Micro Budget Strategies

Imaginate

Imaginate

Well-known member
I'm wondering if anyone has recently shot a feature with a budget between 50K and 100K

I realize that budgets for every film will vary with hundreds of variables but there is always something to learn from the path that others have taken.

Would anyone be willing to share some of their budgets with me?
 
My last film was below $50K in actual cash investment, but a lot of it was done with people giving their time time and talent. I spent close to two years to finalize the film - when working on the good/fast/cheap methodology (pick any two) we went with good and cheap... which means it took a lot of time.

Michael
 
Be quick about it (at least each individual shoot) and work as few people as possible at any given time. That's the biggest difference between big and low budget.
 
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Good advice Michael. I was told that after pitching my first film idea. Good, Fast, Cheap. Sometimes the cheap part in out of your control and I think the focus should be on Good so maybe it should be "Fast or Cheap" pick one.

Can't help you imaginate. I'm still well below those numbers. sorry.
 
Something else I always talk about when I am on panels and such is for fimmakers to know the limits of their talent. In a DIY mentality, there reaches a tipping point where it starts to hurt the overall project somehow. When I budget a project, I am very honest with my skill set and the values I am trying to hold for the project - then I go make deals with the people who can bring that value to the project. Just because I have access to the tools, doesn't necessarily mean I should be the one to use them.

Michael
 
MichaelP said:
When I budget a project, I am very honest with my skill set and the values I am trying to hold for the project - then I go make deals with the people who can bring that value to the project. Just because I have access to the tools, doesn't necessarily mean I should be the one to use them.

Michael
Click to expand...

This is really good wisdom, indie filmmakers tend to be skilled in multiple ways but when they take on too much it devalues the project.

In the same way I've heard stories of people with no filmmaking skills create a successful project because they brought in good people and let them do their jobs.
 
Shoot a glorified stage play.
Shoot on rooftops so you don't need street permits.
Place actors near windows during day int shots so they have natural
motivated lighting.
Use as few locations and actors as possible.
Save time on set ups by shooting walk n talks during exposition or driving scenes.
 
lol

lol

Well shooting on rooftops is freakin' expensive! I shot my first bigger budget music video on a rooftop and it cost quite a lot ;)

I definitely wouldn't try to do it all myself. I can't shoot, I can do basic editing but not too sophisticated, but I can write and direct, so I'll stick to what I know, lol. Of course I do a lot of producing, so I will assist whoever I hire as a producer, but mostly I'm hiring professionals to help with it.

I JUST sent my screenplay off to some people today, so excited about that, registered it with the copyright office, so aiming to shoot in July. Should be sweet.
 
Just get as good a team as possible and plan as much as possible prior to spending anything. We did a 21 day should but it took nearly 3 months to complete because of the need to shoot around everyone's schedule and get access to all the locations we needed over the production. We're in post now and won't be done until likely May at the earliest.

Just plan, plan, plan and definitely try to be realistic at what you can pull off but don't let it stop you from being ambitious.

Our trailer now available here:
www.battle-movie.com
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uDQe5I3FQcs
http://vimeo.com/8463840

Can't confirm my budget at this time but it's certainly not a significant number.

-Martin
 
Nice trailer, Martay.

Have you already shared some production notes in the User Films section. Would love to hear more about it.
 
Actually $50,000 to $100,000 is an excellent budget for an indie movie. There is a huge difference between the two though.
1) With $50,000 you can shoot an action film with a lot of production value, with at least one TV star in the lead, and you can shoot 4 weeks with a small experienced crew.
2) With $100,000 you can shoot an action film with a top UPM, a number of TV stars, plus one movie star who has not worked for a while, 35mm film production, small professional crew, and a good chance at having the movie go theatrical and make a lot of money.

But, by a budget of $50,000 and $100,000 I don't mean spending those amounts of moneys by the end of the project. I mean the money has to be there in the bank at the beginning of the project. Otherwise, I've made a lot of million dollar movies on no-budget, if you know what I mean ;-)
 
Rule of thumb has post at 20% of overall budget - how much of that 100K is for marketing efforts to distributors? 10%? So look at production and above the line at $70K and not 100K - most indies spend it all before they get into post...

