Short film question

T

thesammyshow

Member
I plan on producing and directing a short film but it'll be my first and I have a couple questions.

First, what's a good budget for a short? It'll have 2 locations, and 3 non union actors.

Second, what's a realistic goal for finishing the shoot, 2-3 days?

Any help is appreciated thanks!
 
The best budget is the maximum amount of money you can raise =)

We can't tell you what your budget is. Depends on what your cast and crew are willing to work for, how much your permits/locations cost, rental costs, insurance if you need it etc. etc.

Making films aint cheap =P

As far as how many days to schedule to shoot it, that's another thing that's hard to tell you without a lot more information. How long is the script, is there complicated blocking? how many lighting set-ups? etc. etc.
 
Thanks, yeah I now realize I didnt give enough information. Would $5000, on average, be a good budget for a short?Script wise, it's about 8 pages, minimal dialogue, mainly consisting of the actors hiding and running in a medium sized room.
 
I shot a 23 minute short (19) pages for 10x your budget and it took 4 days. Period piece on a RED with a low-paid pro crew.

Frankly you can shoot almost anything for any budget you come up with, you just have to realize that money goes fast and its all about deciding what you will pay for and what you won't.
 
Depends entirely on what you'll be paying for. Actors? Crew? Equipment? Sets? Costumes? I deliberately make all my short film scripts match my available resources - they may not be great films, but at least none have cost more than a few hundred dollars.
 
My suggestion is to ask everyone not to get paid! This might seem unreasonable but its a common practice among aspiring actors and film makers. I also did my first short this year, and the deal I proposed to everyone was just that, no pay. All I could offer was food and transport costs. Everyone accepted.

I shot for 4 days, with minimal crew and only two actors. The film went out to the festivals to big success, winning best short in NY and LA, and still being accepted in festivals all over the world.

In the end, the entire cost came to about just that, $5000.

take a look if you wish: http://www.wix.com/shadowsthefilm/shadows
 
Since this is your first I assume it's a learning experience and not something you really expect much from, correct? If that assumption is correct then soliciting free labor from up-and-comers if common practice. You just have to realize that you get what you pay for. As long as your expectations are in line with your budget, everything should be fine.
 
Snazzy Flapper said:
Since this is your first I assume it's a learning experience and not something you really expect much from, correct? If that assumption is correct then soliciting free labor from up-and-comers if common practice. You just have to realize that you get what you pay for. As long as your expectations are in line with your budget, everything should be fine.
Click to expand...

That's not quite right. If you ask people not to get paid, but to help you make your film, then they will labour as though they were getting paid. Its not the fact that they are working on something that doesn't pay them, its the fact that while they are with you, they're not on some other production getting paid.

So, if they made the decision to stay with you, then they already made the decision to work as hard and good as normal. Otherwise, what's in it form them? If anything, get a good film off the ground that they could be proud of, instead of many paid jobs, they're just that, pay jobs, not creative growth.

I mean, I'm not making this up. It worked for me, and it has worked this way for a lot of other people. If people like you and if people respect you, they'll help you in whatever you need. Because everyone knows, its damn expensive to shoot, even a small short, that most probably will not ever make any of its invested money back! As long as no one is making a economic profit on the film, the crew is fine with that.
 
Last edited:
That wasn't my point, Nuno. Generally the people you'll find to work on a project for free are either experienced people you know and you're calling in a favor, or they're people who are willing to work for free because they want to gain experience (which means they're inexperienced). If they're a PA then you're probably okay, but if your DP is learning on the job, you're facing potential problems.

If you can fill your entire crew with pros then hat's off to you! Most of the time you'll have a mix, and when you have people learning on the job, quite often the production will pay a price.
 
^ +1

Let's face it, unless you have some work under you that can really stand on its own it is going to be pretty difficult to get all experienced people who will want to work on your project out of the kindness and goodness of their heart. They are getting paid for their professional work, unless you know them personally it will be tough.

I have found generally good luck with getting actors for free, even the experienced ones. They seem to like the variety and doing different things so I rarely get turned down by actors - but also it's how you pitch the whole idea and what you can say you have going for the overall project. That could be a COOL LOCATION, COOL equipment, or one person of the crew who is experienced, etc... Generally once you pitch and angle something positive, it creates excitement and then sky is the limit.

All and all, it can be time consuming to get people for free and constantly pitch your idea and hear "NO" so at some point paying for certain things JUST GETS IT DONE sooner.

My two cents.
 
Paying gets most things done more quickly. . .

You can however, find great actors who are willing to work for no money.

For aspiring actor's a great performance captured in a quality production IS compensation.

Actors need work, exposure, a canvas upon which to showcase their abilities.

Unless they are mimes or performance artists, then they are looking for a venue.

The percentage of really talented actors is low, but you can find them if you look.

Go see lots of theatre productions.

Hold open calls. Advertise instead of just asking around in your circle of friends.

Expand your circle of travel and get out into the circles where the actor's hang out.

You will see that you have a lot more choices than your best friend's sister, etc.
 
