Latest / Indie Film Podcast / Indie Film Budgeting Tips: From Dream Numbers to DIY Reality

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Indie Film Budgeting Tips: From Dream Numbers to DIY Reality · Indie Film Podcast

0:00
Welcome to Indie Film Podcast. I'm Vic.
0:03
And I am Chuck the month of November.
0:04
We are thankful film makers. This week we are especially
0:07
thankful to all of the talented cast and crew who helped us
0:10
finish our projects on time and under budget.
0:13
Speaking of budgets, we always start with a dream budget for
0:16
our projects. We end up shooting for the
0:18
minimum necessary budget. So let's talk a little bit about
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our budgets, our process this week, and maybe share some ideas
0:26
on how film makers can save some money.
0:28
So Victoria, why don't we start out with the least labor and
0:32
resource intensive shoot you've ever been on and produced?
0:36
I think that would actually be dive, and it only came about
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because the script I was trying to write was several locations,
0:45
about 35 actors, multiple days. So it needed to happen.
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But the only reason I know that is because I keep track of all
0:53
of my budgets in a very detailed spreadsheet, which sounds nerdy
0:57
and horrible, but is actually very helpful for me.
1:00
So if anybody else wants the spreadsheet, we're just giving
1:04
away the same template that I use for all of my films.
1:07
So if you subscribe to our newsletter using the link in the
1:09
description or go to andyfilmpodcast.com, you can
1:12
just have that same budget template for free anyway.
1:15
Hopefully it's handy for you. Hopefully, but in the meantime,
1:19
Chuck, what was your least resource intensive project?
1:22
Actually, we challenged ourselves, a group of film
1:26
makers and myself, my brother and Danny Clammers who's been on
1:29
the podcast. The three of us wanted to shoot
1:32
a short film with 0 cast and so we were actually able to make a
1:38
micro short. It's on YouTube.
1:40
It's called Three Day Bender #3 Three Day Bender.
1:43
It's a chit chat web series on Lower Gentry Studios YouTube,
1:46
YouTube channel. And it ended up being 2 1/2
1:48
minutes long. We shot it in one location.
1:52
It's kind of like a stop motion animation story about a woman
1:57
who is on a three day alcohol binge.
2:00
And the way we did it was I wrote a song and we used kind of
2:04
like the stop motion animation within the environment of this
2:08
apartment and trash the place slowly.
2:10
And then the music crescendoed based on the sound effects that
2:14
I recorded of various like bottles opening, wine glasses
2:18
being poured. And so it, it actually turned
2:21
out pretty well. And the I guess the goal was to
2:25
shoot something with 0 cast. We were able to do it.
2:28
Fortunately, it turned out fairly decently, but it was kind
2:30
of a lesson in how how few people can we have on a set?
2:36
Yeah. And the whole series is a like
2:41
12 challenges that my brother Danny and I put before
2:45
ourselves. It's a 12 month, 12 films over
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12 months is what we did with the Chit Chat web series.
2:51
And that was probably the most extreme example of a challenge
2:55
that we set forth. That's a difficult one,
2:58
especially when you didn't want it to be animated, but you knew
3:02
you didn't want to cast. And unless the birds and
3:04
wildlife in your area are real exciting, which you never know,
3:08
squirrels get into some drama, but that's really cool.
3:11
That's awesome. That's a unique way to to try to
3:13
cut down on at least cast, but definitely crew for sure too.
3:16
You didn't need hair and makeup. You didn't need wardrobe.
3:19
I feel like art department needed to step up a little bit.
3:21
Well, we were all in charge of art department.
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That helps. Yeah.
3:25
And as I was moving like the plates and the bottles and the
3:27
beer cans around, I was getting the sound effect and then
3:30
setting them where they needed to go.
3:31
So yeah, you can check that out online.
3:34
And that was kind of it was it was important that we did that
3:37
because the the next large project that we did was the
3:41
feature film stocked into Table Rock.
3:43
And us being able to know how we work together in a challenging
3:49
environment allowed us to more easily complete the feature film
3:55
basically under time. The budget was minimal on that,
3:59
almost none when you compare it to the large Hollywood budgets.
4:03
And people were volunteering, but we didn't want to, we didn't
4:06
want to waste their time on that just because they were
4:09
volunteering, you know? And that's something that that I
4:12
think a lot of people out there should, should consider.
