-Actor pay
-Travel expenses
-Costume
-Props
-Locations
-Set design
-Website publishing
-Food
Many of these can be negotiated, and some may end up being over or under estimated. But it is crucial that we make sure we know how much we are willing to pay out so we don't end up owing more than we can.
Elliot Grove posted budgeting tips on http://www.raindance.org/10-zero-budget-filmmaking-tips/
He says ''Moving a cast and crew from location to location is time consuming, and expensive, regardless of your budget.
If you can reduce the amount of location moves, or eliminate them altogether, then you are a huge step closer to reducing your budget.''
This is a very interesting point, as in my idea I know there is various locations and right now, I haven't yet thought about when I will be filming each scene.
To cut down any travel expenses and time wasting, when creating a production schedule, I will try to arrange so that we have longer days, with more production time on one set. This way, although the days will be longer, we will have to pay less to actors for travel expenses and locations as we won't need them for as many days. It will also be a more productive day as instead of doing some scenes that only need a few actors on different days. We can make sure that scenes in the same location with an actor who is only needed once or twice, can be filmed on the same day. This means that it will also waste less time of actors waiting around.
The Cast.
''It is far better to advertise for actor/collaborators at local theatre and acting schools, hold rigourous auditions until you find a stellar cast of talented unknowns than use your friends.
If you have a suitable script and some money, you can approach a casting agent who will then pimp your script and your project out to established actors who might be willing to do it for nothing if they like the script, their role, and have been offered a suitable cut of the profits.''
I have found that approaching CastingCall is a very, very helpful site to find actors. Not only does it always bring actors to the table, but it also has a variety of new actors that are looking for experience for their show reel. Although not all new actors are the best, there are some who are experienced but still don't have a good show reel. Finding actors who negotiate or are just new and passionate that want film experience is always helpful when casting. This may reduce the budget size remarkably and negotiating prices with actors is something I will definitely do. I could offer them a show reel edit or anything else film like which they may need. Therefore it's a win - win.
Another way to fund and find budget for our film, is to reach out to actors, composers and any local connections we have or have worked with before.
In our case, the director Vic has worked with a very impressive producer in the past, Declan Gillgallon. Knowing that he created a very in-depth piece for Vic's film in one draft in a short amount of time, gives me great confidence that with months, he will be able to create amazing pieces of work for the film. Last time, he did it free of charge as he wanted the experience, if we can get him for free again or even at a low price that would be great.
I also found this video below of tips and tricks to create a low budget film.
http://nofilmschool.com/2015/09/4-tips-low-budget-tips-no-budget-film-festival
One of the filmmakers re created a forrest scene in the back garden as they couldn't film in the same location. They used with left over christmas tree's and made the actors stand lower so they looked like they was in a film, he said when they edited together it fit seamlessly.
Looking into budgeting, I found a short film budget summary page, which entails all the things needed from pre production, production and post production that may need paying for. It's very excessive but luckily for us, a lot of these things don't apply to our film such as the editor, director and producer etc as we are the ones doing it for free.
http://cw.routledge.com/textbooks/97802408115812e/pdf/short_film_budget.pdf
This is quite helpful as some things on the list I didn't consider, but when creating the script and seeing what props and costume is needed etc, I can refer back to this list to make sure I've not missed anything out.
Funding.
Although Vic and I are putting most money in ourself, we still need support from backers as we definitely do need extra money.
I have been looking into funding found www.indiegogo.com which is a global site that helps people find contributors and fundraisers to fund there projects. You can offer perks and opportunities to contributors so that they are more interested in funding your project.
To entice viewers to fund the project, you should add an interesting picture - but better a video - of the team or a short teaser so the funders know what your project is about, why they should fund it and what they will get out of it.
You can also add perks to the side of the project so that the funders can either straight forward donate money, or choose a perk along with donating money. For example, someone could donate £5 and you can say they will be put in the film credits. Or if they donate a large sum, you could offer them credits + a copy of the film etc. This is a really good site to get extra funding and hopefully it will work for us.
Another way to raise money for funding is an idea I had to approach small companies or family companies that are looking to expand their business'. For example, if we need food or a place to film, we could approach a small restaurant or cafe and offer to make them a professional promotional video and advertising in exchange for small food meals for our actors (which would also help with the budgeting) Or if this didn't work, we could approach them and ask for funding in exchange for promotional videos etc. I think this would work best with either new companies that have money behind them or for companies that are actively looking for a promotional video etc.
I also found the BFI Film Fund that supports films and short films every year.
I looked into the different categories and found 'iShorts'
iShorts is open to filmmakers outside of London who have some experience in self-funded short films and student films, whose work has not yet attracted financial support from within the industry.
http://www.bfi.org.uk/supporting-uk-film/funding-filmmakers
It is something we can consider applying to once they open the next category early next year.
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