$5000 and three days is a pretty good mid range budget 12 minute short film. That's 4 pages a day (brisk pace, but not totally crazy) and the 5K will allow you to pay lead crew (DP, Makeup, Audio, etc...) and lead actors a bit of something and still have some cash left for props, location fees, food, art direction, etc...
 
Just budgeted out a 10 minute short. Got everything done with nobody working for free (except myself -dp/prod- and the director) at $2500. Looking back. Wished I would have raised around $3200-$3500.

Had to cut some things out that I rather would not have wanted to.

2 shooting days. 2 locations paid for (both locations have an inside/outside that in essence serves for 4 locations). 1 location guerilla (beach pier). Paying the following cast/crew:
- 3 Actors
- Sound
- Make Up
- Grip
- Gaff
- AC/PA
- Editor
- Crafty

Other costs (not all of them, just off the top of my head)
- Festival Submission
- Post Production (audio/coloring)
- Props
- Rentals
- Misc.
 
I can tell you from my experience, if you are just making the short for your own experience and don't plan on doing much with it you should pay cast and crew something. Number one thing is craft services!!! Feed them all very well. I've made 3 short films and each for a budget under $900. That I understand is very low and only my DP and Editor really got to see a few bucks. On the flip side of the coin, everyone in each film was feed and taken care of on set, all received IMDB credit (most actors in small indies will work for credit alone), and 2 of the 3 films won awards at different fests. I've screen at over 15 fests in total.
I love my team and all the actors I've worked with, they've be very dedicated and professional and we've made some very nice short films together.

I haven't have big budgets to work with, but if you have something of value you can offer you can accumulate good actors and crews. I'm now moving into more substantial budgets and able to pay the casts and crews that have stuck with me for my beginning projects. If you have the money great, if not it's still feasible to get a good team and have them help you until you are able to help them.
Just my 2 cents.

Per the initial post, normally look at a location a day and up to 8 pages a day. I personally don't like to keep a set going for more than 7 hrs as it wears on the cast and crew and performances can suffer. You should have an easy 2 days of production.
 
BennyMonday said:
I can tell you from my experience, if you are just making the short for your own experience and don't plan on doing much with it you should pay cast and crew something. Number one thing is craft services!!! Feed them all very well. I've made 3 short films and each for a budget under $900. That I understand is very low and only my DP and Editor really got to see a few bucks. On the flip side of the coin, everyone in each film was feed and taken care of on set, all received IMDB credit (most actors in small indies will work for credit alone), and 2 of the 3 films won awards at different fests. I've screen at over 15 fests in total.
I love my team and all the actors I've worked with, they've be very dedicated and professional and we've made some very nice short films together.

I haven't have big budgets to work with, but if you have something of value you can offer you can accumulate good actors and crews. I'm now moving into more substantial budgets and able to pay the casts and crews that have stuck with me for my beginning projects. If you have the money great, if not it's still feasible to get a good team and have them help you until you are able to help them.
Just my 2 cents.

Per the initial post, normally look at a location a day and up to 8 pages a day. I personally don't like to keep a set going for more than 7 hrs as it wears on the cast and crew and performances can suffer. You should have an easy 2 days of production.
Click to expand...


Your odds of getting anything decent out of a shoot where you schedule 8 pages a day are somewhere between slim and none, 8 pages in 7 hours... are you serious? A brisk, "we're not screwing around, we are really banging through these shots, sometimes compromising quality because we just have to move on" pace is 4 or 5 MAYBE 6 pages in a 12 to 13 hour day. A pace where you can actually take your time and not compromise shots is more like 2 or 3 pages a day max. I have shot 6 pages a day before and it pretty much always results in having to "settle" on some scenes because you just don't have time for another take. You look at the schedule and realize you have to move on.
 
Bringing back an old thread. I am trying to budget out a one day shoot - 5 min horror short I would like to submit for Screamfest. A few people I have spoken to said it might cost $2,500!

A friend has lined up a couple of people, including someone who did great sound for a feature she helped on. But he will be $200 to $250 for the day. If we get bad sound, I am sure the people doing post will murder me. So I need to pay for it.

What is a fair price for a DP with gear to pay for one day? I am in Los Angeles.

Here is my list of crew and budget
Makeup - Might be able to go without?
Sound - $250
Scripty - She is helping for gas - she has worked on a few features - friend of friend
Producer - free
DP - ?
Grip - Maybe the DP can direct us on how to set stuff up? We have access to c stands, light stands, expendables, china balls and reflectors. No arris or kinos
Editor - Open - wondering if I should sync and do the assembly and then hand it over? Granted, I have never done any of that stuff lol
Craft Services - I have a ton of plates, cups etc. so I just need to pay for snacks and the meal.
PA - Volunteer, I hope?
Harddrive -
Actors - Free (2 Main and one actress to say one line)
Props - wedding dress, knife - hopefully no more than $100

It is a one location shoot.

It comes down to the story, acting and the sound, right? Image quality would be great but it seems it has been discussed that if it is passable the audience won't care as much?

Any thoughts would be appreciated.

Anyone here in LA want to work on an AMAZING script? LOL. I just wanted to say amazing. Every ad in CL for free crew usually says amazing about 5 times.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top