Cost to film a feature ? (what did u spend?)
- Thread starter Randall_Oelerich
- Start date
taormina
Hates to Rent
Find investors, people who have money, and borrow it.
Randall_Oelerich
Veteran
Sorry for my noobiness, but can someone explain 2K or 4K to me? I know it has to do with the pixel resolution of the camera sensors, but not sure in which dimension. E.g. a 1920x1020 camcorder, is that a 2k or a 1k camera? I think RED is 4000x2000 or something, so is that considered a 4K or a 2K camera?
taormina
Hates to Rent
Here's a chart showing various codecs and their resolutions.
DV 8 bit 720×480 (NTSC) / 720×576 (PAL)
DVCPRO50 8 bit 720×480 (NTSC) / 720×576 (PAL)
DVCPRO HD 8 bit 960×720, 1280×1080 or 1440×1080
AVCHD 8 bit 1920x1080,1440x1080,1280x720
AVC Intra 10 bit 1920x1080,1440x1080,1280x720
HDV 8 bit 1280×720 or 1440×1080
XDCAM EX 8 bit 1280x720 or 1920×1080
HDCAM 8 bit 1440×1080
HDCAM SR 10 bit 1920×1080
CineForm RAW (SI-2K) 10 bit Log 2048×1152
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wavelet REDCODE RAW 12 bit 4096×2304
jls4
Veteran
Sure, how much you need? :beer: Seriously though, I think we all have things we do well. It's nothing wrong with being happy or proud of what you do well as long as you understand your weak points. I've got lots of weak points only a few strong points.
Not stirring up hate. But I prefer the look of the RED (in the right hands) over film. I don't think film looks all that hot. If you take a well captured image and take the mid blacks to 0 black and make sure the color is accutate. I think it looks good. I love the way the RED has little to no grain and is so pure. The EX1/3 does a good job as well. Maybe it's because I don't have the 35mm background, but I'm starting to prefer digital.
I'll try to check this out.
See that's what I'm talking about Tao, you make this sound easy. I've got a movie in it's final stages. You can see 95% of the movie. Most people I show it to like the way it looks and sounds and are ready to see it. We dediced to try and raise another $2K to get a celebrity Cameo. $2K, not $250K and it's been very difficult to find anyone who has over $250 let alone $2K. It's not easy. Many of us don't have rich friends and if they do have any money, their paying off huge houses, student loans, or their money is so deep into the "dying" stock market that they can't spare a nickel.
If you have any investors emails or phone numbers, I'd love for you to PM them to me so I too can walk around and say "Yeah it's easy to raise $250K" LOL
rogar-BigGrin(DBG)
taormina
Hates to Rent
JLS, I didn't say it was easy at all. This topic is covered more in depth in the Corrado thread, but to summarize, your problem is not convincing people to part with the money, it's convincing the right people to part with the money.
I've said it time and time again. It's the number one rule of sales: Always sell to the decision maker.
An extension of this is the following:
If you are trying to borrow $250K from someone that has it, and you can't get it, you've failed as a salesman.
If you are trying to borrow $250K from someone that does not have it and don't get it you have failed as a salesman.
You need to find people that have the power to lend you the money and then convince them to let you borrow it. I don't know where those people are - you need to find them. They are out there somewhere.
jls4
Veteran
Tao I'm not going to argue on this point because that would be disrespectful to you and your wealth of knowledge. And I appreciate all the energy that you have shown us on DVXuser. I guess my problem is I'm not a salesman. That is the problem. I was talking to my group about it the other day. We're all quiet people who know how to do. And we sometimes get upset because there are others who don't know how to do crap, but always seem to get the money. We feel like we need one of those people who know how to get the money. I so far haven't been that great as a salesman because that is not my personality. I hate asking people for anything, let alone $250K.
