Filmmaking is a strange combination between business and art, often reliant on ticket
sales to cover the huge costs of producing a film. But what if we’re trying to produce
our own films on a low budget?
As part of this ‘making a short film’ series, this week we’re going to answer
three questions about money: Which things were the priority for spending? What would
we have done if we’d had half as much money to spend?
and finally, where did the money come from? So the budget for this short film was far
more than I have ever spent on anything: £8000. And the reason for that was one very expensive
decision: this time let's actually pay most of the people who are helping with the project.
That’s where 87% of the money went. Let’s break it down: The producer and writer were
both really gracious about their fees since they don’t have 10 years of professional
experience under their belt. (and neither do I) Next was a casting director who did
a better job at finding actors in two days than I would have in weeks. Then we paid our
actors roughly £100 per shooting day and just under half that for non speaking roles.
We also hired a 1st AD to be in charge of the logistics on set, keeping everything running
smoothly. We spent the biggest chunk on an experienced sound recordist and boom operator,
because I believe that on every single project, a big portion of your time and money should
go towards the sound. We were very grateful that our Director of Photography, Costume
Designer, Behind the Scenes Shooter and our Production Assistant were all willing to donate
their time to the project, in true independent filmmaking spirit. So we made sure that everyone,
especially those volunteering, would get tea, coffee and food on set, which costs quite
a lot over a four day shoot. Not everyone lived in manchester where we were filming,
so we needed four cheap hotel rooms for four nights, and we also reimbursed all travel
costs throughout the shoot. And finally whenever you are employing someone, you need insurance in case someone
gets hurt. But is all of this really necessary? There is a whole lot of unpaid work going
round in filmmaking, and while it’s true there’s absolutely nothing wrong with getting
some friends together and going out and shooting something for free. That's what I've always
done. But looking back at my previous projects I could have actually paid them a bit if I
wasn’t spending all of my earnings on filmmaking equipment. So this time, it felt right that
the budget went to the people involved rather than spending half the money on renting an
Arri Alexa with some sweet lenses. The last 13% was split up like this - click pause now
if you want to look at this in detail. We didn’t spend anything on production equipment, we
just used my gear including the Canon T3i that I bought three years ago, we borrowed
all of the props for free, and then VideoEurope hooked us up with some free rentals. But,
looking back you always wonder where you could have saved some money, for example we spent
a big chunk of the budget to have a police officer on set for an evening. Now I honestly
don’t know if that was being over-precautious, but when you hear about these horror stories
from people messing around with fake guns, which we were going to be doing that - (having
fake guns in public) then it did seem like the right thing to do. But as ever, we went
way over budget, which meant there was literally no money to spend on post production. Lesson
learned. So what if we’d had half as much to spend? We probably would have shot it locally
to save on accommodation and travel, which means we would have lost the great manchester
accent and those locations. On that budget we would still feed everyone, but we’d only have
one paid crew member: a less expensive and less experienced sound
recordist. Working with non-professionals probably would have meant that each scene
would just take a bit longer to film, and I would have had to do a lot more micromanaging,
you know, telling people exactly where to put the microphone for example, because they
haven't got years of experience. It would have worked, we could have done it, but it
would have just been a bit more rough around the edges. But now for the big question. Where
does the money come from? Now, I wish I could just give you someone’s email address, and
you’d just apply for how much money you wanted, and they’d write you a cheque without
expecting anything back. But that’s pretty unlikely. There are usually a few distribution
deals available where investors or studios will front you the production costs so they
can then sell the film and keep the profit. But these deals don’t come easy, and it’s
often just the very few best filmmakers from the best film festivals who get them. Of course
there’s crowdfunding, if you have lots of people who liked your previous work enough
that they are willing to pay a little bit to make the next one happen. But building
an audience also takes a lot of time and effort, and there’s no guaranteed results. So there’s
no simple way to get your film funded. Just like the saying, “if it was easy, everyone
would be doing it.” So for this project I actually chose the third option, which I
think is actually the one that’s most accessible to most people, and that is self funding your
film. So after making these episodes every week for 3 years, I’m almost at minimum
wage, from the ad revenue and the few little sponsorships. So that’s income - and because
I’m still in school, and live at home, my living costs are super low. I also work hard
to keep my non-essential spending extremely low, I’m not into gadgets and I cycle everywhere
instead of having a car. Which means that even though what I’m what i’m earning
each month is below average, 95% of it can go straight into the film - and so after more
than six months of saving - we had a budget. However, I’m fully aware that most people
simply can’t put 95% of their income into their film projects. I won’t be able to forever,
I wanna move out, I’d like to have kids one day, and all of that stuff increases your
essential spending. And what if I was paying to have the latest smartphone upgrades, maybe
going on holiday every once in while. Very quickly it can look as if there’s no money
left for the film projects. But, unless you are literally in poverty, the chances are
you can reduce your spending, if you’re willing to make sacrifices. It could
means going to restaurants less often, even living somewhere with cheaper rent.
It's your choice what you give up and how long you save for. I’m not saying it’s
easy, but it is possible. So, why would you cut down your costs and save up for so long
just to spend a lot of money on a film that you release for free, only making a bit of
revenue from the behind the scenes? Well, doing this project, I’ve learned so, so
much, done plenty of networking, and actually rediscovered my love for making films. And
it all cost less than a year’s tuition at college. That seem worth it to me. My name’s
Simon Cade, this has been DSLRguide and I’ll see you next week.