Suggestions for reducing production costs

Modern Day Myth Prod. LLC

Modern Day Myth Prod. LLC

I made contact with a producer interested in a TV series withthe strong science fiction elements of Fringe.

I'm working on the story bible. But I need good and realistic ideas to reduce productiom costs where we can shoot the series locally in NYC.

Suggestions welcome. Off the top of my head, continue to have our costumes made in China.
 
I would think that rule #1 would be to avoid shooting exteriors in Manhattan, and rule #2 would be to avoid shooting exteriors the rest of the five boroughs; permits and security costs would be through the roof. So, actually, my suggestion would be to avoid NYC altogether and shoot in the suburbs.
 
Heavily weight scenes for interior shots and avoid exterior shots like the plague. Gives you a lot more control over the weather and lighting.
If you insist, night time shots give more control over lighting than daytime where the sun shifts shadows faster than you'd like.

Keep the time setting contemporary to minimize costume costs.
Small handheld objects from the future are the most inexpensive props to fool with.

Gunfights are cheaper than fist fights to choreograph, shoot and edit. A poorly placed punch looks more terrible than a poorly aimed gun.
Running and chasing cost nil.
Car crashes and general property damage are expensive.

Time travel is the absolute cheapest scifi there is.
Cloning is also pretty cheap.

lo-fi scifi is all the rage these days.
THE ADJUSTMENT BUREAU
LIMITLESS
SOURCE CODE
NEVER LET ME GO
MOON was made for a ridiculously small budget.

GL!
 
Alcove Audio said:
I would think that rule #1 would be to avoid shooting exteriors in Manhattan, and rule #2 would be to avoid shooting exteriors the rest of the five boroughs; permits and security costs would be through the roof. So, actually, my suggestion would be to avoid NYC altogether and shoot in the suburbs.
Click to expand...

Long Island is much more expensive than NYC.

We can shoot inside theatre group spaces for cheap in NYC and we don't need permits on private property.

Public parks are becoming too expemsive and requiring too many permits these days.
 
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rayw said:
Heavily weight scenes for interior shots and avoid exterior shots like the plague. Gives you a lot more control over the weather and lighting.
If you insist, night time shots give more control over lighting than daytime where the sun shifts shadows faster than you'd like.

Keep the time setting contemporary to minimize costume costs.
Small handheld objects from the future are the most inexpensive props to fool with.

Gunfights are cheaper than fist fights to choreograph, shoot and edit. A poorly placed punch looks more terrible than a poorly aimed gun.
Running and chasing cost nil.
Car crashes and general property damage are expensive.

Time travel is the absolute cheapest scifi there is.
Cloning is also pretty cheap.

lo-fi scifi is all the rage these days.
THE ADJUSTMENT BUREAU
LIMITLESS
SOURCE CODE
NEVER LET ME GO
MOON was made for a ridiculously small budget.

GL!
Click to expand...

Some observations from on hands experience

Avoid night shooting like the plague and shoot during the day only for outdoors because noise from generators is a big problem for small productioms and day time shooting outdoors requires no extra lights.

Indoor shooting is better than outdoor shooting for weather control.

We are talking about I, Creator, so we need futuristic settings.

We will be bringing in a top studio stunt professional who gets paid gigs around the world to teach stunts to other studios, so we are doing fights in our series.

I agree about car chases. There are no cars in IC amyway.
 
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Modern Day Myth Prod. LLC said:
Long Island much more expensive than NYC.

We can shoot inside theatre group spaces for cheap in NYC and we don't need permitson private property.

Public parks are becoming too expemsive and requiring too many permits these days.
Click to expand...

The best advice I can give is not to argue against advice already given when asked for. You'll run out fast like that.

It's fine to disagree, but a kind "Thanks, I'll consider that" will go way farther than a "You're wrong because ______".
 
You're probably gonna think I'm making fun of you, because that's what you thought the first time I mentioned this. But things have changed since then, so maybe you'll realize that I'm honestly giving the advice that I think would benefit you.

So, you got reviews that said that IC2 was a comedy, and pretty funny. And they wrote this because you decided, after cutting it together, that it is funny, albeit unintentionally.

I say run with it! I think you should make a movie that is intentionally funny, from the very beginning of the entire process. Make Laser Cats! :yes:

How better to keep production costs down than to not give an F about production value?

For what it's worth, this is advice I plan to someday take, myself. I can't wait to make a Laser Cats movie! (not literally Laser Cats, but a sci-fi with the same goofy none-production-values, and fun spirit)
 
Cracker Funk said:
You're probably gonna think I'm making fun of you, because that's what you thought the first time I mentioned this. But things have changed since then, so maybe you'll realize that I'm honestly giving the advice that I think would benefit you.

So, you got reviews that said that IC2 was a comedy, and pretty funny. And they wrote this because you decided, after cutting it together, that it is funny, albeit unintentionally.

I say run with it! I think you should make a movie that is intentionally funny, from the very beginning of the entire process. Make Laser Cats! :yes:

How better to keep production costs down than to not give an F about production value?

For what it's worth, this is advice I plan to someday take, myself. I can't wait to make a Laser Cats movie! (not literally Laser Cats, but a sci-fi with the same goofy none-production-values, and fun spirit)
Click to expand...

True!
 
Alcove Audio said:
Besides, there's also Westchester, Fairfield CT, and northern New Jersey.
Click to expand...

I have them in mind as well.

I mentioned Long Island because we priced around Long Island for shooting. They are much more expensive than NYC. I remember gagging when a Long Island park administrator quoted me a $1,000 a day fee for a shooting permit.

Private property shooting can be cheaper than public places these days. And, we only have to deal with one party.

NYC is getting too greedy. Back in 2009, all permits in NYC were for free. Now, there are separate charges for police, barbecuing, and shooting in the park itself.

We can save money big time not using a greenscreen studio in NYC. If we can get an old warehouse and turn it into our own studio for the duration for the shooting of a full season, that should work out cheaper.
 
I am in search of new costume people in China that can make better alien costumes than the last company I used. The Artemis, Amazons, and cyborg costumes got a lot of praise. So, we will keep the designs and get duplicate replacements when necessary. But, the alien costumes for the guys were disgraceful. There must be a better place in China for monster and alien costumes.
 
By the way, using stunt dummies reduces insurance costs with stunts. Insurance is for human performers. Once a stunt dummy is used the insurance cost goes down. That's what insurance brokers tell me. And, it reflected in the cost of insurance.
 
The producer pointed out a season of episodes should be planned as one year of work. So, we need to look for a base of operations for at least a year. I'm sure with even a small budget we can get sets built in a warehouse way cheaper than the studios by unemployed handymen.
 
That would be easier if I was living in Los Angeles to raid studio dumpsters for stuff. A friend at work showed me a newspaper article of a guy who runs a prop rental business in Los Angeles where he gets his props from studio dumpsters.

But, yes we will keep our eyes open for usable gatbage.
 
There are other areas I want to improve for the series besides the action. I hope to have enough money for the services of a certain creature effects and special effects company in Los Angeles to work in the series. That will improve production value.
 
A HUGE resource can be FreeCycle. People are always giving away the most amazing things as long as you can pick it up. You should also be looking at GoodWill, Salvation Army and similar stores for props and wardrobe.
 
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