4:14
Even if you are paying people, you know, just because you can
4:17
have them on set, like efficiency is important.
4:20
And the way that you learn that is by working with crew over and
4:23
over again. Yeah, I will say that's really
4:26
important. If it's crew that you've worked
4:28
with before, you know how everybody works, how everybody
4:30
gets along, who picks up the slack in certain areas, who need
4:34
somebody to pick up the slack for them in certain areas.
4:37
When you learn all those insurance and outs of working
4:38
with a certain group of people, then it becomes a lot faster to
4:41
work with them over and over and over again because you know
4:43
exactly how to communicate. You get your own lingo that
4:45
isn't just some of the weird lingo that you see online of I
4:50
don't know if anybody else gets these weird videos and their
4:52
algorithm, but the fun people talking about like, Oh yeah,
4:55
just give me a double, double on the Dolly, blah, blah, blah,
4:57
like whatever. And then it's all this weird
4:59
slang that nobody knows. Well, not in the indie film
5:02
scene as much here in in Boise, because we don't get a lot of
5:06
large commercial productions rolling through.
5:08
Nobody, every team comes up with their own little lingo that they
5:11
use. You know, you know, you know
5:13
what certain things mean. If somebody says, hey, can you
5:16
soften this a little bit, then that probably doesn't mean the
5:19
focus, it means the light. And OK, maybe that's an obvious
5:21
example, but I to that effect, you're going to get your own.
5:26
How does that your lexicon with your crew going and?
5:28
Workflow. So should we first start about
5:32
talking about because obviously it's good to work with similar
5:35
cast and crew as much as possible, even though that does
5:39
kind of silo groups of film makers off from one another,
5:42
even if they're a part of the same community.
5:45
However, that does make things more efficient and make things
5:49
easier to actually produce when you have fewer wild cards
5:53
because the wild cards on set, you know, that's a couple
5:57
occasions they've, they've caused problems at least for on
6:01
some of the productions that I've been on.
6:03
And you don't. If you're working with new
6:04
people it might end up being a lot slower just because you
6:08
don't know who they are, what the expectations are, which can
6:11
be prevented in pre production. Yes.
6:14
And I would, I would say you can offset a lot of that just by
6:17
being a very effective communicator, by making sure you
6:20
know exactly what you want. And then that way, whether it's
6:23
ADP you've worked with, if you're the director, I guess is
6:26
what I'm assuming, if it's ADP you've worked with in the past
6:28
and they kind of understand what you're saying.
6:31
But maybe this is a new DP you've never worked with before.
6:34
Being able to clearly state what you want, which means having the
6:38
technical prowess to understand what you want, which means more
6:43
research on your side. Sorry, but I feel like that can
6:47
offset a lot of it. I don't know it.
6:48
It's sad that so many people get so siloed, especially in small
6:52
filmmaking communities. It makes sense because it's so
6:56
easy to work with people that you know, that you trust, who
7:00
get you and get your vision and your work.
7:02
But I do think there is something to be said for
7:04
bringing new people onto your sets too, and working with new
7:07
people and experiencing different perspectives and input
7:10
and getting a little bit of that diversity, I guess.
7:12
Nice. Yeah, No, I agree with that tip
7:15
that I want to give before we start talking about changing
7:17
your script to fit your actual budget that you have for making
7:21
a film. I think the the tip before that,
7:23
which you touched on is that if you are a writer and director
7:28
and you're anticipating that your idea is going to be turned
7:31
into a short film and you've never held a camera before and
7:35
you know nothing about film audio.
7:39
The first thing that I would recommend you do is purchase a
7:43
camera or borrow a camera. Spend time with it.
7:45
Learn how the the shutter speed slash, shutter angle works.
7:50
Learn the basics of exposure. Mess around with lighting.
7:53
Understand what different lenses do.
7:56
Yes, because uneducated or uninformed directors are going
8:01
to slow down a production more than anything else in my
8:05
opinion. Probably.
8:07
Because you need to be able to communicate in an effective way
8:11
with your cinematographer and with the audio person.
8:14
It's one of those. Things your cast.
8:15
Yes and yeah, you. Got to make sure they know what
8:18
you want to do. If you've never directed
8:20
directed actors, that's a big red flag too.
