Do you think it's possible to shoot an AMAZING feature for under $10,000?

Do you think it's possible to shoot an AMAZING feature for under $10,000?

  • Total voters
    157
David Jimerson said:
If you took $10K from someone to make a film and used 70% of it as a bonanza to enrich yourself with equipment instead of putting it into the film, good luck with getting further work. (Oh, and good luck keeping the equipment, too.)
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Absolutely on the money. Let me add that I suspect Barry would have a nicely drafted contract for Brian to sign that would require Brian to turn over the film, the rights to the film, and all remaining assets (cash, materials, equipment) left over after the whole production wrapped.
 
Not to insult other threads, but this is the most intelligent and cerebral thread I have seen on DVX in a long time. Thank you for keeping it tame and polite, while still maintaining your points of view.


Still mad because someone didn't like Shawshank Redemption, though.:angry:

I get the difference now with "paper" costs and actual costs. Just did an invoice for 1940.00, and turned around and discounted 1700, as a favor. But I definitely had the amounts on the invoice to show him what a good deal he got. I am too nice, I think.
 
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Barry_Green said:
Well, the point is -- you worked for a year, and your net total "profit" was $200.

Is that all you value your time at?
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You're talking about how much something is WORTH, not how much it cost to make. A Snickers bar might only cost the producer of said Snickers 12 cents a bar, but to the consumer it's WORTH paying 2.50 (or whatever a Snickers costs nowadays).

So my 800 dollar film cost me 800 bucks to make, but to me it's WORTH $90,000.

Apples and oranges.
 
David Jimerson said:
If you took $10K from someone to make a film and used 70% of it as a bonanza to enrich yourself with equipment instead of putting it into the film, good luck with getting further work. (Oh, and good luck keeping the equipment, too.)
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My point was just that I could see someone making a film if new equipment was the payment. (e.g. if they called in all their own personal favors and produced the film in every term but the financial, I could see them doing it despite not owning the rights to the film when it's all said and done)
 
keylight said:
If you have all of those AMAZING resources at your disposal, then why the hell are you stuck with a $10,000 budget? :)
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Amazing resources don't always equate amazing financial resources.

(I also just had a random thought -- I heard Eminem's self-distributed CD before he got picked up by Dr. Dre. It cost him around 300 bucks to make. The album was completely solid. The one he made with Dr. Dre cost around 1 million, and you couldn't really tell the difference when it was all said and done. More food to cause thinking)
 
Brian_Rice said:
You're talking about how much something is WORTH, not how much it cost to make. A Snickers bar might only cost the producer of said Snickers 12 cents a bar, but to the consumer it's WORTH paying 2.50 (or whatever a Snickers costs nowadays).

So my 800 dollar film cost me 800 bucks to make, but to me it's WORTH $90,000.

Apples and oranges.
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I think another way of looking at Barry's point it is to ask, what was the opportunity cost of spending a year and earning $200?
 
Barry_Green said:
Someone show me the script for this amazing feature, and some samples of their work, and I'll put up the $10k.

But it has to be "amazing".
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INT - LIVING ROOM - EVENING


TERRY LASATER
When is the baby due?

CHARLI
There is no baby.

TERRY LASATER
What are you talking about?

CHARLI
I told Barry that to make it interesting.
You're not going to tell him, are you?

MATT IN STL
Charli, are you feeling okay? Because this is getting worse and worse.

TERRY LASATER
I feel like I'm sitting on an atomic bomb waiting for it to go off.

CHARLI
I don't want you guys to be worried about me.

BARRY GREEN enters the room.

BARRY GREEN
Oh hai, Charli. How is my future wife today?
​

CHARLI
There is something I have to tell you. There is no baby. I made it up.

BARRY GREEN
How could you betray me like this? The whole world betray me. YOU ARE TEARING ME APART CHARLI!!!

​
 
That's up there is an entirely different kind of amazing. If you haven't seen THE ROOM in a theater you have not experienced amazing.
 
Brian_Rice said:
So my 800 dollar film cost me 800 bucks to make, but to me it's WORTH $90,000.
Apples and oranges.
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Well, if it is worth $90,000 then why did you sell it for $200?

Let's re-examine it. I asked you if you spent $800 cash, and your total receipts were $1,000... Would you consider that a profit? You said yes, but I think you're now understanding that no, that isn't a profit at all, you're horribly in the hole.

I agree with you that you should be valuing at $90k. That is the worth of what you spent. And $200 is no profit at all, you sold a year of your life for that $200. That wasn't a profit, it was a massive loss.

Just trying to put the value all in perspective. Respect the value of your time and your efforts. And then doubly respect the value of the efforts others donate to you, and make sure you pay them all back.
 
Barry_Green said:
Well, if it is worth $90,000 then why did you sell it for $200?

Let's re-examine it. I asked you if you spent $800 cash, and your total receipts were $1,000... Would you consider that a profit? You said yes, but I think you're now understanding that no, that isn't a profit at all, you're horribly in the hole.

I agree with you that you should be valuing at $90k. That is the worth of what you spent. And $200 is no profit at all, you sold a year of your life for that $200. That wasn't a profit, it was a massive loss.

Just trying to put the value all in perspective. Respect the value of your time and your efforts. And then doubly respect the value of the efforts others donate to you, and make sure you pay them all back.
Click to expand...

Incidentally, this is the only post or comment I've ever read as an argument against revealing a budget number that I cant really find a way around.

Framed this way, I get it finally.
 
