Budget

Status
Not open for further replies.
A

Andrew McCarrick

Carbonite Member
I either need to cut this budget below significantly or find a way to raise the money. Suggestions?


$15,000 equipment + insurance
$3,000 actors
$2,000 contingency fund
$5,000 Locations and Permits
Total - $25,000

Equipment List:
Follow Focus - Single Sided - Chrosziel - $300
Side Flap Set - Chrosziel - $40
2-Stage 4x5.56/4x4 rotatable Matte Box - Chrosziel 450-01 - $350
NIKON MF Geared Prime Lens Set - $1450
$2830 total - IndieRentals/DivisionCamera


RedRock Shoulder Mount - $141.50 each
nanoFlash - $664 each
Canon HV40 - $240
Zeiss Cinema Lens Set (Nikon Mount) - $1048
$2900 total - LensRentals.com


Letus Mini - $983
Letus Total - $1,967.00


Pearstone VT2500B Tripod - $150
Beachtek DXA-5DA DSLR Cameras Passive Dual XLR Mic Adapter - $330
B&H Total - $960

Other Equipment (Jib/Steadicam Rigs/Crew) - $3,000
Insurance - $3,500
 
Feature... Equipment is a month rental or a purchase. Crew is going to be 7 people max; myself and a few other people I went to film school with are working free.

Crew:
Camera Op x 2
Assistant Cameras x 2
Boom Op
Audio Mixer
and Me

Maybe a PA or two.
 
Other than the Beachtek there is no sound kit. You've said your crew is working as volunteers but it's unlikely that a sound mixer who can afford to work for free owns a kit he can afford to contribute.
 
Is "contingency" fund supposed to cover food, batteries, and all of the other expendables you'll come across? Food isn't listed... are you asking everyone to work for free and buy their own food, pay for their own gas to get to the locations, and bring their own bottled water and a sack lunch?

If I were going to shoot this I'd create a very detailed budget and really list all of the items, even if they have a big fat zero in the column. Better to know what you're getting into before you get half-way into a production and have to quit because you didn't plan in pre-production. You can never over plan.
 
Snazzy Flapper said:
Is "contingency" fund supposed to cover food, batteries, and all of the other expendables you'll come across? ...
Click to expand...
It better not. "Contingency" is not a synonym for "miscellaneous." The contingency fund is a reserve to cover such un-anticipated things as "we budgeted $500 to rent X but when we got to the rental house to pick it up, all they had left was a Super X and its rental cost was $600."
 
Why are you shooting on the HV40? A t2i or 60d could be had for half that price. I'm sorta guessing you're shooting two cameras...do you already own an HV40? Either way, it really seems like you should probably just sell it and buy two DSLR's just because of the whole letus mini thing and amount of light needed for those things.

Honestly, you gotta cut down on your camera dept big time. You're not in the big leagues yet and things like a follow focus and matte box are not mission critical items. I feel like you should probably get your two cameras, a 4 lens set that the two cameras can share, 2 ND filters, and a set of sticks. Maybe something for handheld if there's a lot of handheld in the film, but not much more else. A steadicam is also unfortunately way out of your budget...I wouldn't even consider it.

You have close to 5 grand sunk into your two cameras...remember the other departments need money too!

You gotta give us more info though. It's difficult too because we haven't seen the script. How many locations are there? 5,000 for locations and permits might be really excessive, but it also might not be close to enough.

Things that aren't listed that should probably be included.
Production design! Props/set dressing and there should be someone on hand to take care of all this. If not at least someone to get the sets ready beforehand.
Lighting. No lighting gear at all? No gaffer? ???
Hard drives. You're going to have to put all this stuff somewhere.

If you want to keep your crew small, nix the boom op. While it is very nice for the sound guy to not worry about booming while he mixes audio, it's again a luxury. They can manage by themselves.

Even if you're getting things for free, I find it helps to put it on your budget anyways and mark down that it's free. That way you can at least be sure you didn't miss anything.
 
Last edited:
Steve House said:
It better not. "Contingency" is not a synonym for "miscellaneous." The contingency fund is a reserve to cover such un-anticipated things as "we budgeted $500 to rent X but when we got to the rental house to pick it up, all they had left was a Super X and its rental cost was $600."
Click to expand...

Contingency Fund, in my definition, is if we go over days and need additional rentals... or if something unexpected comes up. I try to keep it about 10% of the budget.

RyanT said:
Why are you shooting on the HV40? A t2i or 60d could be had for half that price. I'm sorta guessing you're shooting two cameras...do you already own an HV40? Either way, it really seems like you should probably just sell it and buy two DSLR's just because of the whole letus mini thing and amount of light needed for those things.
Click to expand...

With the T2i, can I record full 1080p out of the HDMI port? I've never used a Still Camera for Video use, so I don't know. I'm either going to a nanoFlash or Black Magic Intensity card with a PC on a card.

