Film under 20K?

FilmMakerr

FilmMakerr

Veteran
I'm currently writing a horror script, 85% of the film takes place inside of a cabin. The rest of the 15% takes place on the highway, shop, or restaurant.

In total, I have 8 main character through out the whole movie, 5 adults, and 3 kids. Since it is horror, I wanna spend around 50% of my budget towards special effects, and the rest I wanted to divide between the rest of the crew.

Has anyone here made a feature under 20K and had succees with it? My plan is to make the movie and sell it to a distribution company, like most others. Anyone have or know any success stories?
 
lairhair said:
Anything is possible. Paranormal is a success story
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And that was shot in the directors house, with equipment already owned. So if you already own all the equipment you need, sure you can probably do for under $20k... if not you'll probably spend more.

(Lights, Mics, Cables, Camera, Grip, Stock, Editing System, Effects, Audio Post, Music, Actors, Crew, Extras, ect.)
 
Honestly it depends on what you mean by success. Can it be done? Yes. My book "Action Filmmaking." is all about this. The deal is you have to be smart about your goals and what you spend your money on.

-Nate
 
you need to realistically schedule the shoot and figure what it will cost from that. then yu'll know what youre spending on the cast per day, food per day, gear per day, insurance, location fees, etc.

produced a SAG ULBA film in 2006 that was 80% in a large house location and 15% in a hospital. it cost $50K. approximately a 20 day schedule.
 
How'd you manage to get it down to 2.5k per day? The lowest I seem to be able to budget a feature is about 4-6k a day. And what was the length?
 
I shot my action movie/feature for under 1,000. I already owned the camera though, so I don't really consider that an expense...

My budget was something like this
Mic - $250
lights $70
Food - $150
Homemade steadicam - $30
Costumes - $50
Beer/other substances for actors - $150

Between me and other actors we had around 20 realistic airsoft guns which were worth thousands of dollars total, but weren't an expense as we already owned them. None of the actors were paid, we did not rehearse, we shot most of the movie in a few select locations, and we had a few actors play multiple roles, so that we had a smaller cast in general. Basically all the special effects were done in after effects using 'action movie essentials.' All these factors allowed us to shoot quickly, and for very little money. I realize this isn't how the pro's do it, but I did it, and have a finished product (almost almost done editing). It came in at 85 minutes. Maybe it won't be premiering at cannes, but someone will watch it, and I learned a ton in the process.
I realize a 20k project will be very different from a 1k project, but just make sure that you're spending your money wisely. Don't blow 20k on a shitty script. You have to believe that it's worth being shot and if you want to distribute it, you'd better be confident that someone will want to watch it.
In the words of nike,
Just do it.
 
by spending three to four months doing pre-pro.

food was heavily discounted or donated by restaurants -- never had a "pizza day". as was gear, as were location fees. bought set dressing and other needs from home depot, k-mart, etc and returned after we wrapped. crew was limited to less than 10 people. actors were paid $100/day, most scenes only involved two, maybe three actors.

entire cost of post was absorbed because I own a post-production company.

the final cut landed around 96 minutes. first cut we test screened was just over 100.
 
more recently (late 2007), I made HEART OF NOW for $45K. 24 day shoot including a distant location.

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I AGREE
 
we negotiate prices down. my friend is a sharp, fearless producer and has gotten us great deals. also, we have a coordinator who is an event-planner with great relationships for food and set dressing needs. we also donate one-third of the film's profits to charity so people are more willing to contribute to our productions. for example, in 2006 we rented two fully outfitted HVX200's for $2000 flat for four weeks. on the next one, we found someone on craigslist that rented their HVX to us for $500 for the whole shoot. she simply wasn't using it and ended up selling it a few months after we wrapped.
 
"Wages" cost $4500. We said no car chases, no big explosion, everything would be martial arts and maybe some gun fights. We used my old college and shot many scenes between there, the female lead's home, my apartment, and about three paid locations costing about $100 each. I paid the lead actors $25 a day and the other were just people who wanted to be an a martial arts film so that did it for free. Tonee donated his time as he was already being seen in national commercials and local billboards. They really liked the script because they felt it was about something other than just being a marital arts film.

-Nate
 
Movie_Dude_3 said:
Quick question: where do you guys get the funding for your movies?
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umm... good question. I've pretty much run out of funding options myself (other than product placement). Have no credit history, so I can't get a credit card. Can't get a job... pretty much run out of ideas myself.
 
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