8:23
So it's. Not a red flag, everyone has to
8:25
start somewhere. I don't think it's a red flag,
8:27
but it is concerning if you've never at least like dabbled or
8:31
aided before either. Yes.
8:33
And you just woke up one day and said today is the day.
8:35
I'm a director. Yes, there's not.
8:37
Feel it. I guess there's not very many
8:39
people that are that way, but I've run into a couple and it's
8:42
kind of fun to see him struggle so.
8:44
The the other point you were making though I guess was
8:47
changing your script to fit your budget.
8:49
Yes, absolutely. So when we shot the short film
8:53
that I that I mentioned before with 0 cast, we had to work on
8:56
the idea first. Yeah, because we want to to film
8:59
it one location, just the three crew, see what we could do.
9:02
So the first thing that we started with, I believe it was I
9:06
wrote a a rhythm like a song and then used the samples that I got
9:12
on set to replace that. So we kind of knew where the
9:14
crescendo was going to go as far as visuals and piling up, you
9:19
know, like bottles and basically having this place look pristine,
9:24
using stop motion animation to destroy it and then ending with
9:29
vomiting sounds from behind the door from the quote UN quote
9:32
lead actor who never even appears on screen, which is.
9:34
Kind of cool. So you can you can do it.
9:37
There's probably a million different ways to do that, that
9:39
same idea or something similar to that.
9:41
But if you're if you have a have an idea like you had for the
9:46
short film that you were going to shoot that was 10 minutes and
9:48
it took place in four locations, it was going to have 35 extras.
9:52
And this was for a Film Festival slash competition where you
9:56
weren't allowed to pay people, which I mean, fortunately for
9:59
you, that would have been really expensive anyway.
10:01
But also just being able to find that number of locations that
10:05
would be willing to donate their their space as well as finding
10:09
all those people. The first thing you did was just
10:12
threw the idea out the window or saved it for.
10:14
Later, yeah, I was like, I still have it because it is, it's
10:16
something I I like and I, I do want to play with that one day.
10:20
But yeah, that's not a, that's not a quick, I don't need to pay
10:24
people to do this kind of project.
10:26
That's a budgeted project. Yeah absolutely.
10:28
And you instead you ended up shooting a short film where it
10:31
was 2 lead actors, a bartender, so basically 3 cast and then
10:37
minimal crew on the back end all in one location over 2 half
10:40
days. Yep.
10:41
That was better. Super, super simple to do and if
10:45
you're if anyone out there is looking to get into filmmaking,
10:48
maybe you've been doing commercial work and you're used
10:50
to working with a plethora of crew members.
10:54
If you're on sets that have at least three P as, that's not an
10:57
indie set. No, I'm kidding.
10:58
Yeah, I feel like the number of P as can tell you what tier
11:02
you're at. That's actually how we should
11:04
rate the the scale of indie film making is how many P as do you
11:08
have. How many P as and how many ADS?
11:10
Yes, because if people have their own individual AD, then
11:15
yes. Yeah, because we've been on sets
11:17
where there's 0P as and 0 ADS, yes.
11:20
So it's obviously it makes the workflow a lot different, but
11:25
it's manageable as long as you can create an idea and a script
11:29
that maybe does take place in one location that you have
11:32
access to, maybe only has one or two cast members.
11:36
And if if you want to get started and you don't have a
11:39
whole lot of experience, you can probably find actors that are
11:43
willing to help you out if they're looking for demo reel
11:47
material, if they're just starting out and they make very
11:51
inexpensive wireless lab mics. I know like a couple of
11:55
companies do, it's not my ideal situation, but you can take 2
11:59
labs, lab the people up, learn how to hide them, plug it
12:02
directly into your camera, hit record and you got yourself like
12:05
a three person, 2 cast and and one crew to shoot something
12:09
potentially. And as long as you write an
12:12
interesting script within the limitations that you have, you
12:15
can produce that for a very low budget.
12:17
Even if you do decide to pay the cast members or you, you can
12:22
only find cast members that are willing to work for money.
12:25
And to be fair, yeah, ideally everybody gets paid for working
12:30
on projects. You know that's we're not saying
12:32
that you. Shouldn't pay people.
12:35
All I'm saying is that I got my experience coming up working
12:39
with volunteers. Yeah.
12:41
And I don't think that there's anything necessarily bad with
12:43
that if you're doing something that's artistic.
