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watch Feature Film (made for £250) Free on YouTube.

J

jamesgwall

Hi Guys (& Girls) !!!

A few months ago I uploaded my debut feature film to YouTube. When I decided to do this a lot of my filmmaking friends thought I was silly and should go the festival route. However, it's almost had 6000 views. (Most likely not all of the 6000 watched the film from start to finish). I didn't have a marketing budget, people that have enjoyed the film have shared the link. It's gained me some press, the reviews have been great, and I've made some new contacts. I believe a lot more indie films will go this way. My film didn't cost me much (£250) so I figured I had nothing to lose, I'd much prefer getting my work out there and viewed.

What are other peoples thoughts?

Here is the film if anybody is interested, The Truth About Romance.
http://youtu.be/H8w4XZLFSm0
 
Dexter7176 said:
I will give it a watch over the weekend, well done on doing it for £250. what equipment did you use.
Click to expand...

Cheers. It was shot on one Canon 7D. For sound I used a Zoom H4n, with a Rode Videomic. A cheap crappy tripod. A homemade track. A redrock shoulder mount. And that's about it. (I've since invested in some better kit)

Edited on my Macbook Pro using Final Cut. Colour corrected with Red Giant's Magic Bullet.

I shot the film over 14 days in July 2012, and then it took me a year on and off to do the post production.
 
I didn't have time to watch it all but I watched a bit and flicked through quite a few scenes.

Got to say, that for your budget, I thought you did a very good job.

You had lots of good shots and well thought out angles, particularly in some of your dialogue scenes.

The lighting was somewhat lacking in some scenes.

Super effort for a first feature. Well done. :)

Are you entering it into any festivals?
 
Last edited:
I also just ran through and I'm impressed by what you pulled off for such a budget.

But I've to say and you probably know it already that the sound is really bad. That hiss is way too high most of the time (it's not 45 minutes in) and the voices sound "weird" (for lack of a better more precise term). I don't know what are your future plans with it but maybe you can find someone who can reword the audio post for a modest fee ?

Anyway, despite its shortcomings, it's a very impressive feat.
 
Very nice!

The camera work and lighting in the opening scene is fantastic. The credits are a good length as well. Not too long, not too short. Also, that shot of the tea/coffee looked fantastic. The soundtrack is nice as well. Framing and composition is well done. The first dialogue scene looked great. Actually, besides the lack of moving shots, I think the cinematography overall was wonderful! You got some great images from your 7D. The acting is good too. The ending was nice :)

The one concern I have is the movies, toys, books, etc. If this is going to be sent to festivals and/or gained profit from, there is a possibility of legal trouble. Like The Artist said, the audio is not very good. There is some hissing, and it has this really strange, hollow sound. The film is very slow as well. Some shots are scenes dragged a bit. I think a good 10/20 minutes could have been cut out. There were some scenes that lacked lighting, which occasionally made the low budget of the film more evident. The color grading and/or white balance seemed off in a few scenes. In the first dialogue scene, when you cut to the man, everything outside looks pink. I think there needs to be more moving shots. It would add more energy and movement to the film. The story didn't seem very original thought. Very formulaic romance.

Overall you did a phenomenal job! What you pulled off with that amount of money is amazing. The things that really bothered me are nitpicks. I want to see what you could pull off with a bigger budget. I admire people who can make their films look more expensive then their original budget. I tip my hat to you sir... well I would if I had a hat right now. Anyway... you did an amazing job!

:clap::clap::clap::clap:
 
OK, I was expecting anyone to comment, sorry for the delay.

IndiePaul.
I didn't actually use any professional lights. My light set up cost me around £20, the most expensive being a cheap reflector on ebay and I used as much natural light where possible. So I agree with you on that. I've recently acquired a small light set up for £6 (!!) from a photography auction. I won't be entering it into film festivals.
Thanks for the kind words.

TheArtist.
I did have a problem with the hiss and spent along time trying to get rid of it, but I'm no sound editor and I did the entire post-production on my own (expect for a friend that prodded me when I fell asleep). I'm not 100% sure on "weird". However, I did get some quotes from sound editors, but they were way too pricey. And, the guys that said they'd do it for free I sent them sound clips to practice on and they did a far worse job than me, which proves you get what you pay for.

