Who needs millions to make a flick?
- Thread starter Reference
- Start date
Reference said:
Where in the UK are you based? Again best to email me... I may be able to help ( I have some great contacts in the UK)
Phil Hobden
--No Longer Printing Web Addresses--
...the U.K. is a long way from home for a Flint-Stone. Just another Michigan person saying hello from about 30 miles north of Flint...
...and while we're on the subject, wasn't 'Primer' made for about $4 to $7,000? I remember the cost of that film and being really surprised. I haven't seen the film yet, but I want to see why it won the Grand Jury prize at Sundance last year. (I think it was the Grand Jury prize)...
--spinner
...and while we're on the subject, wasn't 'Primer' made for about $4 to $7,000? I remember the cost of that film and being really surprised. I haven't seen the film yet, but I want to see why it won the Grand Jury prize at Sundance last year. (I think it was the Grand Jury prize)...
--spinner
spinner said:...the U.K. is a long way from home for a Flint-Stone. Just another Michigan person saying hello from about 30 miles north of Flint...
...and while we're on the subject, wasn't 'Primer' made for about $4 to $7,000? I remember the cost of that film and being really surprised. I haven't seen the film yet, but I want to see why it won the Grand Jury prize at Sundance last year. (I think it was the Grand Jury prize)...
--spinner
It had a budget of ~$7,000 and won the Grand Jury Award, yeah.
I liked the film, but it's the most confusing thing I've ever seen. If you understand most of it the first time you see it, you're a genius.
I think I represent the other lesson with regards to budget, which is that we put £40,000 in cash into our film, shot on Panasonic's DVCProHD and then had another £340,000 in deferments.
For that we managed to make a film that looks like we spent 3 million on it. It stunninly beautiful, well written and superbly well acted. And because it was shot on full HD it projects up to full cinema screen sizes and looks as good as 35mm.
However, a year after completion it still hasn't made a sale and looks likely to be gathering dust on my ex-business partners shelf.
The thing I've learnt from this is that it's not about the quality of the script, the acting, the cinematogrpahy or even the budget, it's about making films in genres that distributors can sell easily.
I made a beautiful art house film and by making that choice I ended up having to sell my house to pay off the film's debts. That's a hard road to go down, especially when I could have knocked out a DV Horor flick in my sleep for next to nothing and actually have made money.
Personally I don't regret making the film I did, if I'd wanted to just maek moeny I would have stayed in advertising where it was easy. However, I think it's an important lesson, the only thing that matters is understanding the needs of the business,
I'll repeat that - The ONLY thing that matters is understanding the needs of the business.
Now, just to put this in context, I learnt more about film making by making No Place than I ever could have imagined and I now know that I could walk onto any professional set, anywhere in the world and direct a movie that would stadn up against any that you see in the cinemas. I really honed my craft on that moivie. I also learnt a massive amount about writing feature length screenplays. Personally I believe that No Place will eventually get a release based on the films that I make next, but that's another story.
One of the things that I'm more and more interested in is the idea that great movies can be made on micro budgets, but with production values that would allow them to have cinema release. I've learnt enough now to understand how that's possible.
I think the formula is a little like this:
1) Pick high sales genre
1 a) Design all the marketing material - understand why your film is worth spending $10 on before you write the script
2) Write High Concept - 4 act structure script with small cast and minmal locations
3) Shot on HDV, using the new JVCHD camera (keep crew ultra low, shoot hand held and use simple industry standard setups - no taking hours on fancy shots)
4) Offline on FCP
5) Find brilliant composer and get stunning soundtrack
6) Spend two days onlining on Avid Nitris, up convert to 1080 and master to HDD5
I think with that formula I can create a cinema quality film for £15,000, plus deferments for the cast and crew.
The budget is primarily, camera hire, tape stock, insurance, armorer (got to have real guns), make-up artist, sound recordist (always pay - get the best) petrol, catering (most important thing on set). The largest part of the budget goes into post, the Nitris online is easily going to be £7,000 and the audio mix is easily going to be another £2,500. I know that's a large part of the budget, but I think it's worth it and it takes the film from direct to TV/DVD only up to cinema grade.
For that we managed to make a film that looks like we spent 3 million on it. It stunninly beautiful, well written and superbly well acted. And because it was shot on full HD it projects up to full cinema screen sizes and looks as good as 35mm.
However, a year after completion it still hasn't made a sale and looks likely to be gathering dust on my ex-business partners shelf.
The thing I've learnt from this is that it's not about the quality of the script, the acting, the cinematogrpahy or even the budget, it's about making films in genres that distributors can sell easily.
I made a beautiful art house film and by making that choice I ended up having to sell my house to pay off the film's debts. That's a hard road to go down, especially when I could have knocked out a DV Horor flick in my sleep for next to nothing and actually have made money.
Personally I don't regret making the film I did, if I'd wanted to just maek moeny I would have stayed in advertising where it was easy. However, I think it's an important lesson, the only thing that matters is understanding the needs of the business,
I'll repeat that - The ONLY thing that matters is understanding the needs of the business.
Now, just to put this in context, I learnt more about film making by making No Place than I ever could have imagined and I now know that I could walk onto any professional set, anywhere in the world and direct a movie that would stadn up against any that you see in the cinemas. I really honed my craft on that moivie. I also learnt a massive amount about writing feature length screenplays. Personally I believe that No Place will eventually get a release based on the films that I make next, but that's another story.
One of the things that I'm more and more interested in is the idea that great movies can be made on micro budgets, but with production values that would allow them to have cinema release. I've learnt enough now to understand how that's possible.
I think the formula is a little like this:
1) Pick high sales genre
1 a) Design all the marketing material - understand why your film is worth spending $10 on before you write the script
2) Write High Concept - 4 act structure script with small cast and minmal locations
3) Shot on HDV, using the new JVCHD camera (keep crew ultra low, shoot hand held and use simple industry standard setups - no taking hours on fancy shots)
4) Offline on FCP
5) Find brilliant composer and get stunning soundtrack
6) Spend two days onlining on Avid Nitris, up convert to 1080 and master to HDD5
I think with that formula I can create a cinema quality film for £15,000, plus deferments for the cast and crew.
The budget is primarily, camera hire, tape stock, insurance, armorer (got to have real guns), make-up artist, sound recordist (always pay - get the best) petrol, catering (most important thing on set). The largest part of the budget goes into post, the Nitris online is easily going to be £7,000 and the audio mix is easily going to be another £2,500. I know that's a large part of the budget, but I think it's worth it and it takes the film from direct to TV/DVD only up to cinema grade.