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
Compromise. Yes.

I just wrapped a 500,000 Feature, and we lost 17 locations, and still had all the troubles an indie project has.

Money doesnt equal "good". Organization and team work equals good.
 
If folks were referring to me re: "don't compromise" I meant in the writing - give us something form yer gut - that's what I meant - that the script should be felt.
 
TimurCivan said:
Money doesnt equal "good". Organization and team work equals good.
Click to expand...

Timur, as usual, you have hit the nail on the head. This is my biggest b*tch about low budget filmmaking. Now, I work at level much less than you describe, but I am very anal about doing a careful break down of any script I am offered to work with. I use the color coding system that is detailed in Ralph Singleton's book, "Film Scheduling, or How Long Will It Take to Shoot Your Movie" http://www.amazon.com/Film-Scheduling-Long-Shoot-Movie/dp/0943728398/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1321067775&sr=8-4 I can not imagine going into a shoot without having a script that has not been broke down that way. Of course, too many times, I get a script, code it for break down, then go to meet the "Producers" and have them look at my script like it is some alien artifact.... "Uhhhh.... so... What are those colors for?"! AHHHHHHH!!!

If it is possible to make an amazing feature for $10,000.00, the secret is ORGANIZATION and, god forbid, PLANNING; detailed, systematic planning. It is hard, very hard, but I don't think that it can be done without it.

Another b*tch I have is that in this day and age of the MicroSoft Office Suit, is seeing low budget movies planned out, and worse, presented, on a legal pad and index cards.... WTF?!!! I would suggest that while learing FCP (or other NLE) AE and MB, it might be worthwhile to learn how to put together a MS Excel spreadsheet. ..... just saying.
 
So let's revisit this really quick:

When we say "for 10K" we mean 10K in cash/spent money. Pre-production through Post-Production. Even realizing that some of that may or may not be deferred?

And the parameters for Amazing are very loose, as in subjective. But basically we're talking about "Watchable" which is made amazing by the idea that it was made for such a cheap amount up front.

And the genre can be anything?

... 10,000.00
 
Isn't PRIMER proof of this question? Only 7 grand, and that was all on film stock and processing. Today you could shoot it on a GH2 and have a better looking image for nothing. It was a truly original film, not to everyone's taste, but many found it amazing.

I'm shooting a feature next year for between 4-12 grand, casting at the moment and that's where most of the money's going. Probably going to pay the leads 500-1000 per week for a 4 week shoot, rest in deferals, using recent acting school graduates. Remainder will be on royalty free music, a dozen royalty free stock footage shots and, of course, catering. Won't be able to feed everyone all meals, but will be able to give them a good lunch. Crew will be from film school.

Remember Darren Aronosky made Pi for only 58k, but there's really no reason that couldn't have been made for 10 grand today.
 
Hutchman said:
Remember Darren Aronosky made Pi for only 58k, but there's really no reason that couldn't have been made for 10 grand today.
Click to expand...

Mmmm i feel like alot of that money went to production design, locations. Just cause you have digital, doesnt mean its suddenly 5x cheaper. that budget would drop to maybe, 45k in digital.
 
Geez. When will this thread ever die? I suppose when someone finally makes an AMAZING feature for under 10,000 dollars.
 
And think about it. How many features were made in the eighties or the nineties or even the 2000s for under 10k? How many features will be made this decade for under 10k? Answer: A LOT!

This decade is going to be to filmmaking what the sixties was to rock music... well maybe not quite but you know what I mean.

And yes Primer is an Amazing film for many people and cost under 10k... so there's that.
 
Searcher said:
And think about it. How many features were made in the eighties or the nineties or even the 2000s for under 10k? How many features will be made this decade for under 10k? Answer: A LOT!

This decade is going to be to filmmaking what the sixties was to rock music... well maybe not quite but you know what I mean.

And yes Primer is an Amazing film for many people and cost under 10k... so there's that.
Click to expand...

I think so, as well. If we're talking about what the filmmakers spent up front before they got picked up, not what the company spent afterward, then yeah.

