What indie movies could I use as inspiration?

H

harmonica44

I and a filmmaking friend are budgeting out first feature film which we would travel to go shoot. After working on a few shorts with others, we both figure why not, since so many others are going for it.

However, we're not sure how much one of the scripts we have would cost. One person I helped make their movie spend 60,000 USD on his feature. Where as so far I am willing to throw in 22K of my own into mine. But his movie doesn't have near as many characters as mine I have noticed, and mine has more action/horror scenes, that involve more people, in comparison.

To be honest I thought maybe 80K, would get him more money on the screen out of it, but maybe not. So that kind of worries me if I only have 22K, yet my script would require sequences with more people.

My script is a psychological horror thriller, kind of like The Silence of the Lambs or something like that. Actually it's closer to I Saw The Devil (2010) more so. But when it comes to shooting a movie like that, how much would it cost minimum?

Are there any indie movies that have stories that are in a similar genre to I Saw The Devil or The Silence of the Lambs, that I could study and use as a template when budgeting mine, for example?
 
I still believe you should make at least 1 short where you put what you have learned into practise without burning all your money. It will enable you to make better decisions on your feature, it will enable you to find more people to help you.

On the other hand: do what you want.

PS.
Did you join the facebook group for Saskatchewan Filmmakers already?
 
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I thought maybe 80K
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I had an inexperienced local director approach me to be a production manager of an action feature. His budget $50 or 60k. The kind of person he is combined with his experience level, I believed the budget put him in no mans land. Not enough contacts and owed favors for no budget, not enough experience/personality to do a 5 to 10 day shoot, and not enough to pay people for the slower shooting pace he needed to learn on the job.

A combination of your problem solving skills, slow decision making, gullibility, lack of leadership skills & experience lean me towards thinking you're also in no mans land with $80k budget, regardless of genre or script.

I guess it's lucky you only have $22k. There are many people with the skills and contacts to make an $80k feature work. I think if you go down this track, you're pissing away your money.

But, you might prove me wrong. Who knows right? Good luck.
 
walter is right. make shorts. more than one. get really good at it. not only will this lead to a better quality feature, but you wont have to go researching budgets because, by then, you'll be very intimate with the cost of production and all the small things that people that dont make movies never budget for until they learn to.
 
harmonica44 said:
After working on a few shorts with others, we both figure why not, since so many others are going for it.
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What shorts? In what capacities have you worked on them?

For all I can tell, the only project you have actually overseen from start to finish is that one short you finally reposted a couple weeks ago. That's it. In the years since, we've heard all sorts of things from you regarding your inability to find people to work with on your projects, or your inability to go out of town to seek a team for your projects.

Why do you think that, suddenly, having money to throw at it is going to solve all your problems? You really have no experience in heading up a full-scale production outside of that one thing you did that one time, so I find it highly unlikely that you'll know how to handle a feature crew, much less a budget.

You might as well throw that $22k down the toilet, as it'll do you just about as much good. Or, use some of it to fund an actual, budgeted short with hired cast and crew. Don't go overboard, but hire what you have to hire to get it done. And then do a few more after that. Then see how you feel about a feature.
 
I've worked on other people's shorts as far as experience goes, and worked under them. Yes I joined the group. The one short I completed cost a few thousand dollars though, and if I keep making more though, I will run out of money for the feature.

As for as getting actors and crew go though, it's pretty much slim pickings where I live. If I go somewhere else to make them, I will burn through my money still, which is why I am more willing to spend them on a feature.
 
harmonica44 said:
As for as getting actors and crew go though, it's pretty much slim pickings where I live. If I go somewhere else to make them, I will burn through my money still, which is why I am more willing to spend them on a feature.
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And here is where we enter the "rinse, repeat" portion of our show.

You don't seem to be comfortable doing much else than making excuses in response to much (most?) of the advice you get around here. So we run around in circles.

You've kind of proven my point, though. You really only have the one short under your belt. What cost thousands to make that short? I'm honestly curious what your production budget was.

But... y'know what? Sink your $22k into whatever project you want. Best of luck.
 
harmonica44 said:
I've worked on other people's shorts as far as experience goes, and worked under them.
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What were your responsibilities?
What contacts did you make?

harmonica44 said:
Yes I joined the group.
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Great!
This means you should have easier access to people in your area.
(I don't see you are a member yet?)

harmonica44 said:
The one short I completed cost a few thousand dollars though, and if I keep making more though, I will run out of money for the feature.
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That is why you need to make shorts: you haven't mastered to spend your money wisely yet.
If you make shorter shorts and spend your money smarter (or not at all, except for gas, food and drinks) you don't have to spend that much. I made 7 short shorts with that money. They all entailed calling in favours or asking for them to keep costs down. The last was a 48HFP film: everyone is a volunteer (that is even a rule), so we only spent money on gas, food, parking and rental of some additional gear. A total of less than $650,- (which we split in 4: the core of the team).
If you can make a nice 5 minute short for less than $500,- you are maybe ready to handle a feature financially.
But before you are ready for that, you have to be ready skills wise. A feature is not the best way to work on those skills.

harmonica44 said:
As for as getting actors and crew go though, it's pretty much slim pickings where I live. If I go somewhere else to make them, I will burn through my money still, which is why I am more willing to spend them on a feature.
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That is why I urged you to join that group. There should be people you don't know yet you can work with.
 
