5 Things I Learned Making a $4,500 Movie
Here are 5 things I learned making a $4,500 feature that are scalable
to any production budget level. These
are five things you already know, but offering a specific example might be
helpful in remembering them when it matters:
1) Don’t spend more than you can afford to lose
A deceptively simple rule, but
much trickier to negotiate the further you get into a project. Movie making is a money sinkhole that gives
you the illusion that you can see the bottom.
I thought I could get project
shot and edited for $4500, which I did.
I thought that would entice finishing money. I tried for a year and got nothing. Finally, I chose to bite the bullet and raise
money from the usual friends and family to complete the project. The development process and completion took
two more years. Then I needed cash to
enter contests. We were accepted and
awarded at festivals, but in order to screen in a theater, I had to pay for
digital projection version. Even after
winning awards and being picked up for representation there were more
costs. All in, I spent about another
$25,000 to get the project to distribution.
It is very easy to spend more
than you can earn in the movie business because there is always a little more
you could spend to make the project that much nicer looking and or
sounding. My project was an experimental
feature with a very narrow bandwidth of the market. There were many issues in the project that would
have been resolved with further investment.
But I don’t think that would make much difference to the audience I’m
attempting to reach. My project was a
filmmaking and storytelling experiment and despite the small audience I believe
I can make all the investment back. But
I don’t know that for certain.
I was working at $4,500 but I saw
this at the $450,000,000 level on Lord of the Rings. The production for the first film ran short
of money and time, releasing the initial version with multiple digital effects
incomplete. These were imperfections
most audiences wouldn’t notice, but my point is there will be costs you won’t
know about until you get there at all levels of filmmaking. Be prepared for these. If you can’t follow through to completion you
will certainly lose all your investment because an incomplete feature project
has no value unless you name is Kubrick.