Michael
 
I've made several shorts on no-budget, the feature i'm currently in pre-production for (wester/action/adventure) is clocking in at about $60k. the overall BEST pieces of advice i can give:

-Make sure your actors are WELL REHEARSED and BLOCKED before the shoot. Your time while shooting is precious and EXPENSIVE. You save your DP hours of figuring out shot composition, and save yourself DAYS of additional takes.

The last short i shot involved almost a week of just the actors and director meeting (at a table and on-location). It saved us a BUNCH of time (and thus, money)

-ALWAYS show your DP/Lighting guy AAAAAND your sound mixer/boom operator the locations BEFORE SHOOTING. They will be more prepared, which will save you time and reduce your risk for DAY-KILLING oversights in audio or lighting.

-Do your outdoor stuff FIRST! that way, if late in the month you have crappy weather you can just take it indoors. Consider EVERY indoor scene a "pickup" scene until ALL of your outdoor stuff is done. Luckily, outdoor stuff tends to shoot really quick if you follwed the previous biuts of advice :)
 
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Thanks!!

Thanks!!

I appreciate everyone sharing their experiences and advice. I am about to work with my team to make a 50k movie. Some of this budget is going to legal (llc formation, $800 CA tax, and PPM documents - fortunately an entertainment lawyer is willing to let me do the grunt work and just charge us per hour to touch it up - it is the producer's friend).

We have a location and red cameras that will be lent for free. We have clothing/costuming done (for free). My friend has an editor willing to do te post (probably be deferred). I really want to make this a 40k film with 5 to 10k as backup.

It is a small group of actors and so I am really concerned about how to pay the crew and how much they should get paid for a 14 day shoot.

I don't want to be cheap on the crew where an extra 2k or 5k would make a 10 times better movie. Just want to make sure people are paid appropriately.
How much does a good horror director get paid for 2 weeks? Same question for sound, cameramen (and women), gaffer, makeup etc. Would someone be kind enough to break down some key crew costs please? And how much can be deferred?

How cheap (but good) can food get?

Any recommendations of a good special effects place in LA would be appreciated.

Thanks.
 
RE: Cheap food - if you know someone that can cook you can have cheap AND good. The secret is finding recipes that can be done in a crockpot, etc. Our most popular meal was taco salad. Meat simmering in the crockpot, bags of cheese, a tub of sour cream, salad shells, lettuce, tomatoes. Your actors and crew assemble their own meal and get their first hot, non pizza meal in a long time. Cost is a buck or two per person.
 
Yeah a lot of this I need to figure out with whoever I hire as my producer pretty soon, especially saving money on food.

I'm talking with my dad's company's accountant about the setup of the feature, but I think that the way everyone else does it MAY not be the way I need to do it for this production. Everyone seems to setup an LLC just for the feature film, but I can't actually see a definite reason that must be done. I already have a corporation, and it will be the production company, so I'm thinking if I can just setup a separate bank account through Wells Fargo, and fund the production through that, it shouldn't matter whether it has its own LLC or not. For legal purposes, it would make some difference if the production got sued, then they'd be suing my film production company, but then again that'd probably happen anyway as it will still be the "producing" company on the project. The reason I can see to setup an LLC for a film, and why I understand they do this for almost all projects, is because of the funding structure -- it's funded by a number of people, it needs its own entity. But if I'm funding it entirely myself, I can't think of a good reason that I need to spend the extra money and hassle to give it its own company...
 
JonathanLB,
It may make sense to set up an llc in another state. Some have no residency requirements, no additional officer requirements, no physical location in the state, and can be set up without having to travel to the state. Cost can be as little as 200 dollars.
 
Yeah I could do that as well but I still haven't figured out the compelling reason I'd *need* another company setup, versus my regular corporate projects that I run through my production company. I believe that I could setup a second bank account for my main corporation, but haven't checked on that yet, I don't see why not though...
 
I'm pretty sure if has to do with if you lose money or go into debt creditors and only sue your Movie Corp instead of your main production company.
 
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