Dang. Mad respect to all of you working for one, two day gigs for something that takes talent. No wonder you guys hire each other on projects. Not having a steady known stream of income must be stressful.
Haha thanks! It can be. Anyone ever thinking of entering this business who asks me for advice, I tell em to make sure they love it first. Cause yea… most of the time it’s hard.
This was amazing for a non film person. I live in Somoma County and you make me wonder if we are short of location scouts here. Being close to L.A., I imagine someone coming up to look at wineries to shoot something but they wouldn’t know about all of the private properties I can think of like my best friends property where Ive hosted weddings with their perfectly shabby barn with the old tractors, their hilltop view, their lake, & surrounding vineyards (they get to look fancy but a vintner planted a 20yr lease of vines) These are regular people who live on property passed down through generations. You have me thinking of so many people I know who would love to host a shoot on their property. They could use the extra $$ and the film would pay less then whatever market price is I would imagine.
I’m working on a marionette puppet film which is about 45 minutes. Figuring out the budget estimate is extremely challenging. Everything is a built set. I’m making every prop and puppet. I will be the main craftsperson on the production. I have NO IDEA how many days of shooting it will require. It could be months! But, the ways in which I’m trying to keep costs low is by being the main puppeteer, writer, director, prop & set builder. I’ll probably be the editor as well. I’m filming in my apartment (because it’s all 1:4 scale) and I’m thinking I might buy Edelkrone rigs to pre-program camera moves so I can do as many takes as I want. Lots of stands and pre-programmed lights so I can have the minimum crew possible on each shoot day with a lot of it just being me alone. I live in the US so grants are extremely limited. I can get maybe $10k from Henson and then borrow the rest. Honestly thinking about what this all might cost is a real brain-breaker!
Holy moly... that's quite a task you've set for yourself my friend. Never done anything in that space, but I imagine you can definitely save on the lighting lol. You want need as big or powerful lights, because softness is all about relative size. So you wont need massive lights for smaller subjects to achieve the same softness. And you'll definitely save on craft / catering / location rental / transportation costs if its at home lol! Yea I've seen those Edelkrone rigs. I remember there being a competitor I saw a while ago (Rhino I think it was called?), but don't remember the pricing / quality differences... Good luck!
Thank you so so much you have no idea. I am in the process of making my first feature so this so helpful. Spend 2 year developing the story finally finished it. It will be self finance, I will be directing as well as the lead actor with female co lead along with 6 supporting main cast. 2 principal cast, few extras. Total of 3 main location and rest may be steal it :) I am in the very early stage. The whole think is driving me crazy. Right now in the process of looking for a budget friendly producer. I am in U.S. Seattle but I been thinking maybe shoot in Toronto because of the large Tibetan population campared to any in the US. Any advice? Do you think it will be cheaper to shoot in Canada....thanks.
Hey thanks so much for the kind words! And congrats on the upcoming project, that sounds pretty exciting. One of the big benefits for you filming here is you're essentially extending your budget by 33% with exchange rates. As for the actual costs, not sure what the differences would be necessarily. I do know Quebec has some incredibly talented cast and crew at all stages in their careers, and thus, budget levels. My one piece of advice (though I'm sure its too late at this point lol): are you sure you want to star in your first feature film you're directing? That sounds like it may add a lot of complexities. I know someone who did that and... well... he shouldnt've lol. It not only affected the quality of the film, but it got on the nerves of the crew who felt they didnt have the full attention they needed from their director. Anyway! Something to consider :) Either way, good luck!
Hey there! In what context would you be doing that? Is it in the place of payment? To be honest, any time I've ever had full revenue share with the entire cast & crew, it was purely symbolic, in that we all knew that the project wouldn't be making any $ lol, so like a passion project. So in a sense the percentages were a bit meaningless. But I'd just distribute it depending on how much work / resources they're putting into it. So I wouldn't give a 1-line actor the same amount as an art director who's been working weeks in preproduction. Anything that I expect to make back an actual sizeable amount of money, I wouldn't do as a revenue share, except for obviously the amount for the above-the-line peeps (writer, producer, director, etc) and anything the actor's union's may demand.
Could you explain how you open each section to add the information regarding unit, amount Etc. I downloaded the template, but am new to Excel. Thanks. Never mind, I figured it out. Thanks for posting this video, it is a great help.
Hahaha! No. No they haven’t. But honestly, not mad bout that comparison. Better than the one i used to get (Bobby Moynihan). Hilarious dude. But rather look like Root :P
Dang. Mad respect to all of you working for one, two day gigs for something that takes talent. No wonder you guys hire each other on projects. Not having a steady known stream of income must be stressful.
Haha thanks! It can be. Anyone ever thinking of entering this business who asks me for advice, I tell em to make sure they love it first. Cause yea… most of the time it’s hard.
Extremely helpful, absolute champion!
lol thanks homeslice!
A wonderful resource for anyone curious about the process!
Thanks for the support! :)
This helped me out so much. Downloaded the spreadsheet and getting to work on my next feature. Thanks man!
Awesome to hear! I’m constantly learning as I budget bigger projects, so I’ll probably make a new one eventually :P good luck with the feature!
This was extremely helpful. Thank you for taking the time to meticulously identifying all of the steps to arrive at a film budget.