12:46
Yeah. Versus I'm going to make a
12:49
commercial that I'm going to sell to company XYZ.
12:53
Well, actually that would be my biggest point for budgets as far
12:57
as kind of finding that that compromise middle ground of, you
13:02
know, your dream budget versus what you're actually going to
13:05
get. And I know I preach this a lot,
13:06
so it's probably a little underwhelming to our regular
13:11
listeners, but if you know what the goal is for your film, yeah,
13:16
then you can get an idea of how much you are going to see come
13:19
back to it, yes. So if you I guess, what was it
13:23
profit versus practice? Profit versus practice.
13:25
So why are you making this film? Are you making this film because
13:28
you just want to make your art, which is valid and totally fine.
13:31
That can be a reason. But are you making it because of
13:34
that? Are you making it because you
13:35
want to repay your investors who put in their money?
13:37
Or are you making it because you do want to make money on top of
13:41
just everything you got put into it?
13:43
And once you kind of have that figured out, then you can take a
13:47
look at where is this going to sell?
13:48
How much money can I realistically get back for it?
13:51
There are ways that you can sort of start analyzing your own
13:55
numbers, your own realistic returns on things.
13:59
And then once you have those numbers, it's a lot easier to
14:02
come up with your budget. Yeah, right.
14:04
If you think realistically, I'm going to make about 50K back on
14:09
this film just from the streaming outlets that I know
14:13
will likely take it. Yeah, Then you probably don't
14:18
want a $50,000 budget if your investors expect to be repaid.
14:22
Yeah, that's a good point. So those are just things to keep
14:26
in mind. Start with the money you expect
14:28
to make back from it and then build your budget from there.
14:32
And keep in mind, a lot of investors right now, depending
14:36
on the genre obviously, but a lot of investors don't want to
14:40
see a budget of over 100K for an indie film just because the odds
14:44
of the return being very substantial at that point are
14:47
low. There are always outliers.
14:49
There are always exceptions to the rule.
14:51
And that could be your film. I don't know, I don't know your
14:54
film. But try to keep your, try to
14:58
keep your dream goal at that 100K and instead rework the
15:02
numbers, adjust your script if necessary to be maybe fewer
15:06
locations or fewer shoot days because those are two of the big
15:09
above the line costs that are going to really cut down your
15:11
budget and and then go from there.
15:15
And be flexible. So maybe we should talk a little
15:17
bit about the dream budget versus the minimum budget.
15:20
Yeah. And how many times have you
15:23
written out a dream budget and then realize that it's actually
15:27
going to be your minimum budget, or even less than that because
15:29
you're going to be paying out of pocket?
15:31
That's a part of that, yeah. That's that's a lot of, that's a
15:34
lot of them. Yeah.
15:35
Not all, but most. Yeah, for sure most.
15:38
Absolutely, absolutely. But I feel like it's good to
15:41
have that dream budget just in case you do have some sort of
15:44
windfall that comes. Through because anything can
15:47
happen you might have a wealthy relative you don't know about
15:50
and they could just kick the bucket true and leave all their
15:52
money to you Yeah, and if. You do find out about them, see
15:55
what their food allergies are. No, I'm just kidding.
15:58
Don't kill your childless uncle because you want the cash now,
16:04
or if you do, let's make a movie about it because that would sell
16:08
and be super meta. I do feel like there is.
16:12
Charlie Kaufman will read the the novel about it, the the the
16:16
nonfiction novel and then make a movie.
16:19
I will say there are a lot of indie films right now that are
16:22
that it seems to be trending that they're discussing like
16:25
indie film makers and sort of down on their luck, people in
16:29
the entertainment industry and what all weird things they're
16:32
willing to do to just get by and survive.
16:34
And I think that is telling about the industry.
16:38
Yeah, absolutely. I mean, yes, you could
16:43
potentially get a bunch of money and that would be awesome.
16:45
To anything is possible. Pay that back to all the the
16:48
cast and crew that have helped you out in the past, or just pay
16:50
them what they're worth on the day of the set.
16:52
But usually when I've been a part of the budgetary process on
16:58
on a on a film, it's kind of like there's the dream budget
17:01
where everybody has their commercial day rate.