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AcousticAl said:
And here is where we enter the "rinse, repeat" portion of our show.

You don't seem to be comfortable doing much else than making excuses in response to much (most?) of the advice you get around here. So we run around in circles.

You've kind of proven my point, though. You really only have the one short under your belt. What cost thousands to make that short? I'm honestly curious what your production budget was.

But... y'know what? Sink your $22k into whatever project you want. Best of luck.
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Basically the post production audio, color grading and some post effects is where a lot of the money went.

WalterB said:
What were your responsibilities?
What contacts did you make?



Great!
This means you should have easier access to people in your area.
(I don't see you are a member yet?)



That is why you need to make shorts: you haven't mastered to spend your money wisely yet.
If you make shorter shorts and spend your money smarter (or not at all, except for gas, food and drinks) you don't have to spend that much. I made 7 short shorts with that money. They all entailed calling in favours or asking for them to keep costs down. The last was a 48HFP film: everyone is a volunteer (that is even a rule), so we only spent money on gas, food, parking and rental of some additional gear. A total of less than $650,- (which we split in 4: the core of the team).
If you can make a nice 5 minute short for less than $500,- you are maybe ready to handle a feature financially.
But before you are ready for that, you have to be ready skills wise. A feature is not the best way to work on those skills.



That is why I urged you to join that group. There should be people you don't know yet you can work with.
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Okay thanks. A lot of the people in that group I already knew from before while helping them on their projects. Basically I was the boom op and production audio recorder for when I was helping. The thing about making shorts is, is that I need to hire pros do the audio mixing and post production to make it all look and sound good. I feel that I should mainly concentrate on directing and let the pros handle their fields, if that's best.

As for people who have made features that I helped, basically what they did before, was that they made fake trailers of the screenplays they wanted to make into movies. They would then use those trailers to promote their scripts and get a lot of other people interested that way. So what if I did that instead, and tried to get people to make a trailer of the script first and use that for promotion?
 
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Why are you such a bully acoustical. geez. your point was made. you dont need to beat him over the head with your condescending lectures. I sure would love to see a list of the features you've directed. they must be oscar winners since you obviously know everything..

harmonica44 - I spent 20k on just a short film. That got me a polished product as I was able to hire all the best people. It was also a great learning experience. You say if you keep making shorts you'll run out of money. the way I see it, if you spend your 22k and make a fantastic short that everyone loves, you will 1. learn a lot 2. elevate your skill levels 3. get seen! (the most important part) 4. be better positioned for future endeavours. What you have to keep in mind is your reputation is based on your work. If you make a really crappy film for 22k, your reputation may suffer. Just think, spending 22k to make yourself look bad. I don't think that is your goal. I suggest you make a short film, keep it under 15 minutes. Hire really great crew, rent pro equipment, and get good ACTORS. Also if you don't have a great script, you may want to go looking for one from an already established screenwriter. If you put crap in, you'll get crap out, even with the best people. If you start with a truly great story, however, and add good people, the magic will happen. That is great film. That's what we all live for.

Good luck and don't forget to ENJOY it as you go, whatever you decide to do.
 
itsastruggle said:
...............
don't forget to ENJOY it as you go, whatever you decide to do.
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Without enjoying it, it will be hell indeed.
I agree on shooting a short. But H44 is not ready to allocate that amount of money into a good short.

H44: there are 94 people in that group besides you.
If you already know them all, you should have enough connections to get a cast and crew together for a short.

The trailer approach is something that has been discussed numerous times in the past few years.
It will not be the easy way for you: you still want it to be a blockbuster trailer.
You need at least another short under your belt to be able to say you at least slightly know what to do.
You want to run a marathon, but you resist to learn to walk without asking advice for every step.
Believe me: making a second short will be empowering. You say you learnt a lot in the past few years: that short is like a test for yourself. If you pass that test, you will know you can do it.
 
itsastruggle said:
Why are you such a bully acoustical. geez.
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You've not been on this forum very long, so let me put this into context. We have been running in these circular conversations with H44 for years. We all try, over and over again, to nudge him in the right directions. More often than not, he ignores the advice and frequently answers it with more excuses. I just wasn't going to get caught in the loop this time. He can make excuses, or he can make films, but he cannot do both.

