a little rant on pre-production and how we planned our first real short film...
A couple of months ago, my friend Matt and I decided we wanted to film a short on 16mm.
We sat down one weekend, ripped some bowls and started writing. At the end of the weekend we put everything together and started looking for a producer, within about a week, we had someone who was going to drop 10K on the project.
I was going to coordinate most of the pre-production as my friend was busy filming another project.
Here is how we budgeted our money and I'll explain each one in detail below for you to understand what you need. This is for 4 days of shooting including student discounts. I may have overlooked some stuff, but here are the basics:
1. Filming equipment - 1100$
We already owned an arriflex 16bl, but we decided we anted to go super16. We're now renting an arri SR3. Our package now includes four prime lenses(25, 16, 9, 6). It also includes viewfinder, tripod with fluid head, grips, batteries, slate, etc...
2. Film - 1400$
We wanted to drop a good amount of money on 15 400ft rolls of film, we wanted to keep some leftover film and resell it since we're buying it wholesale.
3. Insurance - 1200$
This is a BITCH. If you're renting cameras, especially an arri, you will need $1 million liability, we also got 300,000$ rental equipment insurance. Keep in mind this is only for 4 days of shooting! Oh and if you're planning on shooting porn or "Gangster rap", they won't insure you, it's in their policy.
4. Development, color correction and transfer to hard drive - 2000-3000$
We've decided to get a professional color correction studio to do everything, they're expensive, but the budget is there so why not? Development we're getting done in Seattle, cheapest and most reliable place in the country. Color correction and transfer is being done in LA.
5. Accommodations, gas, costumes, props, sound equipment, etc etc etc... - $leftover monies
We're going straight guerilla style from this point on, no permits, staying in a motel 6/camping, eating canned beans off of a fire. We have 3 cars, a crew of about 10 people, 4 actors. Everything is being shot in the Mojave desert just north of LA. We're going to have 3 mics set up, one camera(fx1), one shot gun, and a studio mic.
Filming starts Tuesday so I'll keep you guys up to date on how it goes
