150,000 budget... now what?

J

JoshC

Hello, guys
I just dropped out of collegue and I want to make my dream come true... making a film.
I am planning on coming to Florida february. I am not from USA, so I don't have any connections to the industry.
-My budget is 150,000 dollars. Is it possible to make a film and still make profit with this amount of money?
The film is a black comedy, essemble cast of 5 and around 6 extra roles and six locations. I have already written the script and the whole storyboard. I'll be the director, the editor, the sound editor, soundtrack creator and probably having a second role in the film.
-Is there any other way, than knowing people in the industry, to find someone finance my project (with my 150,000 off cource already inside the budget)
-Can you please tell me what is the NECESSARY paperwork before starting a film?
-How can I plan a casting audition that will have success in the amount of people coming?
-Can I rent FILM EQUIPEMENT? (prices)
-How can I find a a distributor? (Actually, how can I make money from the film?)
 
Sort by date Sort by votes
I don't remember ever saying that. My guess is closer to 40,000 films a year and I wouldn't be surprised if the actual figure was more like 60,000.
Click to expand...

Now I remember. 10k was the other figure I had read and you corrected me. So the odds are less... ouch.

I don't neccasary want to be the director. I just want to make sure my script reach its potential. But if I would be able to find a director that his/her payment will not destroy my budget, sure I'll be happy to welcome him/her abroad.
Click to expand...

There are plenty of up and coming directors who are looking for their big break who will be more than happy to make a film with you within your budget. Hell, if I liked the script, I may even have been interested (as heaps of others here on indietalk), but I sure as hell won't be shooting in Florida.

IF YOU GUYS HAVE ANY OTHER USEFUL LINK OR ADVICE, I'll be glad.
Click to expand...
Go through and read a lot of indietalk. The more you read, the more you'll learn. A lot of your learning journey will be learning what not to do.

I'd suggest if you're going to direct, start making smaller films, until you you feel you're at the point where you can make a commercial film.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
As a sound guy, I, of course, have to include my usual advice:

Your project will only look as good as it sounds, because
"Sound is half of the experience"

If your film looks terrible but has great sound, people might just think it's your aesthetic.
If your film looks great and has bad sound, people will think you're an amateur.
Sound is the first indicator to the industry that you know what you're doing.​
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
JoshC said:
The truth is that the only experience i have is 1 year of cinematography cources, being in a movie set for 2 weeks(was not a low budget film) and learning through lots of film watching and textbooks.
Click to expand...

Gaining experience of a pro movie set is invaluable, try and get more of it if you can! Bare in mind though that the actual shooting (production) phase of filmmaking only accounts for roughly 10% or less of the entire amount of time it takes to make a commercial film. There are relatively few opportunities to learn that other 90%+ and even if you do find a way to witness how the pros do it, you'll still need to practice and build-up your own personal experience. Making a number of shorts first is good advice.

JoshC said:
I went to a technical high school and I have a degree from there as a sound engineer.
Click to expand...

I'm not belittling your achievement in gaining a degree but: Most sound engineer degrees are very generalised, covering a range of diverse audio engineering applications and commonly with an emphasis (or aimed specifically) towards music production. Most hardly even mention film sound and those which do, extremely rarely cover even the fundamental basics accurately. In other words, consider your sound engineering degree to be no more than a starting point, just a very generalised first step on the long road to commercial quality film sound.

JoshC said:
Also, I was making lots of ambient cinematic music (not profesionally, off cource) until 2 years ago.
Click to expand...

Related closely to what I said in the previous paragraph, I presume you mean music in a cinematic style rather than actual cinematic music? There's a considerable difference between the two, both technically and aesthetically!

JoshC said:
I don't neccasary want to be the director. I just want to make sure my script reach its potential. But if I would be able to find a director that his/her payment will not destroy my budget, sure I'll be happy to welcome him/her abroad.
Click to expand...

Making "sure your script reaches it's potential" is going to be problematic, regardless of any budgetary concerns! The producer, director, additional backers and the writer will all have their own ideas about what "reaching it's potential" actually means. In the usual commercial film workflow, the original script the writer has written is usually quite or significantly different from what ends up as the film. As the sole or one of the financiers of your film, you will have more control than scriptwriters normally have but then you've got to ask yourself if the exercise of that control is really going to be better for the commercial prospects of your film. This is an extremely difficult question to answer, with a lot of variables, but very generally the answer is most likely to be "no".

I would second the advice to take-up directorik's generous offer. Actually I'll go a step further and say; due to directorik's experience, you would be a fool not to take him up on his offer!

G
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
My advice:
get more experience, both on other sets and with your own (very) short projects.
This way you get to know people, learn what it takes and getter a better insight in what needs to be done, what your strong and weak points are.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
I'm going to echo everyone else and say get more experience first.

Put it like this, there is a chance that you could make this film and it could be a success and you make profit. But given all the information you've given us that chance is extremely extremely small. Near impossible. I think society feeds this idea of 'anything is possible, follow your dreams!' and while thats solid advice on a basic level, it can be misconstrued and people can make bad decisions. Spending $150,000 on this film when you don't have much experience would most likely be a bad decision.

Take a step back and be realistic, not about what you can achieve in the long run, but in the short run. You're long term goals should be as lofty as possible, making awesome feature films, making enough money to get by with. You're short term goals should be as realistic as possible, what is a logical next step for you. Spending that amount of money with that amount of experience is not the logical next step. I think put that money away, and you're next step should be making an awesome short film with a zero budget. And keep doing that, keep learning and your films will get better and better and more elaborate and there'll come a point when the natural next step will be to make a feature, and when that time comes you'll be damn glad to have $150,000.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top