Robert Rodriguez $7000 film.

sure why not.whats your address.LOL
No i'm just asking for some advice from people who have made a film on there own.
What there experience was like making it and what hard ships they went tho.
and tips on what to do and not to do.
Well i guess i'm making it seem like a have a lot of money but no,i really dont own a second XH-A1 and a HV30 my friends do so in the fact of making this film I do in a sense catch my drift?
 
My advice is to make it action and as cheap as possible if it's your first. And don't expect to make any cash from it unless you're really smart about web distribution or have some connections. My second film got me a lot of pub but still no real cash influx. We're looking into the possibility of iTunes and such now. I spoke to Apple a year ago and it was a no go so now things may be different.

We shot the second film for $5000 so if we make $8000 back in a decent time (spent about $3000 in marketing) I'll consider it a good take. If we make double that or more it's a bonafide success. Always have your distribution set up planned. We could've got distribution from a "major minor" distributor but would've seen no money from that deal either. I've made more simply going it alone.

As you probably know next year I'm doing a big one with a few celebs, at least enough to get it on video shelves. Where will it go after that? Who knows but certainly it will be bigger than what I've done in all ways, greenscreen, better actors, better action and overall more confidence as I know how to get what I want from the film now so it's a good move. We'll see what happens.

-Nate
 
Well i wish you the best of luck.
I have some connections here and there and I have a few people interested in the script so I may have a break this time around.It's a small town here but if something goes on that is attractive it's a big deal.
 
Having finished one feature and working on the next, I'd agree that if it's your first feature, make it as cheap as possible. I had equipment and my actors worked for free, so all I had to pay for was props and food. Total budget=$600. With a budget like that, I can afford to make more movies and learn more about our craft. So keep it cheap!
 
Oh, and for hardships, I had an actress drop out the first day, so I had to find someone else (yeah for craigslist!) Also had my camcorder break down and I ended up borrowing my parents for the rest of the shoot. Then, in editing, the harddrive with all my footage crashed, so I had to recapture all seven hours of tape and re-edit the movie. And the cool part is, I'm ready to go through it all again this summer!
 
El Director said:
Having finished one feature and working on the next, I'd agree that if it's your first feature, make it as cheap as possible. I had equipment and my actors worked for free, so all I had to pay for was props and food. Total budget=$600. With a budget like that, I can afford to make more movies and learn more about our craft. So keep it cheap!
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Yikes! $600. That's $200 less than my first. The 4th Beast: Mask of the Antichrist was shot on an $800 budget. The actors worked for food, we had no real lighting and we used every free location we could find. It was crazy.

El Director said:
Oh, and for hardships, I had an actress drop out the first day, so I had to find someone else (yeah for craigslist!) Also had my camcorder break down and I ended up borrowing my parents for the rest of the shoot. Then, in editing, the harddrive with all my footage crashed, so I had to recapture all seven hours of tape and re-edit the movie. And the cool part is, I'm ready to go through it all again this summer!
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My lead dropped out on the first day of shooting and all of my main actors left. LOL. The film ended up being made with a new lead and the understudies instead. The new lead worked for a Christian media company and ended up being a friend of ours so it worked out. Still would've preferred the other actress for one of the main roles but she went SAG so we couldn't use her. That's why I do intent agreements. If that person goes SAG after the date they sign that agreement it's got nothing to do with me.

-Nate
 
Wow that all sounds great.LOL
Well yea the film is going to be cheap it's just that i have been doing weddings and music videos for a couple of years thats how i have got all my equipment.So this film is going to be very low cause It has been going really bad lately money has been sucking the ground.
I really hope the actors dont leave me cause me script reguires alot of people and I have found a location but it's 2hours away.So i may have to just composite them in,Then motion track them.
 
LOL. Actually I mentioned this in my thread but we just signed a name. I'm just waiting for the conformation letter. It's one day in and out but we can get it all in that day. It's mostly flashbacks. I've been hoping to get in touch with this person but they ended up contacting me. Sweet.

-Nate
 
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That's great. Good luck with that. I use no-name theater actors. One of them has done a bunch of work since my first feature, and another girl is the great niece of Rita Hayworth, which is really cool. Not as cool as having a "name", but close enough, seeing that one of her great uncles would be Orsen Wells. And she's coming back for the sequels!
 
That sweet man.
I just got done watching El Mariachi with the commentary and man was it great.
Really gives you alot o think about and how well put together SOME of the shots were.LOL
Well I cant wait to get the film rolling I really dont want this to be big but hopefully end up big if you know what I mean.
 
craigbowman said:
Robert's success was a matter of the right things happening at the right time. If his friend had not had a sister working for a large talent agency at the time the chances of a top agent seeing his project and connecting Robert with Columbia wouldn't have happened and El Mariachi would have died right there.
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Yeah, a lot of people skip this detail when it comes to Rodriguez's book. It's amazing how he picked up a camera and shot a full length movie, but also remember that he had a connection, tons of enthusiasm and a plan that considered low expectations. He just wanted to sell cheap videos to the Spanish market, not make a widely distributed film.

