FEATURE: "THE DAUGHTER" - Ultra Low Budget Feature

AlexDarke

AlexDarke

Active member
Soooo...my friends and I decided to get off our butts and just shoot a movie. The creation of this story and the spark that ignited the idea to make a movie started with the availability of the location. We had a cabin up near Lake Tahoe that we could use in the off season.

We channeled our resources - equipment, talent, other locations, etc. and eventually we worked through a script and began pre-production. The shoot itself took approximately 3 weeks up in Tahoe, another 2 weeks or so worth of pick-ups in and around LA. The movie is in post right now - FX, Color Correction, Sound Design are still underway - and hopefully we will have a finished product in a couple months!

We shot the movie on 7D camera packages with older Nikon primes. We also had a very basic grip kit, and our lighting kit consisted of two 4-bank Kinos, a 2K, a couple 1Ks and some open-face red heads. We didn't even have a "truck" per se...all the equipment went up in 2 pickup trucks. LOL This was due to budget, but I also personally like the small footprint approach - much easier to manage and we didn't have the manpower to deal with an equipment package bigger than this.

It was great fun to shoot! And it was certainly nice to get the creative juices flowing and create a whole movie.

Teaser Trailer

Full Trailer

Here's a link to the website: WEBSITE LINK

I'm interested in hearing your thoughts!
 
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Wow, I would be curious to see a trailer. Always love hearing stories about those people who hustle and battle to get something done.

Update: Ok found the trailer but I had to look for it. I saw the main menu tab on the side - but it might be easier if you had a clearer trailer link. Just one person's opinion here.
 
prexdealer said:
Wow, I would be curious to see a trailer. Always love hearing stories about those people who hustle and battle to get something done.Update: Ok found the trailer but I had to look for it. I saw the main menu tab on the side - but it might be easier if you had a clearer trailer link. Just one person's opinion here.
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Thank you. I'd be interested to hear if other people have similar issues with the site. I agree there should be an obvious link somewhere.-Alex
 
Man, it looks great! Love the storyline. The trailer is good. I found it relatively fast on the website though I did hunt for it - I just knew to look there for some reason - I think the whole "pull-out menu" must be kinda trendy right now. Personally, I'd rather have it on the front page. People come to the page to watch the trailer, I feel.

Great work, man. Did you have any furniture pads because that might have helped to dampen some of the hollow-sounding rooms a bit. For next time.

Congrats! Keep us informed on the finished product.

Joe
 
Sounds interesting, I'd like to hear what the biggest challenges were technically and cast & crew wise. What was your strategy when it came to your budget, what was borrowed and what had to be paid for? If you did it again what would you do differently?
 
prexdealer said:
Wow, I would be curious to see a trailer. Always love hearing stories about those people who hustle and battle to get something done.

Update: Ok found the trailer but I had to look for it. I saw the main menu tab on the side - but it might be easier if you had a clearer trailer link. Just one person's opinion here.
Click to expand...

Same here. Took me a little bit to try to find the trailer. On the internet if I can't find it (usually) in 5 seconds Im off doing something else. It should be on you home home page IMO. Looks good btw
 
JoeRawlins said:
Man, it looks great! Love the storyline. The trailer is good. I found it relatively fast on the website though I did hunt for it - I just knew to look there for some reason - I think the whole "pull-out menu" must be kinda trendy right now. Personally, I'd rather have it on the front page. People come to the page to watch the trailer, I feel.

Great work, man. Did you have any furniture pads because that might have helped to dampen some of the hollow-sounding rooms a bit. For next time.

Congrats! Keep us informed on the finished product.

Joe
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I'm glad you liked the trailer! Thanks for all the input - we did not have furniture pads! I hadn't even thought about it. That would have been great. We have a sound designer working on trying to find a solution other than ADR for that problem at the moment.

-Alex
 
Imaginate said:
Sounds interesting, I'd like to hear what the biggest challenges were technically and cast & crew wise. What was your strategy when it came to your budget, what was borrowed and what had to be paid for? If you did it again what would you do differently?
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We have had quite a few challenges.