ChimpPhobiaFilms.
The film was never going to be sold or entered into film festivals, but I knew it was going online so I purposely added pulp culture (I liked) to give the film more appeal to an audience and something to relate to.
I like the shopping list of problems and then the praise at the end, it made me laugh, but thank you.

MetalRenard.
Thank you, Thanks!!
 
jamesgwall said:
I shot the film over 14 days in July 2012, and then it took me a year on and off to do the post production.
Click to expand...
Nice work. I'd love to know the exact breakdown of the £250. I
can't figure out who to feed even a tiny cast and crew for 14
days for £250
 
directorik said:
Nice work. I'd love to know the exact breakdown of the £250. I
can't figure out who to feed even a tiny cast and crew for 14
days for £250
Click to expand...

OK, I'll try and remember, these are rounded costs.

£80-Hard Drive. (2TB)
£20-Lighting
£20-Bottled Water
£20-Wardrobe
£30-Sound
£40-Props
£20-Clapper
£20-Misc Equipment (eg: gaffer tape, batteries, etc)

The cast brought their own food and wardrobe, I just had to buy extras. I had a lot of the equipment, or made DIY versions. At some point I'll write some blogs on the website breaking these down further.
 
IndiePaul & ChimpPhobiaFilms
Cheers, I plan on doing a couple more no/low budget features, really improve my organisation skills and such on big projects. So when the day comes and I have a bigger budget I know exactly what to do.
 
Thanks, James.

Is that fairly typical in your area? People working for free on a movie also
provide their own food. Here in the States it's expected that if people are
donating their time the bare minimum a producer should do is feed them.

Here in the States £20 would buy about 48 bottles of water. About three
bottle per day.

How many cast and crew did you have on this shoot?
 
directorik said:
Thanks, James.

Is that fairly typical in your area? People working for free on a movie also
provide their own food. Here in the States it's expected that if people are
donating their time the bare minimum a producer should do is feed them.

Here in the States £20 would buy about 48 bottles of water. About three
bottle per day.

How many cast and crew did you have on this shoot?
Click to expand...

I can say that, in London, the producer will be expected to provide snacks throughout the day, as well as scheduled lunch break. Tea, coffee, water, diet coke...etc, are also available all the time.

That said- if I was making a movie with a bunch of friends (rather than actors and crew that I've hired), which is perhaps what jamesgwall did, then I don't think it'd be too crazy to ask them to bring lunch. If it's a project which everyone is equally invested in and benefits people in a roughly even manner, then I guess it's not the same as contracting people to work on your project.
 
Thanks, Nick.

It’s fascinating to me how people manage to make features for
so little money. I’m always curious how what little money there is
is spent.

In my area even friends expect to not pay out of pocket to volunteer
on a shoot. Except for transportation - everyone uses their own petrol.
Some will bring snacks. With that in mind I budget minimum of $30
(about £19) per person per day - a light breakfast a nice lunch and
what we call “craft service”; coffee, tea, water, soft drinks, chips, fruit.
That includes ice, cups, plates, napkins, etc.

A cast of five and a crew of ten that’s £285 per day - an easy £4000
for a 14 day shoot - food only. So you can see why making a feature
for only £250 is of great interest to me.
 
Just quickly, a big thanks to anyone that watched the film and shared it. It reached over 7000 views on the weekend.

To answer

directorik said:
It’s fascinating to me how people manage to make features for
so little money. I’m always curious how what little money there is
is spent.

A cast of five and a crew of ten that’s £285 per day - an easy £4000
for a 14 day shoot - food only. So you can see why making a feature
for only £250 is of great interest to me.
Click to expand...

I made the film for such little money because I was basically the entire crew. I boomed, sound recorded, I did the lighting, I wore myself out :) The main cast Jordan, Danielle and Craig were actors I'd worked with many times before and they wanted to make this film as much as I did. Out of the 14 day shoot Danielle was only needed for 5 days because of the way I scheduled it. The other 3 actors Donna, Leo and Margaret were only needed for a day.
We treated it like a holiday. We were doing something we loved, making a film.
 
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