17:04
Yeah. And then the minimum budget,
17:08
which we were able to get volunteers for, for Lower Gentry
17:12
Studios film stock night at Table Rock, which was which was
17:14
super nice. But on the next on the next
17:17
feature, I know that Bradley and Zoe, the the two lead producers
17:22
on on lower Gentry's next film are working on paying everybody
17:26
somewhat. But The thing is, is there's a
17:29
negotiated minimum that we as the crew and a lot of the cast
17:35
are willing to work for that is for an artistic project versus
17:41
another, you know, whatever commercial for some company
17:45
that's rolling through town, some large television production
17:48
that happens to be doing a reality shoot in the Treasure
17:51
Valley. People are going to want more
17:52
money for that then they're going to want for.
17:55
In most cases, then they're going to charge for somebody
17:58
that's going to be producing a piece of art where you're going
18:01
to be proud to have your name and the credits and also have a
18:06
little bit of control. We were talking about that as
18:08
well as far as saving money with with your crew.
18:12
Yeah. Where I'm going to be more
18:14
inclined to do location sound if I get to do back end sound
18:17
mixing and sound design and kind of put my own spin on the film.
18:21
You get to actually feel like you had a creative say in this
18:25
piece of the puzzle. Yeah, Yeah.
18:28
Well, and I do know that there are also a lot of DPS like
18:32
myself included, who if you also ask them to do to do to do the
18:37
edit, then they'll give you a discounted rate on that edit
18:41
because they shot it. They already know what footage
18:45
they're working with and it's going to be a lot less work than
18:47
just handing them some random footage that somebody they maybe
18:50
don't trust shot. So that's another option too, is
18:55
where can you sort of double up and what in your network can you
18:59
really leverage to get the most out of something to stretch a
19:03
dollar a little bit farther? Not saying don't pay people, and
19:06
not saying don't pay people what they're worth, but find out what
19:09
those limits and expectations are from people because just
19:12
because you know their commercial day rate doesn't mean
19:14
you know their creative day rate.
19:15
Yeah. And it's good to clarify all
19:17
that information and and hopefully if you have contacts
19:20
that are willing to invest in your film, presenting the high
19:23
budget there and then for the cast and crew presenting them
19:27
the low budget. Because then if you end up with
19:31
something in between that, everybody's happy.
19:33
Yeah, it doesn't end up with everybody being sad.
19:36
Yeah, yeah, Actually, I learned that embarrassingly enough, I
19:40
sold cars for a year right out of college.
19:43
And there was this one car salesman that sold so many cars
19:48
so quickly. And I pulled them aside.
19:51
I'm like, what is it that you're doing?
19:52
And he, he said, don't tell the boss this.
19:56
But if somebody comes in and they say, I want to buy this car
20:00
for $20,000 and the price tag is, say, 25, and you sell it to
20:07
them for, you know, the 20,000 that they want, they're going to
20:10
leave happy, right. And I said, well, yeah,
20:12
obviously, he said. Well then when you tell the
20:14
boss. How much they want to buy the
20:16
car for you. Tell the boss you know 17,000.
20:20
You tell them 15 to 17 somewhere in there.
20:23
And then when the boss comes up with the number 20 and the
20:26
customer sees the number 20, then they're happy.
20:28
I'm like, oh OK, so this is what it is to be middle management,
20:33
which ended up being a valuable lesson through.
20:36
It is a valuable lesson. Of my life, yes, but you know,
20:40
delivering above and beyond expectations on all ends.
20:43
There's a there's a way to maneuver that.
20:45
Yeah, there's, if that makes sense.
20:47
There's disclosing and withholding information in the
20:50
right moment. Yeah, that just, you know, gives
20:54
you a little bit of a leg. Up.
20:55
That's it, absolutely. As long as it's for everybody's
20:57
benefit, yes, Yeah. Then you can withhold
21:00
information that sounds. Horrible.
21:02
That sounds terrifying. Yeah, it does.
21:04
Yes it does. But that's that's the lesson I
21:06
learned. And when you're dealing with
21:08
people you know, it's, it's better to set the, the at least
21:12
possible expectation, see if they're on board with that, and
21:15
then do your best to to present something better and make it
21:19
better than what you promised. So.
21:22
Well, on that note, I do something similar with that.
