not embarrassingly bad) and that brings star power to a film, as you can put that star's name on the poster, DVD cover, etc.
Click to expand...


Geez! $20K, no wonder the agent said he couldn't help me when I mentioned $2K. I'm surprised he didn't laugh me off the phone! :)

But it something to learn from, so I'm satisified. Now that most of my equip is purchased. If I can raise at least $50K for my next movie. I'd probably do $15K in equip, $30K for a few actors (with somekind of celebrity - maybe 1 or 2) and $5K for expendables, locations, etc.
 
Standing Firm's budget is around $30k as of this month. We were lucky enough to NOT spend most of the budget on things that some of you guys have to worry about, mostly because of the volunteer cast and crew that has stuck with us. I'm actually behind in adding everything up so we'll have to see where we land lol.

5-7k for Food over the past 5 months (some days we didn't each lunch, everyone brought their own, or we all went out to eat after...so I don't include that, this is only catered food by people willing to donate it). Either way it adds up.

2k for random things that come up, extra equipment, gas money (one of my actors really needed that help b/c he lived so far away), etc.

21K or so of the budget was spent soley on equipment to actually shoot the film. We started with nothing, only a Canon A1. So the majority of the budget was spent getting the things needed, good tripod, good mic, mixer, computer, software, prod monitor, letus (2 of them...b/c one broke during production), lenses, redrock shoulder support, marshal monitor, dv tapes, xlr cable, lowel lights, etc.

The rest of what we're using in terms of equipment was given to us by a guy locally my gaffer knew. He worked on Planes, Trains, & Automobiles and a few other things. He had some nice lights in storage that has saved our butts many times. If we didn't have those we'd be sunk.

Either way our budget is very lucky in terms of how much it is and how much was spent on what. If this movie didn't have the volunteer base it has, it would cost much more....easily double if everyone was paid and such.
 
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