Other reason I don't want to shoot on a DSLR: Moire, Aliasing, hot pixels, no onboard audio levels, 12 minute record times, line skipping.

I already own a HV30. The T2i is cheaper, when compared with the Lens Adapter purchase, but personally I believe gives a worse image (based on images I've seen).

As far as # of locations; I have no idea. Still developing the script. Basically working backwards with this project, writing what I can afford. Right now the idea is to keep under 6 total locations. I'm contact local governments on Monday about costs of permits.

Food is the crews responsibility... they've already said they're okay with that.

I forgot the audio gear:

Sennheiser 416 shotgun boom microphone kit - $750
Zacuto Total - $750

Sound Devices 744T Digital Recorder - $900
IndieRentals/DivisionCamera Total - $900
 
Last edited:
Andrew McCarrick said:
Contingency Fund, in my definition, is if we go over days and need additional rentals... or if something unexpected comes up. I try to keep it about 10% of the budget.



With the T2i, can I record full 1080p out of the HDMI port? I've never used a Still Camera for Video use, so I don't know. I'm either going to a nanoFlash or Black Magic Intensity card with a PC on a card.

Other reason I don't want to shoot on a DSLR: Moire, Aliasing, hot pixels, no onboard audio levels, 12 minute record times, line skipping.
Click to expand...

You're recording sound to a seperate device anyways, so is onboard levels very important? The moire is a problem, but it's not too hard to shoot around. As far as the 12 minute record times go...are you planning on doing a lot of long takes like that?

The main reason why I would consider the T2i is the lowlight capabilities. If you shoot with the HV20, you'll probably need a few 2k's and a bunch of 1k's to get things done. If you shoot with the T2i for a lot of stuff you can get away with using just light bulbs and china balls. Sure you'll still need one or two big lights when you have to compete with the sun or light a day interior, but having the option to shoot in that low of light is a big plus when you're working fast like this.

What is your plan with lighting anyways?
 
Since your essentially doing a micro-budget project, (under $100K), you should take a shot at going the crowdfunding route. That way you have a chance at raising the capital you need without having actual investors. At the very least you'll know if your terrific idea has an audience.
 
I know this isn't the DSLR forum but, is there any benefit to the T3i over the T2i? And what about HDMI recording? Is it full 1920 x 1080p out of the HDMI? And what color space is it?
 
Andrew McCarrick said:
Just changed my mind... The 60D isn't much more expensive, and I'm willing to just record to the cards on that. Cuts out 664 bucks per camera.

Has anybody used the JuicedLink DT454 4-Channel DSLR Camera Microphone Preamplifier ? Do they actually get around the AGC?
Click to expand...

I've heard people have had okay results, but do you really need to record straight to camera? I'd just stick with an external recorder and maybe send a feed to the camera so you have something to edit with.
 
RyanT said:
I've heard people have had okay results, but do you really need to record straight to camera? I'd just stick with an external recorder and maybe send a feed to the camera so you have something to edit with.
Click to expand...

But that would cost more... recording with the JuicedLink AGC disabled unit would cut out the need for the $900 audio recorder.
 
How many actors do you have in a scene at one time? Even the zoom H4N would be a better option than recording to camera.
 
If you were to go with the 744t, would you be getting additional lav's or just go with the boom? If so, I'd just get the zoom or whatever is the two track version of the 744t. Obviously the 4 tracks of audio would be great to have, but only if you're really going to utilize them.
 
Well I got it down to $20,000 but I still can't see a way of raising this. I need to get it below $3,000 to even have a shot of finding any money.
 
Andrew,

Not sure what the new budget is but a lot of what RyanT is saying is spot on. I'm not sure how much stuff you changed since posting this thread but DSLR is obviously the best choice for such a low budget project. You have no lighting in the budget and the 35mm adapter route will not help you scale down your budget because of that. Similarly, if you're recording to another source, why are you messing with such an expansive recorder with the H4N is equally as good (enough). As for lenses, you can get some older Nikon glass or Pentax glass much cheaper than a full lens kit. Have you planed your shot list? You may only need like 2-3 lenses total instead of both the Nikon and Ziess sets, especially if you're looking to do a multiple camera set up. (28, 50, 85, and just move the camera back or forth).

How soon do you plan on shooting? Can you pick up some items used on eBay? Have you checked out cheesycam.com for substitution ideas (follow focus, matte box, shoulder mount). I mean is there any gear you can DIY/build? I still don't believe you don't have a lighting package listed, not even Chinese lanterns or Smith Victor photo lights?

Honestly RyanT makes some very strong points on a lot of things. As for lavs and stuff like that; there's ways around that as well; a cleverly hidden shotgun mic connected to a 15' xlr cable, smart shot choices, etc. Lastly, and this is my 2 cents; because this is obviously a bigger deal than "zero budget" classifies (because of the need of permits and insurance) you need to be extra miticulous with your planning. The less components involved, the more planning and work you need to do.
 
Last edited:
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top