Glad i could be of help! :)
Thank you for going through this line by line. It made the budget much less daunting.
My pleasure homeslice! Happy it helped :)
This was amazing for a non film person. I live in Somoma County and you make me wonder if we are short of location scouts here. Being close to L.A., I imagine someone coming up to look at wineries to shoot something but they wouldn’t know about all of the private properties I can think of like my best friends property where Ive hosted weddings with their perfectly shabby barn with the old tractors, their hilltop view, their lake, & surrounding vineyards (they get to look fancy but a vintner planted a 20yr lease of vines) These are regular people who live on property passed down through generations. You have me thinking of so many people I know who would love to host a shoot on their property. They could use the extra $$ and the film would pay less then whatever market price is I would imagine.
I think you’ve just found a new win-win-win side hustle, my friend.
What a video! Extremely informative. Thanks a ton
My pleasure! Glad it was helpful
Very informative, thank you.
Thanks! Glad it was helpful
I’m working on a marionette puppet film which is about 45 minutes. Figuring out the budget estimate is extremely challenging. Everything is a built set. I’m making every prop and puppet. I will be the main craftsperson on the production. I have NO IDEA how many days of shooting it will require. It could be months!
But, the ways in which I’m trying to keep costs low is by being the main puppeteer, writer, director, prop & set builder. I’ll probably be the editor as well. I’m filming in my apartment (because it’s all 1:4 scale) and I’m thinking I might buy Edelkrone rigs to pre-program camera moves so I can do as many takes as I want. Lots of stands and pre-programmed lights so I can have the minimum crew possible on each shoot day with a lot of it just being me alone.
I live in the US so grants are extremely limited. I can get maybe $10k from Henson and then borrow the rest. Honestly thinking about what this all might cost is a real brain-breaker!
Holy moly... that's quite a task you've set for yourself my friend. Never done anything in that space, but I imagine you can definitely save on the lighting lol. You want need as big or powerful lights, because softness is all about relative size. So you wont need massive lights for smaller subjects to achieve the same softness. And you'll definitely save on craft / catering / location rental / transportation costs if its at home lol!
Yea I've seen those Edelkrone rigs. I remember there being a competitor I saw a while ago (Rhino I think it was called?), but don't remember the pricing / quality differences...
Good luck!
Great insight and big 🙌 from a fellow Canadian
Hey thanks so much! Glad I could be of help. #canadaeh #GoInserthockeyteamhereGo
Boring it is, yet needed ALWAYS. Great Job.
lol yup. Thanks so much for watching!
Thanks for this video. Do you have a video on how to fund a short film?
AMAZING video
Dawwww thanks :)
Thank you so so much you have no idea. I am in the process of making my first feature so this so helpful.
Spend 2 year developing the story finally finished it. It will be self finance, I will be directing as well as the lead actor with female co lead along with 6 supporting main cast. 2 principal cast, few extras. Total of 3 main location and rest may be steal it :)
I am in the very early stage. The whole think is driving me crazy. Right now in the process of looking for a budget friendly producer.
I am in U.S. Seattle but I been thinking maybe shoot in Toronto because of the large Tibetan population campared to any in the US.
Any advice? Do you think it will be cheaper to shoot in Canada....thanks.
Hey thanks so much for the kind words! And congrats on the upcoming project, that sounds pretty exciting. One of the big benefits for you filming here is you're essentially extending your budget by 33% with exchange rates. As for the actual costs, not sure what the differences would be necessarily. I do know Quebec has some incredibly talented cast and crew at all stages in their careers, and thus, budget levels.
My one piece of advice (though I'm sure its too late at this point lol): are you sure you want to star in your first feature film you're directing? That sounds like it may add a lot of complexities. I know someone who did that and... well... he shouldnt've lol. It not only affected the quality of the film, but it got on the nerves of the crew who felt they didnt have the full attention they needed from their director. Anyway! Something to consider :) Either way, good luck!
could you also do one with how to distribute the percentage of the revenue to everyone in the production
Hey there! In what context would you be doing that? Is it in the place of payment?
To be honest, any time I've ever had full revenue share with the entire cast & crew, it was purely symbolic, in that we all knew that the project wouldn't be making any $ lol, so like a passion project. So in a sense the percentages were a bit meaningless. But I'd just distribute it depending on how much work / resources they're putting into it. So I wouldn't give a 1-line actor the same amount as an art director who's been working weeks in preproduction.
Anything that I expect to make back an actual sizeable amount of money, I wouldn't do as a revenue share, except for obviously the amount for the above-the-line peeps (writer, producer, director, etc) and anything the actor's union's may demand.
I NEED HELP WITH TRAVEL AND LODGING BUDGET!!
Could you explain how you open each section to add the information regarding unit, amount Etc. I downloaded the template, but am new to Excel. Thanks. Never mind, I figured it out. Thanks for posting this video, it is a great help.
Sorry for the delay! Been on set. Glad to hear you figured it out :)
Has anyone ever told you, you look like Stephen Root?
Hahaha! No. No they haven’t. But honestly, not mad bout that comparison. Better than the one i used to get (Bobby Moynihan). Hilarious dude. But rather look like Root :P