I've had a couple of inquiries in the past month, regarding what it takes financially to put together the kind of movies we used to do at my old company. Certainly you can do movies for cheaper, Robert Rodriguez proved that, but not by much.
So the following is the budget topsheet for a typical low budget action movie. Remember that you can do this if you've written a script per my Low Budget guidelines. If you overwrite the script -- put in too many locations, parts, etc -- then money goes down the drain and not on the screen where it belongs.
PSEUDO ACTION MOVIE "X"
4 weeks preproduction
12 day shooting schedule
8 weeks post
CATEGORY// COST:
WRITING $2,500
DIRECTOR $4,000
TALENT $4,750
TOTAL ABOVE THE LINE $11,250
PRODUCTION STAFF $6,700
CAMERA $8,000
ART DEPARTMENT $2,500
SPECIAL FX $1,000
SET OPERATIONS $2,900
ELECTRICAL $4,600
STUNTS $2,150
EXTRA TALENT $100
WARDROBE $1,100
MAKEUP & HAIR $2,050
PRODUCTION SOUND $3,800
LOCATIONS $5,100
TRANSPORTATION $1,600
FILM & LAB $12,500
2ND UNIT $1,600
TOTAL PRODUCTION $55,700
EDITING $8,300
VIDEO POST PRODUCTION $3,700
MUSIC $1,000
POST PRODUCTION SOUND $3,500
TRAILER $2,200
TOTAL POST PRODUCTION $18,700
INSURANCE $9,150
GENERAL EXPENSES $3,500
TOTAL OTHER $12,650
GRAND TOTAL $100,000
2 comments:
Actually, no. The director would be off the show until the rough cut was assembled. Overall, he's on for (at most) ten weeks. So that's about $400 a week.
And if that's your first or second gig directing a movie that will be distributed worldwide -- it's a bargain. There are people lining up to pay to direct.
VATOS
13 DEAD MEN
HOOD ANGELS
would all be examples of movies in this budget range...I think some of the latter LionsGate Leprechaun movies were $200K.
You are basically getting 2.5% of the budget, and you work at it until the script is approved.
How long that is depends on you...
For me? On Scarecrow, It was two weeks of rewrites and several days of cast readings to iron out the rough edges. All that on top of my day job at the same company...
Post a Comment