FEATURE: Stricken the Feature - A Matt Sconce Film

I love the guessing game as well! It is fun getting people's ballpark ideas on what they think the budget was. I have heard MANY different estimates and guesses. Stricken was a very ambitious film with many necessary VFX scenes. Zoic studios was one of the FX houses we were looking into originally. I got a quote from someone in their department for 8000 for a completed greenscreen shot of average length. We had about 50-70 of shots in Stricken, not counting wire removal, blemish removal, color-correction, and non-greenscreen compositing and VFX. Very ambitious, but after 10 months of no sleep, sometimes no food, and hard work. We did it and won the Best VFX award at the AOF. Very rewarding.
 
I have a feeling your biggest profits will come from overseas. They are hungry for content, especially in Germany. I've seen a mediocre horror film with a 40K budget make back 10x its cost. It took the producer about a year to sell it, but he persevered and waited for the best offer. He too, never revealed his budget and left it up to the buyers to appraise a worth.
 
Matt Sconce said:
I love the guessing game as well! It is fun getting people's ballpark ideas on what they think the budget was. I have heard MANY different estimates and guesses. Stricken was a very ambitious film with many necessary VFX scenes. Zoic studios was one of the FX houses we were looking into originally. I got a quote from someone in their department for 8000 for a completed greenscreen shot of average length. We had about 50-70 of shots in Stricken, not counting wire removal, blemish removal, color-correction, and non-greenscreen compositing and VFX. Very ambitious, but after 10 months of no sleep, sometimes no food, and hard work. We did it and won the Best VFX award at the AOF. Very rewarding.
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So I take it you found my estimate a bit on the low end, of what you want people to think you spent on the film.

Usually I don't take VFX into a lot of consideration anymore when judging how much a film cost to make. Usually I judge it on the quality of the look, the quality of the actors, and how many times I see the same name in the credits :)

Also, one quick question about the showing at AOF. Was that credit roll the one that is on ALL your screeners? The reason I ask is because it must have run a good 6-8 minutes with huge gaps between everyone's names... it was kind of weird... I figured it might have been an error for that screener.
 
The reason for the VFX thing is because I know that in today's day, anyone, who spends enough time can do those on a home/semi-pro PC/MAC and spend $0 on it.
 
Sprocketboy said:
I have a feeling your biggest profits will come from overseas. They are hungry for content, especially in Germany. I've seen a mediocre horror film with a 40K budget make back 10x its cost. It took the producer about a year to sell it, but he persevered and waited for the best offer. He too, never revealed his budget and left it up to the buyers to appraise a worth.
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It will be interesting to find out for sure. I am hoping to hear something back from several of our contacts within the week at the most two. I should have a better feel for things by then.

On the VFX side of things, I disagree that anyone can do the VFX "Well" for their movie even given unlimited time by the same reasoning that even with unlimited time and a rockin camera many people can still make a crappy movie. There are different price points that become obvious when you see VFX in a film. You can usually tell if they are "guy in basement" or "credible VFX house" when you see them. (Of course there are exceptions to the rule and as Brandon stated, "We" (dvxusers) can sometimes make things shine a bit more based on feedback and experience that comes from this community) I feel great about winning Best VFX because we were up against some hardcore films like Hooked from Russia.

At the end of the day, what a film looks like it cost to make is subjective and we will let the distributors let us know what they feel it is worth.
 
If I were asked to guess, it would be forty-thousand with a lot of favors, just from what I've seen so far.

That's me guessing as a current filmmaker, though.

I see the validity in not disclosing how much the movie was made for, however, take MONSTERS (2010) for example: the filmmaker openly explained that he shot the entire feature for fifteen thousand dollars ($15,000.00) and spent his own personal time finishing it.

I'm quite positive that didn't affect his advance, nor the fact that it hits theaters worldwide in less than a year after its purchase.

A great product will go for a great price no matter how much it was made for.

iPhones probably cost two to three dollars to manufacture, they go for two-hundred new and second hand on ebay goes for more.
 
Yeah Kholi, good estimate...

Matt, I thought a lot of the effects toward the end were good, but felt most of the stuff before the very end were easy to spot, and pretty obvious green-screen. Now, this may have been your intention, as a lot of it was "dream" stuff, but I figured I'd be honest, since we're all here to grow :)
 
Yep the dreamy vfx are supposed to feel surreal hence the skin smoothing particle flying goodness. Thanks for the feedback though. I will let you know if I hear some good news.:thumbsup:
 
Ok, got ya. Was just wondering about that.

Let us know if you hear any news. We want to be in on this process, the hardships and success.
 
Matt Sconce said:
The credits are a bit unconventional but they are what they are.
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If a distributor asks you that question, will you give them the same reply?

They aren't just unconventional, they feel (to me) obnoxious, and self-important. I know it's cool to see the crew's names up there, but having them go that long honesty will smell amateur to anyone who watches it.

The reason I'm saying this is so you can do something about it, or change it for next time. I want to see you guys succeed, but that won't happen if you aren't challenged to grow.

Trust me. I'm right there with you trying to grow.
 
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The reason they are long is because of the contract we had with the two musicians who were promised to have their songs in the credits. The songs were longer than we expected. I do not believe the credits are too long or self important. Time the credits you would see in a theater. Ours are the same time length as those.

You are a great guy Brandon, and I appreciate your ideas but sometimes we will disagree. That is the way it is with fellow filmmakers. It does not make you wrong or me right, it is just a matter of opinion. I do not find the credits obnoxious or self important, but they are unconventional. If a distributor we want to work with wants changes, we are of course open to it, so we shall see. We. also, will make changes in future productions to take care of anything we can streamline.
 
They are between 6-8 ish minutes long. We have over 100 people in them with about 40 people to thank. In the future I will probably have smaller font and less spacing between names. I also will not have contract for TWO songs. I will have the composer full in the time after the first song so I have more control. Thanks guys.
 
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