How long does it take for you to save up for a shoot?

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RealJasonBourne

fuck man... at this rate it's going to take me 6 - 8 months to save up $8000 - $10 000 to fund the film shoot I want.

I want to have this done in 2 - 3 months.

I went to the casino and I was going to sit there all night playing bacarat until I could afford my film shoot. I went up to like $275 within 20 minutes (I didn't count it because it was no where near $8000) but sitting there for 45 minutes I fucking went back down to $0.

Casino is out of the god damn question.

What do you guys do?

If I could raise my credit card to $20 000 I would, or take out a loan, but I doubt I can.
 
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Save up the money and do small projects in between that don't cost money to get the experience you need, so you won't walk out of your set after 1 crappy take. :P

And combine a, b and c.
 
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8-10 thousand seems like a lot to spend on a first feature...you should try to accomplish smaller ones first.

if you are going to try to raise any money, i would put together a reel first so that you can enlist other people to help you produce it (or grip it or AD or whatever). With a reel, people will be a lot more willing to spend money and respect your decisions. That will make the budget split more than one way. Only thing is, you'll have to share a co-producer (and likely other roles) credit :)
 
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It's going to cost $8000 - $10 000 to make the script look the way it needs to be. It's meant to be something I would put on kickstarter so I can't afford to have bad actors or bad locations. It needs to be done once and done right. (it's still the same script that I failed after the 1st take, this time I'm going outside and practicing each shot).

It would be me and my brother taking money out of each paycheck to save up for it in 6 - 8 months.

but I think if you show you have the skills to pull it off then that's all that matters. If we were able to create a watered down version of the final version with craigslist actors and guerilla locations, (maybe shot all in daylight, shot day for night, or now im thinking hardware lights and LEDs) I would just go all in, show my parents my short film, and ask my parents or try to find a way to borrow some money.

So I think that's what I'm going to focus on right now. I'll try to create something to the best of my resources and show the only thing holding me back is $$$.
 
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the only thing holding me back is $$$
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There is more than that. The experience, the track record, the contacts, the favors owed to you, the killer script and so on. These are all elements that are ore likely to be holding you back than the $$$. $$$ doesn't fix everything. It doesn't automatically turn a shitty movie into a great one.

How long does it take for you to save up for a shoot?
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To answer your question. I've never saved up for a shoot. Ever. If an element in the script cannot be done with what I have access to, I work out if something can be changed or shelve the concept/script. If I need a skill, I either find someone with that skill or spend the time learning it myself.

You just shoot what's within your realm of limits.

Just go out there and shoot something. Tell a great story and build a fan base.

show my parents my short film, and ask my parents or try to find a way to borrow some money
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Very dangerous. If they're well off, sure ask them for some money, but asking your parents to go into hock to film in my opinion is a prime example of poor judgement. If it's not a good enough business opportunity to garner investors, it's just plain wrong to ask people to borrow money to give it to you.

Good luck.
 
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RealJasonBourne said:
If I could raise my credit card to $20 000 I would, or take out a loan, but I doubt I can.
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Personally I would 100% not do that.

Our first shorts (and features actually) were ultra low budget affairs. Basically we gained a huge amount of experience. One short was excellent, the rest just okay.

Now we are hiring great locations for reasonable sums on Airbnb, and our shorts are exceptionally better for our previous experience. We're still shooting on a low budget, just not as low as before. And yeah, we write for what we can afford to film.
 
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Sweetie said:
There is more than that. The experience, the track record, the contacts, the favors owed to you, the killer script and so on. These are all elements that are ore likely to be holding you back than the $$$. $$$ doesn't fix everything. It doesn't automatically turn a shitty movie into a great one.



To answer your question. I've never saved up for a shoot. Ever. If an element in the script cannot be done with what I have access to, I work out if something can be changed or shelve the concept/script. If I need a skill, I either find someone with that skill or spend the time learning it myself.

You just shoot what's within your realm of limits.

Just go out there and shoot something. Tell a great story and build a fan base.



Very dangerous. If they're well off, sure ask them for some money, but asking your parents to go into hock to film in my opinion is a prime example of poor judgement. If it's not a good enough business opportunity to garner investors, it's just plain wrong to ask people to borrow money to give it to you.

Good luck.
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Thanks. I'll try to shoot my script with what I have just to see for myself If I could create a downgraded version of what I vision.