Guess it'll take a DVXuser to do it under at or under 10K for the thread to die. Haha. Old timers.
 
Searcher said:
And think about it. How many features were made in the eighties or the nineties or even the 2000s for under 10k? How many features will be made this decade for under 10k? Answer: A LOT!

This decade is going to be to filmmaking what the sixties was to rock music... well maybe not quite but you know what I mean.

And yes Primer is an Amazing film for many people and cost under 10k... so there's that.
Click to expand...

Yeah, the idea of doing it has been around for a while now, and advice on how to do it has been pretty abundant. I don't know how many of you have this book in your library... but it came out and in 1995, and advocated shooting a feature on ... wait for it.... wait for it.... SUPER VHS!!!

Russo.jpg

http://www.amazon.com/Make-Your-Feature-Movie-Less/dp/0935016104

John Russo was co-writer on the original "Night of the Living Dead", with Romero. I saw some of the films that he talked about in the $10,000.00 Book.... Amazing was not a word that I would used to describe them, but he got them made, and from what I understand, made money on them. And of course, there is Rick Schmidt...

Feature Filmmaking at Used-Car Prices.jpg
 
How about a $2500.00 feature, shot on film?....

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0089823/fullcredits#cast

http://pirromount.com.customers.tigertech.net/polpix.html

Mark Pirro's film making "Exploits" were covered in American Cinematographer, and inspired more than a few filmmakers to think of bigger things. Yours truly included. I have always considered my failed attempt at making a Super 8mm feature my film school (Do you think that shooting a night exterior is tough with modern cameras?.... shaaaa, try doing it with an ISO (ASA) of 40, which we did on Super 8). We were well on the way to finishing up the project... until the developed film arrived from Qualex (The Kodak contractor for developing Kodachrome 40 Mailers)..... and a third of the footage had a nasty yellow scratch right down the middle. OF COURSE, Qualex said that it was a camera issue. This was pure BS, since, every (Well... almost every) shot was slated, with the roll number, and there was no correlation between consecutive camera rolls and the nasty yellow scratch. What we did note is that the nasty yellow scratch did correlate to consecutive processing batches, which were identified by a code, printed on about a half inch of film, taped to the film roll. Qualex would have not part of it... and that was that for my Super 8mm feature.

With THAT experience under my belt, and the rise of digital video, and now, the rise of low cost digital cinema cameras, I know that A feature film CAN be made for $10,000.00. Whether it is Amazing, or, sh*t, even watchable, is up to the filmmakers, their talent, their insight, their ability to tell a story, but more important, their ability to bring together an amazing amount of resources, under very difficult parameters, and focus them to telling their particular story. That is the logistics and planning stuff that we talked about earlier. Making a feature film for such a small amount of money brings almost crushing limitations... but with those limitations, I am confident that there are filmmakers that can actually exploit those limitations, and, with their talent and creativity, rise above the limitations and make an amazing film. I am not saying that I am one of those filmmakers, but, g*d d*mn it, I am trying to be.
 
Last edited:
TimurCivan said:
Mmmm i feel like alot of that money went to production design, locations. Just cause you have digital, doesnt mean its suddenly 5x cheaper. that budget would drop to maybe, 45k in digital.
Click to expand...

From what I recall, I don't think they spent that much on design, they did pay a lot of people, so that could be cut down a lot. In terms of locations, that's one of a DSLRs strengths, being able to shoot in places you wouldn't be allowed to with 'real' cameras.
 
Kholi said:
So let's revisit this really quick:

When we say "for 10K" we mean 10K in cash/spent money. Pre-production through Post-Production. Even realizing that some of that may or may not be deferred?

And the parameters for Amazing are very loose, as in subjective. But basically we're talking about "Watchable" which is made amazing by the idea that it was made for such a cheap amount up front.

And the genre can be anything?

... 10,000.00
Click to expand...

Under these parameters I would say I've done it then. Details at 11.
 
I love this topic and this thread. I'm going to have to go back through and read through some of the comments because I'm about to embark on this adventure for a 2nd time.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top