Let me throw this into the mix. From IndieWIRE:

And it’s fair to say the film’s hefty drop was down to the critics—“Atlas Shrugged Pt. 1” managed only a 7% fresh rating at Rotten Tomatoes, with most critics happy to tear the film a new asshole. Even Jeff Otto, who reviewed the film for us, who took a far more impartial look at the film that this writer could have managed, gave it a rare ‘F’ grade, calling it “an aimless, amateurish and, more to the point, stone cold boring piece of drivel.” All in all, it seems to mean that Aglialoro won’t push ahead with his plans to film the rest of the book.

[SNIP]

As Aglialoro suggests, he won’t lose money on it—the film was produced far too cheaply for that—but it seems that the effort involved, the low profit margins, and the critical brickbats slung at the film, have sapped his desire to get Rand’s work on screens.

[SNIP]

In reality, “Atlas Shrugged Pt. 1” was, ironically, crushed at the free market—the film had every chance of being a crossover hit, but it was marketed exclusively at a niche audience of Tea Party types, who either didn’t bother to show up, or don’t exist in sizable enough numbers to sustain a film like this. Essentially, it’s the “Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World” of Objectivist thinking.
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Getting back to the original question.... Let's assume that you could do it. Should you do it?
 
Barry_Green said:
Well, if it is worth $90,000 then why did you sell it for $200?

Let's re-examine it. I asked you if you spent $800 cash, and your total receipts were $1,000... Would you consider that a profit? You said yes, but I think you're now understanding that no, that isn't a profit at all, you're horribly in the hole.

I agree with you that you should be valuing at $90k. That is the worth of what you spent. And $200 is no profit at all, you sold a year of your life for that $200. That wasn't a profit, it was a massive loss.

Just trying to put the value all in perspective. Respect the value of your time and your efforts. And then doubly respect the value of the efforts others donate to you, and make sure you pay them all back.
Click to expand...

I completely feel you on valuing your time. I think it's just the line you have to draw and accept as a creative person (artist, whatever).

Spending that year making the film that I value at $90,000 (arbitratrily apparently, lol) is not, for me, about the profits and bottom line, it's not even about making the next movie, it's about making the movie that was made. People have spent a year on comic book series and I'm sure have made less than 200 bucks for their efforts. Heck, novelists spend decades writing and making nothing whatsoever; lots of painters, musicians, etc. If I make an album and sell it out of my trunk, that's just what's happening.

Some people simply don't create things to make a profit; like, it literally never enters their mind to create thing A to get X amount of $$$. One of the best artists I know is in complete poverty and has been for more than a decade. That's a producer mentality (and, unfortunately, more than a few filmmakers and writers). But you write a book because you need to write THAT book, you should make a film because you want to make THAT film and do it to the best of your abilities and resources.

We're going to go off-topic... lol

But I vote we take self-worth out of the equation.

I mean, what decent artist has a shred of self-worth anyway?

:)
 
Brian_Rice said:
My point was just that I could see someone making a film if new equipment was the payment. (e.g. if they called in all their own personal favors and produced the film in every term but the financial, I could see them doing it despite not owning the rights to the film when it's all said and done)
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So . . . putting tons of time, effort, and skill into someone else's project is worth something that ought to be accounted for?
 
David Jimerson said:
So . . . putting tons of time, effort, and skill into someone else's project is worth something that ought to be accounted for?
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Of course!

But as an artist sometimes you get paid or bartered with, sometimes you don't.

It's your choice. If you want to work with someone who can't pay you, go ahead. If you want to work for someone who can pay you, do that.
 
ugafan said:
INT - LIVING ROOM - EVENING


TERRY LASATER
When is the baby due?

CHARLI
There is no baby.

TERRY LASATER
What are you talking about?

CHARLI
I told Barry that to make it interesting.
You're not going to tell him, are you?

MATT IN STL
Charli, are you feeling okay? Because this is getting worse and worse.

TERRY LASATER
I feel like I'm sitting on an atomic bomb waiting for it to go off.

CHARLI
I don't want you guys to be worried about me.

BARRY GREEN enters the room.

BARRY GREEN
Oh hai, Charli. How is my future wife today?
​

CHARLI
There is something I have to tell you. There is no baby. I made it up.

BARRY GREEN
How could you betray me like this? The whole world betray me. YOU ARE TEARING ME APART CHARLI!!!

​
Click to expand...

FADE OUT

FADE IN

INT - CHEERLEADER LOCKER ROOM - LATTER THAT EVENING

BARRY GREEN enters the room....




Ok, now we talking a movie!!!
 
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Brian_Rice said:
People have spent a year on comic book series and I'm sure have made less than 200 bucks for their efforts. Heck, novelists spend decades writing and making nothing whatsoever; lots of painters, musicians, etc. If I make an album and sell it out of my trunk, that's just what's happening.

[SNIP]

But you write a book because you need to write THAT book, you should make a film because you want to make THAT film and do it to the best of your abilities and resources.
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You make a passionate argument here. And it is true that sometimes you do things for the love of it, not necessarily to make a profit.

Let me note that all of your examples are of a single artist (or perhaps a very small group - say 3 or 4 members in a band) working hard at something out of love. Film making is inherently different. It is a collaborative effort to achieve one person's vision. That's different than an artist working alone on their own thing. For the person in charge (director/producer) it can be a labor of love. For everyone else, it's work. Even if everyone is donating time for a friend, or in exchange for the experience....

So we can take self-worth out of the equation if you like, but should we take the worth or value of everyone else out?
 
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