My parents aren't rich but my mom has some money that could I could use to fund this film shoot. I would rather use my parents than an investor because if my film ever did earn anything it wouldn't feel good to have some guy taking a % when you could have done it yourself.

My plan for now is to save money on the side while shooting the downgraded version and if I think it's good enough for people to like it then I would show it to my parents and let them decide if they want to invest in it.
 
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IndiePaul said:
Personally I would 100% not do that.

Our first shorts (and features actually) were ultra low budget affairs. Basically we gained a huge amount of experience. One short was excellent, the rest just okay.

Now we are hiring great locations for reasonable sums on Airbnb, and our shorts are exceptionally better for our previous experience. We're still shooting on a low budget, just not as low as before. And yeah, we write for what we can afford to film.
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Thanks for the advice.
 
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My parents aren't rich but my mom has some money that could I could use to fund this film shoot. I would rather use my parents than an investor because if my film ever did earn anything it wouldn't feel good to have some guy taking a % when you could have done it yourself.

My plan for now is to save money on the side while shooting the downgraded version and if I think it's good enough for people to like it then I would show it to my parents and let them decide if they want to invest in it.
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There is a bigger reason to approach investors, especially savvy investors. They act as an extra layer to whether the project has merits. Take it as a second set of eyes. Your parents won't serve this function.
 
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RealJasonBourne said:
... (it's still the same script that I failed after the 1st take, this time I'm going outside and practicing each shot)....
but I think if you show you have the skills to pull it off then that's all that matters.
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That's not necessarily all that matters but let's say for the moment that it is. Many/Most of the film crafts take several years of study and practice just to achieve competency and mastery can take decades. Therefore, I think you need to realistically ask yourself: As essentially a newbie, what skills are you intending to show off?

$8k-$10k is a considerable budget for a short by no budget amateur standards but it's peanuts by commercial standards. In other words, you're not going to be able to hire good quality experienced pros to fulfill all the required roles with that budget, so you're going to have to DIY some/much of the work yourself, which brings us back to the question above. And, even if you could afford quality pros across all the crafts, you're still going to need a considerable amount of talent, skill and experience to design a vision, plan, manage and direct all those pros, in order to execute your vision, which again brings us back to the question above!

RealJasonBourne said:
I'll try to shoot my script with what I have just to see for myself If I could create a downgraded version of what I vision.
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I think you've got it backwards. Without considerable skill, knowledge and experience you will not be able to create anything but a downgraded version of your vision! The caveat to this statement would obviously be: Unless your vision/goals were downgraded or poor to start with.

From the impression you give, you seem to know very little about what's really involved in making a film. For this reason alone, you need to make a few no budget shorts to gain some basic experience, which should/will enable you to start being a little more objective and circumspect about the whole filmmaking process. At this stage, the vast majority of any budget you spend is going to be wasted! So, save it for now, until you've got a far better idea of how to allocate and maximize the efficiency of a film budget.

G
 
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Make some simple things first that are not directly related to your dream project you want to save money for.
They can include some common elements /techniques so you'll get experience with that.

Making a crappy version first to practise and then make a less crappy (and maybe even great) version for a lot of money doesn't sound like a great plan.
Doing various different things will broaden your horizon.
 
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Am I reading this right? 8-10 grand is considered a lot for a feature?

Everyone is giving you great advice. I made my feature.

Now I have two people that want to give me 5 grand each to partner up with them next summer. So make that film as cheap as possible at the best quality and good things may happen.
 
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theconnorwilliams said:
Am I reading this right? 8-10 grand is considered a lot for a feature?

Everyone is giving you great advice. I made my feature.

Now I have two people that want to give me 5 grand each to partner up with them next summer. So make that film as cheap as possible at the best quality and good things may happen.
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No you are not reading this right. We are talking about a short film from someone that has never produced a short film before. As I pointed out on the first page - it wasn't made clear in the OP.
 
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RealJasonBourne said:
Thanks. I'll try to shoot my script with what I have just to see for myself If I could create a downgraded version of what I vision.
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well downgraded can mean a lot of things. if they downgraded a james bond movie because of budget, he'd be riding in a beat up volvo instead of an Aston Martin. sometimes it would be better to just shoot an entirely different film with your budget and skill level in mind so the props, locations, lighting and story don't end up seeming "downgraded" but instead realized for their full potential.
 
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