Producing $1MM (and Below) Feature Films October 06 2014, 0 Comments
Nice read over at No Film School regarding producing $1MM and under budgeted films, which are really the vast majority of indie films for sure.
From the blog post...
We’ve seen budgets shrink, projects come & go and expectations shattered or met with disappointment during the process.
Through our experiences we’ve gathered and built a manifesto for the do’s & don’ts of making low budget projects. Some are obvious, others are elements we picked up after handfuls of wrong turns.
All in all — we broke it down into three key successful elements:
- Overhead — figuring out the right equity, debt, pre-sales structure will make or break any project.
- Negotiating — an ability to contain costs and logistics through negotiations is the key to successful maneuvering.
- Hiring — with strong department heads and a great cast – a weak project will be better, a mediocre project stands a chance at being decent and a strong project will explode with possibility.
Each of these principles begin day one — from the first steps of development through the delivery of the final DCP materials — overhead, negotiations and hiring choices will more often than not dictate the success of a film.
Read the entire post here.