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

jls4 said:
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.
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Being able to raise $26K is great!

If you're looking for a salesperson to help you, don't look on DVXUser. Look where salespeople hang out. Put an ad in the paper or on Craigslist. Find a sales professional experienced with outside sales and cold calls -- preferably somebody who can sell intangibles or investment items like annuities and such.
 
Kholi said:
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.
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Yes, LCD..PS3...Iron Man, The Orphanage, The Ruins...*sigh*...I almost cried the first time I watched a blu ray...which was only about a month ago really..I mean I had saw a few before, but not on an LCD screen...1080p..

Anyway, I was really lucky *fingers crossed until the money is in the account*..with who I've come across in life...people with money, that LOVE movies..and I convinced them that the coolest thing in the world to add to your DVD collection is a movie YOU helped create.

They liked that idea..then I sold them on my concept and how if we keep the budget low we could probably find SOME sort of audience for a horror film.

I told them, hey investing in movies is alot like playing the Power Ball..you're not gaurantee'd to win, but if I can give you 5 of the 6 numbers it becomes ALOT more likely...I said if we reach this budget, we can get actors, that's 1 number, we're doing a genre film, that's 2 numbers..we have VERY few locations and VERY few cast..that's 3 numbers...

Told them straight up, the more numbers you can help me get you, the more likely you're going to win out...lol
 
Seriously. If you can raise 25k for a feature I really don't think you would have too much of an issue.

Want to raise 25k for me? LoL

About The Ruins -- Incredible looking movie in HD. And, I didn't even see the Blu Ray version, just On Demand. Wow.
 
JLS,

Do you know anyone who lives in a big house, has three or four $150K+ cars and works at a large company that he / she is an owner or executive at? These are your lenders. Find them, and ask!

Atlanta may have something to do with it, but who knows. The dude that fronted most of the money for Corrado lives in Idaho.
 
Back on topic here, we shot our supernatural thriller for just a hair over $30k in production costs. Post will probably add another $10k to that. And then assuming it ever gets picked up there are a lot of deferments that have to be paid, to almost everyone involved (including me!).

But we shot a lot of locations and we didn't compromise too much on the look or the size of the cast. I've always found that in LA you can find extremely talented people willing to work for cheap for a known period of time. They won't work for free, and they won't work forever, but it wasn't a big challenge for us to line up a really great crew willing to work 2 weeks at $150 per day, even for positions like DP, sound, art department. People just want to work on projects they believe in.

I'm no great salesman, either, but I firmly believe the same principle applies there: people just want to invest in projects they believe in. If you're having trouble raising the money, maybe you haven't spent enough time working on your sales pitch. Have you built a business plan around the movie? Have you shown detailed storyboards and concept illustrations to the potential investors? People who are non-professional investors want to believe in your project as much as you do.
 
Yep, the Christian niche is certainly a weird one... it was also a proving ground for the niche, which then spawned the production of NGL... and soon a new film :)
 
Another thing is to shoot during "dead periods" when no one else is shooting (mid December to mid March here in NYC). People will work on your film just to kill the boredom.
 
Brandon Rice said:
Where'd you see 24 HD? unless you mean the HD broadcast, which looked great IMO.
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Yes the broadcast on Time Warner Cable HD here in NYC. I DVR it so I can watch at leisure and study everything. It's a really, really well done 35mm film-to-HD xfer shoot IMO. On the Panasonic LCD front projector it's just crazy sharp. They go a little nuts with shallow DOF, but hey...who's complaining...
 
By looking at those replies here all i can say is wow and congrats for being able to have all that money available to you for a movie. I could only wish that my budget was over 5k. I shot my first feature and its going to get picked up by a distributor we are just in the final phase on talking about money and all.

I spent about 5 grand, i mostly did everything myself and i paid actors who would volunteer and work on deffered payment. I wrote my script on things that i knew i could get or that were available to me. All in all Total with equiptment and all i think i am 10k in the water but since my film is in spanish i guess the competition is less and it attracts spanish markets. My distributor and i are discussing a sell for over 100k not alot of mony bad but a hell of a return!
 
taormina said:
JLS,

Do you know anyone who lives in a big house, has three or four $150K+ cars and works at a large company that he / she is an owner or executive at? These are your lenders. Find them, and ask!

Atlanta may have something to do with it, but who knows. The dude that fronted most of the money for Corrado lives in Idaho.
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The quick answer - no. Not a one. I don't know anybody who lives in over a $350K house and drives cars worth more than $40K. :)

It's okay though. I'll find somebody. I think once "Voices" is finished I may be abel to reach those I couldn't before.
 
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jls4 said:
The quick answer - no. Not a one. I don't know anybody who lives in over a $350K house and drives cars worth more than $40K. :)

It's okay though. I'll find somebody. I think once "Voices" is finished I may be abel to reach those I couldn't before.
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jls, don't be glum, think of it this way - people like your work. That in of itself is a reason to keep pressing on. You will find your Angel Investor who will fall in love with your stuff as much as you have. Keep trying!
 
taormina said:
jls, don't be glum, think of it this way - people like your work. That in of itself is a reason to keep pressing on. You will find your Angel Investor who will fall in love with your stuff as much as you have. Keep trying!
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Will you be my Angel investor tao? After you've made all your money?! Will you invest back into the DVXusers who've supported you with love? :Drogar-BigGrin(DBG)

Yeah, but I'm not unhappy. I'm happy of what we've been able to accomplish so far and I'm hoping to push foward into bigger and better things in the future. I'm already helping a few people to make their dreams come true and my hope IS to find somebody by the spring who can invest $250K. I've got a script I'm working on with troopercooper that we hope can do some great things.
 
jls4 said:
Will you be my Angel investor tao? After you've made all your money?! Will you invest back into the DVXusers who've supported you with love? :Drogar-BigGrin(DBG)
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If I had the dough and I loved the project and who was in it, sure I'd invest. Seriously. After I've got a couple hits under my belt I will make sure my money is off working for me and to invest in a movie I believe in will be a natural.
 
jls4 said:
my hope IS to find somebody by the spring who can invest $250K.
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Here's part of the problem, I think. Try to stop looking at it as a situation where you need to find ONE magic person to write you a big check, because that's a lot less likely to happen. Instead try to focus on building towards your total. It may not seem easier to find 10 people who will each invest $25k, but it is... money has a way of snowballing once you gather some momentum.
 
dougspice said:
Here's part of the problem, I think. Try to stop looking at it as a situation where you need to find ONE magic person to write you a big check, because that's a lot less likely to happen. Instead try to focus on building towards your total. It may not seem easier to find 10 people who will each invest $25k, but it is... money has a way of snowballing once you gather some momentum.
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Agreed. That's how I raised $25K for my current movie. Found a few people willing to give $2k a piece. Worked out pretty well.

My wife actually did some work for a Venture Capitalist about 3 months back. I was hoping I could talk to him and maybe he could open up a few doors for me.
 
Jls4,

Just curious.... when you list your budget for your films, do you include the cost of your equipment? I've heard on other boards that I shouldn't include equipment costs (full costs). I'm going to talk to my accountant this week to see. If this is the case, then my new budget for my film is closer to $55,000. I guess this makes sense since I've already included the equipment costs on my taxes over the last few years.

Todd
 
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