Production: What was your last short budget? + More

Kholi

Section Moderator
Hey guys,

for those of you who/m participated in other short film contests, what kind of budgets were you working with or, what did you end up spending in the end?

How much do you plan to shell out on this contest?

if that's too personal, sorry for asking. =P

This is my first time touching a camera, ever, and I'm just wondering what kind of budget everyone else works with if any.
 
we are college students, so basically nothing, but we probably ending up spending 300 between 3 guys.

which included a small crane, costumes, blood stuff, tapes, some pvc pipe for dolly rails, other miscellaneous stuff.
 
I've produced two shorts
"One Step Ahead" - $83
"A Price Too High" - $160

About double for the second one. I tried to get more props, and feed the cast/crew better than McDonalds.
 
That ranges wildly depending on what kind of project I'm working on, and what the intention is for the end product.

For our last short on this site we tried to beg borrow and steal whatever we could to get it done. In the end, it probably cost a couple hundred bucks.

For something where the clients have intent to distribute (huh... that makes it sound like a crime...) the budgets range from like 1600 bucks to 40,000. Really depends.

I've personally never spent more than about $2000 - $4000 on a film I've done.
 
profnoxin said:
That ranges wildly depending on what kind of project I'm working on, and what the intention is for the end product.

For our last short on this site we tried to beg borrow and steal whatever we could to get it done. In the end, it probably cost a couple hundred bucks.

For something where the clients have intent to distribute (huh... that makes it sound like a crime...) the budgets range from like 1600 bucks to 40,000. Really depends.

I've personally never spent more than about $2000 - $4000 on a film I've done.

That's a good chunk of change, though. 2k... if that's the most you've spent on your OWN short (Not a clients).

Pretty cool to know that people are really shooting bare-bones.
 
i dont have a budget persay. I use every short as an excuse to buy a new piece of equipment.

So actual production cost of last short? probably 100 dollars.
How much did I spend? probably 800 or so.
 
That's a pretty good theory, Lucidz. Experience + New production items to work with.

I'd think that if you wanted to get really good results from a short film, it's best to shell out a couple hundred... at least to feed everyone.
 
I think its a great theory. My fiance isn't so sold on the notion. :/

I only had i think 5 ppl involved with the last short, and we cooked them spaghetti :p

This next short looks to have 10-12 people involved, so big jump for me.

Getting a gitzo boom pole for this one.
 
I spent about $300 on the Zombie film short. I adpted Lucidz theory. The money I spend on a short usually goes to new equipment that I will use later.
 
Looked like Zombie fest was a bit more involved than the recent Sci-Fest, maybe?

Dunno how much I plan to spend. I'm still on the fence for even competing.
 
Zombiefest had more necessary practical effects. Scifest was more cg-oriented... and that can be a lot cheaper.
 
Aram Bauman said:
Budgets?!?! BUDGETS?!?! We dont need no sticking budgets!!!

I hear that! :happy:

We spent a little money on sci-fest for props and such... built a dolly but I don't count that since it will get used for other stuff. This time around we're going to build a steadi-cam/stabalizer kind of thingy. We're also going to "upgrade" from FCE to FCP, but again, that's not really specific to this project.
 
In a way, I spent at least a couple thousand on PANDORA, but it really doesn't count because it was new equipment (boom pole, mic, shock mount, etc.).

Total HARD costs for the short was less than $350, $250 of which was food to feed the people REALLY well for 3 days. My short before that, DEATH MARCH, ran me about $100 or less.

I expect this one to run me more, but no more than $1K, which allows for rentals of rain towers (if I can't get them for free), food for a larger cast/crew over two weekends, etc.
 
Envision said:
In a way, I spent at least a couple thousand on PANDORA, but it really doesn't count because it was new equipment (boom pole, mic, shock mount, etc.).

Total HARD costs for the short was less than $350, $250 of which was food to feed the people REALLY well for 3 days. My short before that, DEATH MARCH, ran me about $100 or less.

I expect this one to run me more, but no more than $1K, which allows for rentals of rain towers (if I can't get them for free), food for a larger cast/crew over two weekends, etc.

I was thinking around one-thousand or so for my own budget. Do you think that's too much for someone who's never touched a camear before?

:cheesy:
 
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