well, that depends entirely on what type of film you want to make.

- a short?
- feature length?
- dialogue driven?
- outdoors versus indoors?
- film versus shooting digital?

if you have a rough description of what your film is, you could probably get a pretty good estimate.

www.maketradefair.com
www.thehungersite.com
www.oxfam.ca

Yes :). With the information we currently have it could be anything from $5 for cheese sandwiches up to $500,000,000 :).

To give a vague idea, the three shorts I made so far cost:

5 minute Hi8 shot on location with a big crew: $2000
8 minute DV shot in a house with a small crew: $500
5 minute 16mm shot in a coffin with a small crew: $6000

I also worked on a DV feature whose official budget was about $1.20 (the director got everything else for free), though I think that's a little bit optimistic :).

Oh well basically its a comedy, and is almost entirely dialogue driven. Its on digital camera DV which we have and we have the sound mic for free. Cast and crew is us (not professinal I know, but the fact we star in it is kinda the point). So that means we dont need to pay us. Its likely to be feature length i guess.

There is that a good enough description?

Okay, lets assume it's all being done by friends so there are no salaries involved at all. A mom or girlfriend will cook something up for free, or everyone already has a meal plan a the school cafeteria or whatever so feeding the cast and crew isn't an issue. It's dialogue driven so hopefully fancy locations aren't needed so hopefully you're shooting on a campus, dorm room or home where insurance and film permits won't be required. You say you've already got the equipment.

If you've got all of that covered you've got the cost of editing software and DV film.

I might be forgetting something.

RJSchwarz
San Diego, CA

ok whats the deal with permist and stuff in the uk?

Generally speaking, if you're doing something that needs permits, then you'll need a least a couple of million in liability insurance before you'll get them: so that will add a few hundred pounds to your budget even if locations are free. But if it's a group of teenagers with a DV camera out on the streets or in a park then you can probably get away without permits unless you're doing something pretty extreme.

Basically we're a bunch of teenagers with a DV camera out on the streets and in parks and stuff. Though there is one scene ...an abandoned house, though we're not sure it's entirely abandoned. Which is a bit of a problem. All the other scenes should be fine though, using each others houses, and open fields and stuff.

Nothing extreme, though we may or may not need to dig a hole... which is a problem.

Insurance for what might I ask? You mean incase the building accidentally collapses?

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Insurance is commonly used in case someone is injured during the filming and you try to sue the city or location or whatever. By giving out a permit the government is saying they new about such and can thus be sued . The insurance covers there butt.

Students at universities are often covered by the school's insurance and can get film permits without problems. At least in the US.

A film permit also assures a certain amount of coverage if people see the filming and think the fight/stabbing/whatever is real and call the police. If you have a small DV camera, no real crew, you may not be much beyond a tourist with camera as far as all of this is concerned.

RJSchwarz
San Diego, CA

Awesome. Looks like we can forget about the permits and insurance then.

?:D?Ta for clearing that up.

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