We opted to make the film SAG and use SAG actors, which is an interesting dynamic when mixed with production of this type - trying to make good on all the stipulations required in the SAG contract. We were lucky and all the actors were really great, but we did run into scheduling issues, we went into overtime often, and had to use a good chunk of our budget to satisfy the requirements.

One of the main issues we ran into was spreading ourselves too thin with such a small crew. I'm a producer on the project and was involved from the very beginning, but when on set, I also took on the roles of gaffer, key grip, sound operator at some point, B-cam operator, special fx makeup artist, vfx supervisor, art department...etc. It can get to be extremely taxing. I can't really imagine what it was like for Jonathan, the director, to have to juggle multiple roles, get asked a million questions by everyone all day, and try to maintain effective relationships with the cast, and get through all the setups. It was rough.

We basically lived off of Rockstar and Monster energy drinks, shot 16 hour days. Since the movie takes place mostly at night, and there were so many huge windows and sky lights in this cabin we decided to shoot from dark to sunrise each day.

We borrowed pretty much everything. In terms of equipment, the only things we really rented were light modifiers and various grip items such as clamps, stands, apple boxes, sand, etc...and a doorway dolly with track and skate wheels. I own a 7D kit and the DP owns a 7D kit that we used for the film. We also used my lighting setup which is an old Colortran set I compiled from Craigslist. It consists of a 2K Soft Scoop, two 1Ks, two 800s, seven 600s, two 150 watt clamp lights, and two 150 watt china ball fixtures. Some of you may be familiar with Colortrans, they are pretty solid lights, easy to fix if they have problems, and usually pretty cheap to buy. Sometimes they can be pretty beat up, a couple of mine are, but no matter how bad they look, they run like champs.

We stole a lot of shots in locations, and borrowed other locations. We shot several scenes in my apartment complex, friends' houses, and other places around LA. We pinched pennies everywhere we could, and everyone really stepped up to the plate with the project, putting in crazy hours and a lot of effort. It was really great to see everyone come together and just make it happen.

If I did it again, I would plan on fewer FX shots. I would ask the director to storyboard and the DP to pre-plan lighting set-ups (we didn't really have as much prep time as we would have liked to plan out the shots exactly, so there was a lot of improvising on set which cut into our schedule bigtime). I would have tried to find a similar location closer to home base. It was tough to manage bringing people all the way out to Tahoe on a tight budget, and also housing and feeding the cast and crew became expensive and a big task. We were lucky and had someone on set who was extremely enthusiastic about cooking and dealing with that whole side of the production, and she was phenomenal. Without her, we probably would have started another Donner Party.

Overall though, it was a great experience. And I certainly wouldn't mind doing it again.

Thanks for all your comments and suggestions guys! Much appreciated.

Best,

Alex
 
Alex,

Congrats on the film! It looks good but I think the trailer is a tad bit too long. Sorta dragged in the middle. Great production value and definitely started out strong. What's your next steps? Festival run? Sales agent? Attempting to secure distro?

Kegan
 
Kegan said:
Alex,

Congrats on the film! It looks good but I think the trailer is a tad bit too long. Sorta dragged in the middle. Great production value and definitely started out strong. What's your next steps? Festival run? Sales agent? Attempting to secure distro?

Kegan
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Hi Kegan,

Thanks for the input! In terms of next steps, once the film is complete we will submit to festivals and try for that push. I worked the last 3ish years in independent theatrical distribution and international sales here in LA, so we will probably fall back on my contacts if we don't come across any opportunities through other avenues.

All the best,

Alex
 
That's great! Sounds like you guys have a solid plan and I wish you nothing but the best.

As an aside, we're currently going through the distribution process right now...do you mind if I shoot you a PM to pick your brain a little due to your experience in the sector?

Kegan
 
I'd be happy to help you out however I can. Go ahead and send me whatever questions you have.

Best,

Alex
 
We are hoping to have a test screening in the next couple months - anyone in the LA area who would be interested in attending, feel free to PM me. It'd be great to meet some people from the DVXUser Community!
 
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