But that's kinda what I was saying. We're all good at certain things, not everything. One of my actors (he was only in one scene) saw some scenes recently and was surprised at how good they looked. He was the first to say that he would go to bat for me and try to raise some money for the next movie. I told him he is welcome to take 20% off the top, because that's how desperately I need someone to go get me money. So if he can raise say, 1 million. I'll give him personally $200K and he can walk away no strings attached. If that's what you're good at, I'll give you the same offer as long as the amount is at least $300K that you raise.
taormina
Hates to Rent
Jls, that's a dumb idea, no offense to you at all. You can find people to give you money without having to go to those lengths. No investor would lend a million just to see 200K come off the top for a finder's fee.
Lots of great filmmakers have producers (salesmen) to help them out - Ron Howard has Brian Grazer, Tarantino has Larry Bender, etc.
You need to form a strategic partnership with someone who can do this type of work for you.
Lots of great filmmakers have producers (salesmen) to help them out - Ron Howard has Brian Grazer, Tarantino has Larry Bender, etc.
You need to form a strategic partnership with someone who can do this type of work for you.
David W. Richardson
Chapelgrove Films
Jls, Taormina is right -- you can find investors IF you have sales skills. I don't. He obviously does. We tend to think what's easy for us is easy for everybody.
There's not a thing wrong with paying a commission to someone who DOES have those skills, if they can come up with the money you need. These people are called Associate Producers. Just make sure you give him a bottom line -- the LEAST amount of money you need him to find.
Consider also some outside-the-box thinking. Maybe someone would be willing to pony up the investment money you need to get the name actor if you threw in a luncheon with that actor, including autograph signing and a bunch of pictures taken. Find creative ways you can sweeten the deal and appeal to people hoping to grab a little of the 'glamour' of moviemaking.
Whatever you do, don't give up!
Best of luck!
David
David W. Richardson
Chapelgrove Films
My personal opinion -- it's not a good idea to try and get money from people who don't have it. Don't encourage people to go into debt or risk the family farm just to make your movie. Focus on the people who DO have money. There's plenty of them out there.
And remember -- it's okay to fail as a salesman. Your job, as a producer, isn't to be able to DO every other job -- it's to be skilled at finding the right people to do those jobs FOR you. There's no reason why raising capital should be any different. Focus on your strengths, and hire people to handle the things you're not good at.
Best of luck!
Film is really clean. The difference is what we've been used to seeing as "film" and what really exists. People with Blu Ray accessibility and HD LCD's know what I'm talking about. Even "old" movies are quite polished and resolute as hell.
Gladiator looks incredible in HD, and "film grain" isn't anything I associate with it. I think it's just a matter of what people have been used to seeing in Standard Definition and DVD compression for so many long years.
All the resolution RED has makes it look more like Film Stock, to me. Personally.
Zak Forsman
Major Contributor
unless i'm misinterpreting, i think that was exactly his point, chapel. that if you're trying to squeeze money from someone without the authority to give it to you... that is your own failing as a "salesman".
CRProductions
Active member
Yea..if you watch a Blu Ray on a 1080p TV...it looks JUST like watching it in the movie theater..dare I say it may look better to me (Maybe because my TV is only 32 inches and is alot closer to me than a giant movie screen).
JLS..I'm working on my first film..(yes first feature OR short...I know I'm crazy)..it's a low budget horror..we're going for 200k and that's to get great effects and a few B-list actors although the cast is only really 4 deep...(other than the extra's) The 5 person is mostly seen in a few scenes but they can be filmed far less time than the rest of the cast will need to be there.
As a result of me knowing a few people with money to spend, I felt I could cover my budget, what I didn't feel I had, was the knowledge to completely shoot a film by myself, so I traveled the globe (Technically I went to my day job and met the new guy) and he happened to be a former NYU student with alot of connections..now he's helping me bring that aspect to the money.