But I have to ask you guys, where do you get the money for these movies? I spent 8-9 months working up the $2,200 it took to buy a DVX. How do you guys manage $9,000? Fund raising? Sponsorship?
 
Working, saving, planning and taking doors open to you. Some people do fundraising others have money from other things they've done, it's a mixed bag really. Credit cards are a big one though.

-Nate
 
I applaud anyone willing to drop their own money into a film period. No matter what your inspiration was/is etc. RR nor KS were my inspiration, it was a goal I set back in the 1980's while in High School, didn't make my first until I was 35.

My first film was $10,000, a 63 minute zombie film that I learned a lot of humility and lessons on, although I did get it distributed, it wasn't the best thing on the planet. I made a large amount of mistakes and paid for it in reviews and audience reaction, but I set my head around making this hugely epic film, closing roads, getting 100's of extras, etc etc. I spent $7K on equipment, make-up FX and some food items, then during production had to buy another camera when mine broke during production which upped the budget from $7000 to $10000.

In 2007 I set out to do it again, this time with less money, I raised $6,000.00. I also had access to my own DVX100B, and 3 additional DVX100B's. Since I amassed equipment, we were covered on lights and sound.

I used local actors as opposed to friends this time around, and even managed to get the guy who played the infamous Helicopter Zombie in the original 1978 DAWN of the DEAD to play one of the characters. I used the budget to put my actors and crew up in Hotels which I struck deals with to get $30 a night rate for rooms every weekend we shot, and also used it to cater the movie, and I am not talking chips and soda I am talking 3 course full hot meals.

We utilized over 520 extras as zombies, 15 people for SWAT and Military, ad a gun store owner volunteered as technical and weapons coordinator.

I told myself, keep the scope small, so I had access to a ten theater cineplex in hagerstown, MD and we shot in there almost every weekend from OCT 07-DEC 07, then MARCH - APRIL 08 after the place closed for the night, but my need for a larger scope ate at me until i closed a city block down to stage a roadblock massacre, still within my budget of $6,000.00

Now if you have access to the equipment, it is better to pay your cast & crew and just use that equipment, shoot it and be done. Paid actors will always give a better performance than non paid. In our case most of the actors lived 70+ miles away so it was cheaper to put them up in Hotel rooms, which they enjoyed as it felt like a real movie production. We shot all night, partied inthe morning and got it all done.

Our Break Down was as Follows

$2500 in Hotel rooms
$1500.00 in Make-Up FX
$1000.00 in Food
$800 in Incidentals, including Gas Money for shoots lasting only one night.
$200 Left over when we were done, so i came in under budget

I used the remaining money to produce 600 18X12 one sheet posters for the movie which I sell for $5.00 a pop, sold 48 at the premiere, and another 60 at a film fest in 2008 making myself a nice little profit.

Pay your cast & crew first. Even if its $50 a day paid actors like to brag they worked on a paying gig. Make sure you feed them good food.... Pizza is bottom of the barrel, but doesn't hurt to do pizza every once in a while to change things up when you are shooting like we were over the course of 6 months.

Make sure people get screen credit, and if possible throw in IMDB credit, and a screener. If you can arrange a premiere. I did for the movie when I had the rough cut complete. The theater we shot it had a digital auditorium, it sat 500, we screened the flick, did a Q&A, and even advertised through the local radio station for free, which brought us paying customers. I split the door with the theater 60/40, and made myself $900 on the door in addition to the $240 in poster sales.

I wish ya luck man, word of advice, if you go balls deep into a large production like I did, just becareful, and when things get frustrating just keep on trucking. While the second film is nothing spectacular i did manage to make it way better than the first, and in the end it paid off because the cast & crew are elated, and its done so now I have 2 features under my belt and hopefully aming for a third.

BTW, the newest flick is called DEADLANDS 2: Trapped. I put the YOU TUBE link in the User FIlms forum. Check it out if you want.
 
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Wow man ok...
I'm still thinking about it cause I have a whole list of people that want to be in it and all of them have Acting Experience with plays and drama.
But like you said getting pay'd gets them my motivated and focused.
I still dont know,Hopefully I can raise a good amount so I can spilt the price half way so I know I got something out of it early.
But I dont know it's a long road and process.
Still alot to think about before all thats happens,Story is still #1 for us.
So thats taking some time.
I just need some more people that have experience.
It's only Me and another guy thats pretty much going to do everything,
Post Production,Lighting,Cameramen,Photographer,Editor,Producer,Production Designer..ETC ETC and ETC...LMFOL
 
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