Seriously, look back at his post history and read the over-and-over-and-over conversations that have been happening. This has been going on for a very long time.

At this point, my biggest concern is him plunging $22k into something that is guaranteed to be a failing endeavor. That may not be a large amount in the world of production, but on a personal level and for someone still trying even to get a start, that's a lot of money. It's a nice car, or a down payment on a house.

And me providing a list of projects I have worked on is irrelevant to this conversation. I don't know it all, and have never claimed to, but I have been in the business a long time and I do know when spending $22k on attempting a feature is a terrible idea.

itsastruggle said:
...if you spend your 22k and make a fantastic short that everyone loves, you will 1. learn a lot 2. elevate your skill levels 3. get seen! (the most important part) 4. be better positioned for future endeavours.
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See, that's a much more sensible track than the feature. If the money is responsibly spent and budgeted, the returns on the short will be promising even though they likely won't be financial.

But again, I question whether he's at the point even to try and apply that size budget to a short.
 
In AA's defense H44 has been around since 2011.
He made one short he almost choked on, because he didn't want to waste time on shorts.
He wanted to make a feature right away and break into Hollywood.
Eventually he settled for a long short (20 minutes is long if you never made one) in which he acted and directed of which post production took years as he was looking for tricks to fix mistakes.
Mistakes he could also have made in a 3 minute short and then he would have learnt in a few weeks what now took years. In the time he finished his first short he could have made 10 short short films to explore styles, techniques and stories.

IT is a stubborn community: we want H44 to take action and do instead of ponder his circular ponderings. Most questions come back after a few months.

H44 complicates everything too much and at the same time does too little to create the skills he need to succeed in the way he wants to.

We want him to make something. A short short should be the easiest thing to do, but he thinks he is unable. He has to, because it is the only way he will learn how to get things done.
Just making a 22K short or feature is a gamble that goes too much against all odds at the moment.
 
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Okay thanks. Well before when I tried asking to help make a short film I didn't get enough responses, and I think it was because they didn't like the script, and I am not that good at writing scripts per say. I just don't have a lot of ideas for good stories, especially ones that are short.

What I could do is maybe write short script for the trailer I am thinking and try to attract people to make that. Cause right now, I don't have any good ideas for short stories, as I am just not a good writer. I thought maybe by spending money on a feature, 22K would be money to get professionals to work more likely. That way I am not doing everything myself and product would likely come out better cause of all the professionals that went into it. I also feel I could do a much better job than on my first short, as I was told the mistakes I made, and would not repeat them, such as too many close ups, not enough camera movement, actually hiring a crew, rather than me doing it all myself, etc.

But perhaps I could do the trailer as my next project and write a script for that. I decided to put some adds out wanting to direct other people's short film scripts and see where that gets me. It didn't work well before, cause before it seemed that everyone wanted to direct their own. But I will advertise again and see what happens. I just really suck as writing, which is why I haven't gotten enough people responding to my adds for shorts and I would rather get started on filmmaking, rather than having to practice writing for who knows how long, till I actually shoot anything.

But in my free time, I try to practice filmmaking quite often. It's not like I am not doing anything, I still get out there with my camera and sound equipment and record stuff, for practice.
 
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WalterB said:
I still believe you should make at least 1 short where you put what you have learned into practise without burning all your money.
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He's done that already.

Just fucking do it, H44. I made a feature for $10K and I'm about to do it again. Just make it happen, bruh.
 
Okay thanks. I think I might do the trailer first though. Would I be able to check out your feature my any chance out of curiosity, Cracker Funk?
 
Okay thanks. Oh yes, I remember watching this trailer of yours before. How did the movie turn out? Did it do well? I was wondering if you had any tips or advice, from your experience?
 
harmonica44 said:
Okay thanks. Oh yes, I remember watching this trailer of yours before. How did the movie turn out? Did it do well? I was wondering if you had any tips or advice, from your experience?
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I think it turned out pretty well. If I had to do it all over again, I definitely would. :D
 
Cracker Funk said:
He's done that already.

Just fucking do it, H44. I made a feature for $10K and I'm about to do it again. Just make it happen, bruh.
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No. He has not.
He made one short discovering what can go wrong.
He has been on sets and has seen what went wrong and what went well.
He not produced a short where he applied all those lessons, so he can now better estimate and oversee how he can make his feature.

I know you are about optimistic empowerment, CF, but H44 hasn't had a taste of producing a short to the best of his abilities. He had a taste of trying.

You can't say someone can walk to Santiago de Compostella after is first walk ever. Walking 300 feet without landing on your ass or face first is a better next step.
 
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