21:25
So the spreadsheet that I mentioned, I keep track of
21:29
exactly what the top most budget is based on how much I think the
21:35
movie is going to make back or based on existing limitations
21:38
that I've already been told by whoever has hired me to produce
21:41
their film. And then I take 10% right off
21:45
the top because that's your contingency.
21:46
And yes, it should. I know 10% sounds excessive.
21:49
I don't care. Unexpected costs always happen
21:53
and they always add up. And what's the worst thing that
21:55
happens? You're under budget.
21:57
If you don't spend it like that's, that's a good thing,
21:59
that's fine. Then you have more money for
22:02
marketing anyway, which I always support anyway.
22:05
So then I go through and sort of line everything up based on
22:09
total number of shooting days that we're expecting, based on
22:11
the length of the script, the number of locations, etcetera,
22:13
etcetera. I go through and break all these
22:15
things down and yes, the formulas are already built into
22:17
the spreadsheet, so don't worry, you don't have to do that
22:21
because I'm really bad at math and I don't want to do that
22:23
myself, so. Everybody should just use the
22:26
spreadsheet. Just use.
22:27
The spreadsheet. How good at math you are?
22:29
You're going to make more errors than Excel or Google Sheets.
22:32
Yes, yeah, it's a Google Sheet which you can import into Excel,
22:35
but it is a Google Sheet. So then once I have all that
22:38
set, then I go through in different tabs, I create other
22:43
alternates where, OK, but we don't get the cast we want or we
22:46
don't get the location that we want.
22:48
And that's going to change the numbers.
22:49
So that way you can kind of move things around.
22:51
Oh, nice. And that way I have different
22:53
ways that this all plays out and can present them to, you know,
22:56
what the executive director or the executive producer or
23:00
director and then chat through what their dream scenario is
23:03
versus what our minimum viable product scenario is.
23:07
And then I always keep a column of the actual cost.
23:11
So whatever budget we decide on, I then go through and keep track
23:14
of exactly how much everything is costing, exactly how much
23:17
every person signing on for, what craft services ended up
23:20
costing, which over the last two years, I've noticed that as food
23:24
prices increase, I have to keep upping that estimated average
23:29
for everybody. It's no longer $20 per person
23:32
per day. I'm now putting it closer to 25
23:33
or 30, depending on what type of catering there is.
23:36
Yes. And I remember a time when I
23:37
used to be able to put $15 a day per person for food.
23:40
And that's not the world we live in anymore, no.
23:42
So keep in mind that some of those costs go up and now
23:45
equipment costs are going up, which means that insurance costs
23:48
are also going to be going up a little bit.
23:51
But because I have those constant running logs and I can
23:54
look back on any project from any year and know exactly what I
23:57
did end up spending, I can not only get a better idea of my own
24:01
personal downfalls and habits on where I tend to over or under
24:04
budget, but I can also start to see trends in where some of
24:08
these costs are going and help me forecast for future projects
24:10
even better. Nice.
24:12
So I recommend keeping that extra actual cost column.
24:15
It's very much so worth it. I dig that.
24:17
That's very solid advice. You're much more organized in
24:20
your spreadsheets than I am. I am a big fan of spreadsheets.
24:23
And also I will say that when it comes to tax time and you want
24:28
to go back and look at all those costs and it doesn't line up
24:31
with your receipts now, you know, you're missing some
24:33
receipts because you spent more money than that and you got to
24:36
go find that receipt now. Oh yeah.
24:37
So that can help you too. You want to deduct that.
24:40
Very. Cool.
24:40
One other thing I wanted to mention too, as far as like the
24:43
dream budget versus the minimum budget is maybe consider on the
24:48
creative end being flexible as well.
24:50
Yeah. Shot listing and maybe if you
24:55
don't get enough money, then you're going to have to cut
24:58
certain scenes that might maybe have them in the script and they
25:03
exist. If you're able to get access to
25:06
the equipment and crew and locations to be able to do that.
25:09
But maybe if it's not 100% necessary, have a backup plan at
25:14
the script level and the shot level to where you can cut that
25:17
expensive. I mean, obviously that that
25:20
hurts. It hurts to.
25:21
Do that. It's not even killing your
25:23
darlings. No, I mean too early.
25:24
That's like taking Plan B. Yeah.
25:27
Exactly. It's a rough one.
