budget for indie horror, feedback sought

Randall_Oelerich

Randall_Oelerich

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Just starting to plan for a possible first indie feature, would not film for perhaps 18 months, writing the script now. Attached is rough budget spreadsheet in PDF format, I would like feedback from those of you who have made low/no-budget indie features. What line items are budgeted too low? too high? missing? (I think--from another thread I have going here on audio and microphones--I might shave $2000 off the budget by not buying the Sennheiser mics, as some are suggesting i could enhance my RODE NTG-2 condenser shotgun mic with a mixer that would help with amplified gain, etc)

This would be for an indie horror, take 6-8 college students to a remote location and kill them off one by one, let the hero and a sidekick survive to tell the tale, K.I.S.S. principle. Some filming to be done on and in water as the location would be along the north shore of Lake Superior which has cabins, cliffs, sea caves (one very close to cabin area I would film at) accessible by kayaking, etc. Plenty of local college students for actors locally and film actors that I could bring up from Minneapolis.
~Randall
 

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Sounds pretty fun to me, lol, sorry I can't give you actual advice (I'll be the one asking for similar advice I hope soon, also hoping to film something in maybe 15 months, haven't decided for sure, working on the script as well). You can't go wrong killing off characters in a cool location, as long as it's executed well ;)
 
took a quick look, don't know about costs, but it seems your putting some of the budget in wrong places

remote location, possible camera malfunction from water, possible lens problems from sand, possible audio problems from near water locations, more unpredictable weather than other locations.

having some of the budget for any unpredicted events or situations+15%,
revise with locations for audio and lighting equipment needed, period of shooting and power source and amount needed,
having a way of viewing the footage on a reasonable size monitor on location, like a laptop,
choice of the camera if there is any night low light scenes,
tripods are not for feature shooting,
cave lighting wont work that way, needs more planing,
stunt/make up artist very important,
having permits and insurance and having a medic for cave scene and notifying a nearby hospital or clinic and having a fast way of transportation from location to the emergency location,
if you haven't completed the script yet, how can you calculate 21 days of shooting?,

probably missing allot of stuff, kind of tired/sleepy, maybe plan again once the script is done, go scene by scene and visualize everything that you will shoot and everything on set needed for it,
 
The most important thing is a well fed crew. Don't budget for pizza every meal. Your're putting a lot of money into audio equipment purchases like you said. Either rent the good stuff or just use the mic you have. You also need at least a 10% contingency like amrrahmy said. Murphy's law man. It WILL happen at least once.
 
Noah's right on if you feed the crew crap they will be more apt to walk early from the project. A well fed crew is a happy loyal crew.
good luck
 
Dear Randall,

Score costs seem alright for a good horror score.

Although I would not expect to get a classic, extraordinary horror score for $8k, that may be alright for a score that successfully sets the mood and, depending on the composer's skills, a score that also controls the audience masterfully.

As for the rest of the budget breakdown, what's better than learning from those of others?

M. Night Shyamalan's "The Village" budget breakdown, here.

:)
 
Don't get pizza for every meal. Everyone will hate you. 21 days is tough. Are we talking about a standard 5 day or 6 day week? Or weekends?

Your AD shouldn't be on camera as well. How many crew are we talking here?

You should get permits, especially shooting in caves. You should also have a medic there too. Insurance you will need to rent anything. You also forgot any transportation costs.

And who said tripods aren't used for feature shooting? There has yet to be a production I've worked on where we didn't have sticks.

If you are in a cave, all crew and talent should have wetsuits. It's going to get cold and fast.
 
Hi Randall,

Your worksheet is a good start but as you guessed, it needs lots of work. Just giving it a quick look, I can see some items don't begin to pass the "smiles test." Here's a few glaring items:

Insurance - this is a big deal, there are many types of insurance you'll need. Actually, I'm not trying to nag your budget if it's only off a few thousand here or there (like food) but if you don't have public/private movie insurance, workmans compensation, etc. you could lose your entire personal net worth. And, oh yeah, someone has to pay for E&O...

Crew - your numbers are way off (too low), especially considering your type of shoot.

What about legal fees? This is another item you can't DIY unless you're willing to risk hundreds of thousand of dollars.

Publicity costs is way too low! M&A can run 20-30% of the overall costs, but you could wishfully "hope" the distributor is willing to champion your film over thousand of others. What about your professional website, travel/lodging/biz meals/refreshment costs, etc, etc? Add about one zero to your meager $3,000 estimate ($30,000).

We could probably identify $5-10K of missing techie stuff (you'll be sorry if you don't get wireless mics and lavalieres) but right now I suggest you focus on the "big picture" management items and save the nits for later...

Regards, Michael
 
Are you doing multi-budgets? I'm budgeting everything separately, then once it's all said and done I'll add it all up to a budget like this.

-Nate
 
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