pre-production New Financing Plan for Short Film

ShortFilmSensei

ShortFilmSensei

I'm working on a script for a phycological drama short film. I've got the script almost complete, so I've been breaking it down to the basics and TRYING to do some math. (never been my strong suit).

I found an article somewhere talking about using a tiered system for paying cast/crew. That seemed interesting to me, because it would help me learn about hierarchy and price negotiations (which I desperately need)

So, here is what I came up with.

For a 10-15 minute short film planned for working 8 hours a day.

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Tier 1 = $250 per day (Director/Producer/DP/Sound/Set-Art Director/Lead Actors)

Tier 2 = $100 per day (Supporting Actors/Grip/AC/AD/etc.)

Tier 3 = $50 per day (Extras/PA's)


On a 7 day shoot, it totals to a budget of $20k when including rental/food/marketing/props/sets.

On a 3 day shoot, its around $10,450.

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My last two shorts, I payed around $8-10k, but it was going more toward the film rather than the cast/crew. This time, I really want to make sure everyone gets something... And then I can take the jobs that aren't filled for free.

Is this a good budgeting schematic? What do you think I should list under what Tier? Should I try to aim for a different pricing range?

Anything you all can tell me will help those folks who work on this film starting next year. I want to do the right thing as best I can, with the limited finances I have at my disposal.
 
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onebaldman said:
I just need to slow down a bit, and really focus on just working within my limitations.
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onebaldman said:
The story holds up well enough on its own. That's been the sole focus from the start.
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There's the place to start, you said it yourself. Rip your story/script apart and pare it down to essentials. What is the absolute minimum number of characters and locations needed to tell the story you want to tell? How important are the locations? And set dressing, and wardrobe, and... you get it, I'm sure.

From there you figure the production cost. As a sound guy I am, of course, going to tell you that production sound is king. But the smaller the budget the more important it becomes. You can chalk up almost anything visual to a style, or whatever, (the infamous "Blair Witch" story) but when it comes to sound audiences are very unforgiving. If you start with great production sound your entire audio post is a creative endeavor and not a rescue operation. At the small budget level we don't have the expensive toys the big studios use, nor, on your budget, do we have the time to waste cleaning up bad audio. Let's look at it this way; if you booked 100 hours of audio post time do you want them to spend 75 of those hours cleaning up bad production sound? Or would you rather have them spend their time nuancing the dialog, putting in deeper layers of Foley & sound effects, and finessing the mix?

And, look at it this way as well; don't you want people to understand the dialog you crafted so carefully?

And a third way... If you're doing the audio post yourself, what the hell do you know about audio noise reduction?

You'll have to decide what comes next in terms of importance. But it's all going to be a series of compromises and reorganizations.

Sorry to rant on. Just sitting here waiting for Isaias to show up.
 
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Alcove Audio said:
There's the place to start, you said it yourself. Rip your story/script apart and pare it down to essentials. What is the absolute minimum number of characters and locations needed to tell the story you want to tell? How important are the locations? And set dressing, and wardrobe, and... you get it, I'm sure.

From there you figure the production cost. As a sound guy I am, of course, going to tell you that production sound is king. But the smaller the budget the more important it becomes. You can chalk up almost anything visual to a style, or whatever, (the infamous "Blair Witch" story) but when it comes to sound audiences are very unforgiving. If you start with great production sound your entire audio post is a creative endeavor and not a rescue operation. At the small budget level we don't have the expensive toys the big studios use, nor, on your budget, do we have the time to waste cleaning up bad audio. Let's look at it this way; if you booked 100 hours of audio post time do you want them to spend 75 of those hours cleaning up bad production sound? Or would you rather have them spend their time nuancing the dialog, putting in deeper layers of Foley & sound effects, and finessing the mix?

And, look at it this way as well; don't you want people to understand the dialog you crafted so carefully?

And a third way... If you're doing the audio post yourself, what the hell do you know about audio noise reduction?

You'll have to decide what comes next in terms of importance. But it's all going to be a series of compromises and reorganizations.

Sorry to rant on. Just sitting here waiting for Isaias to show up.
Click to expand...

That makes a lot of sense. Dialogue/Music make a very powerful combo, even if filmed on a cell phone. I plan on taking my time with this one, so I can really focus on a lot of those technical aspects before shooting.
 
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