25:29
It is so, but just keeping that in mind as an option before you
25:33
go into shooting, I think is or when you're in the fundraising
25:35
phase. I think that would probably be
25:37
important as well. I do know that like for Stockton
25:41
at a Table Rock, we changed the entire script or my brother
25:44
rewrote the entire script based on the fact that we were not
25:46
able to find enough children actors.
25:50
And so that changed substantially and it and it was
25:54
100% necessary to do that. But if you want to make films,
25:59
it's compromise, yeah, unfortunately.
26:01
And you're going to have to compromise on your dream budget.
26:04
You're going to have to compromise on your creative
26:07
dreams. Because when you have that many
26:09
people involved and you're going to run into those unknown
26:12
unknowns and things are going to have to change on the fly.
26:14
I think flexibility is probably the most important.
26:17
Flexibility is going to save your budget more than anything
26:21
else, for sure. Because yeah, you're right, you
26:24
can spend one to two days trying to get this exact long perfect
26:29
tracking shot that you know, you need perfectly choreographed,
26:32
perfectly lit, etcetera, etcetera that you'll spend days
26:34
doing. But I mean or you cut 3 days off
26:40
your production by changing up the shots.
26:42
By mixing it up. But to have that there, I guess
26:45
in my brain, I think of it as an added bonus if it's able to be
26:50
done rather than this is the crux of my story.
26:55
And if I don't have this, it doesn't make any sense.
26:57
It's like, well, maybe if you're working with a low budget, if
27:00
you're working with a skeleton crew, maybe you need to consider
27:03
the idea that you want to have filmed.
27:06
Yeah, I think that's solid because.
27:08
We're not multi. Most of us aren't multi
27:10
$1,000,000 movie makers. And if you are a multi
27:13
$1,000,000 movie maker and you're watching this podcast,
27:16
please send us an e-mail because we'd love to.
27:18
Help. We would love to hear from you
27:19
and subscribe to the newsletter while you're at it, you know.
27:23
Send us, send us, send us a few bucks.
27:25
Yeah. Or hire us on your next project.
27:29
Yeah, that'd be good. Whatever.
27:30
Is there anything else that you'd like to reflect on as far
27:33
as budgets are concerned? I think it's just don't let
27:39
don't let the perfect be the enemy of the good.
27:41
And when you're outlining your budget and you know there are
27:47
some things that are just going to cost way too much, it's OK to
27:49
let go of those. To your point on flexibility,
27:51
but also to your point of you want to get the film made.
27:54
And just because you don't raise your dream or your gold budget
27:58
doesn't mean you shouldn't make your movie.
28:00
You should always make your movie just how exactly that
28:02
movie is going to look. That'll change depending on your
28:04
budget. Yeah, and everything to.
28:06
Me is practice. The more you do it, the better
28:09
you get at it. And if you can't get the funds
28:13
that you wanted to have in order to make your dream film, then go
28:19
out there, take a camera, shoot a short film, get creative.
28:23
You can do it even if you can, even if it's just you.
28:27
There are ways. There are ways to get it done.
28:30
We might try that as a challenge.
28:31
Here soon just to see how exciting we can make that for
28:34
our viewers. I I think that's a that's a good
28:36
one. And we've had it.
28:37
We've had a couple listeners out there which thank you so much
28:39
for sharing that. We have had a couple listeners
28:41
share their solo made films and it is possible.
28:45
It's possible. And the quality?
28:47
Was good on these movies where it was just one person, cast,
28:52
crew, writer, editor, all. Of it the whole thing, so it is
28:55
possible. Which would definitely cut down
28:57
in your. Crafty budget?
28:58
Yes. Yes.
29:00
That that's probably the best way to save money on a film set
29:03
is just do it all yourself. Do everything although to.
29:06
Me, I like the. Interaction because if you know,
29:09
sitting in post production is always, that's the most draining
29:12
aspect of a film. It's fun, it's creative, but
29:14
it's like you get, you know, nobody to interact with, nobody
29:16
to make jokes to besides yourself.
29:18
So that's not a story we heard on those solo film makers about
29:22
the jokes on set and how they got through that.
29:25
They laughed at their own jokes to.
29:26
Make it through the day, the social aspect.
29:29
All right. Anything else to add or shall we
29:31
succinctly say farewell? At this juncture, I think a
29:33
succinct farewell sounds. Wonderful.
29:35
Excellent. Goodbye.
29:36
Bye.