What I think you may need to do is find a co-producer who can bring the things to the table that you can't as producer, i.e. the money. And 20% is a RIDICULOUS cut if you do find one..I think producer fee's on a film budget are between 5 and 10%..so both of you I guess technically can split between 50 and 100k...(On a million dollar budget..more likely your budget will be 200k right? so 10-20k)..
JLS..I'm working on my first film..(yes first feature OR short...I know I'm crazy)..it's a low budget horror..we're going for 200k and that's to get great effects and a few B-list actors although the cast is only really 4 deep...(other than the extra's) The 5 person is mostly seen in a few scenes but they can be filmed far less time than the rest of the cast will need to be there.
As a result of me knowing a few people with money to spend, I felt I could cover my budget, what I didn't feel I had, was the knowledge to completely shoot a film by myself, so I traveled the globe (Technically I went to my day job and met the new guy) and he happened to be a former NYU student with alot of connections..now he's helping me bring that aspect to the money.
What I think you may need to do is find a co-producer who can bring the things to the table that you can't as producer, i.e. the money. And 20% is a RIDICULOUS cut if you do find one..I think producer fee's on a film budget are between 5 and 10%..so both of you I guess technically can split between 50 and 100k...(On a million dollar budget..more likely your budget will be 200k right? so 10-20k)..
It probably looks a LOT sharper on your LCD seein' as how all of that data is bein' compressed to fit. I know one thing: The Prestige is absolutely eye-gouging as far as beauty is concerned. I can't get enough of re-watching it.
On Money--
Some people really do make it seem easy. LoL. I'm just thinkin' of all the bad-assery I could do with 25k and people are like "yeah, I'm getting 200k for my horror feature.".
Whoa.
taormina
Hates to Rent
Exactly.
The corollary to retail sales is trying to sell a guy a new car for hours when you haven't pre-qualified the guy by asking the right questions - if you had , you'd have found out he was broke and was only window shopping.
Ted Spencer
Veteran
Yes The Prestige looks great in HD (PS3 Blu-Ray in my case, on a Panasonic 1280/720P LCD front-projector set to about 11' diagonal, viewed from about 16' away). Iron Man looks great too.
As I recently commented elsewhere, there are a few HD titles I've seen on this system (all from 35mm film) that are almost *painfully* sharp (naturally - not via any edge-enhancement BS):
Tailor Of Panama (Pierce Brosnan)
Identity (Ray Liotta)
Last season of "24"
I've yet to see any HD-originated material that can match the sharpest of these. It may exist, but I've never seen it.
As I recently commented elsewhere, there are a few HD titles I've seen on this system (all from 35mm film) that are almost *painfully* sharp (naturally - not via any edge-enhancement BS):
Tailor Of Panama (Pierce Brosnan)
Identity (Ray Liotta)
Last season of "24"
I've yet to see any HD-originated material that can match the sharpest of these. It may exist, but I've never seen it.
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Oh, geez. Iron Man looks incrediburger jammed through the PS3. Just wow. This is why I never get the "film is soft" thing. It's "Organic" But it sure as hell is not soft and grainy to me. I'm probably missing something, though.
jls4
Veteran
I recognize 20% is super high. But you don't know how many people I've talked to and they can't do it. Ive been trying to do this film thing for 5 years and I haven't run into anyone who could raise more than $15K. I'm the best so far at $26K. Good thing about me, like I said is I can stretch a dollar. so if I can get $300K, loose $60K and be back to $240K, I can still make that $240K look like A Million dollars. That's what I'm good at, making the money stretch.
But again, I ask. Send me somebody to help me. I'm on DVXuser. I'm networking, so somebody email me, pm me, get with me and help me raise some money so we both can get to where we are trying to go.
Brandon Rice
Distributed Producer
Where'd you see 24 HD? unless you mean the HD broadcast, which looked great IMO.
Randall_Oelerich
Veteran
But what does 2K mean? I know 2K is 2000, but is the 2000 the horizontal or the vertical pixel resolution?