Posted by Patrick Screamer at 24-90-116-0.nyc.rr.com on June 18, 2002 at 00:51:18:
VA people, I'm desperate for some answers, and I'm hoping some of you guys have made movies of your own and can offer some advice.
My friend and I finished a script a few months ago with plans on making a digital movie for about a thousand bucks. We cast the parts (via Backstage and nycasting.com), which led to our lead actress passing the script onto an AD on "real" movies, which led to her asking us if she could direct the movie. We said yes, and she assembled a crew of fifteen, got us permits, got us insurance, made us SAG-friendly, etc. We're are now the writers/producers.
No one is getting paid, but the budget has ballooned nonetheless. Right now, I'm using my apartment as holding, but my super is getting mighty pissed. We've also provided cheap sandwiches and pizza for the cast and crew at lunchtime, but they're not really liking that. They're hungry and want better food, and I can't really blame them. Most of the crew have worked on several other movies with actual budgets. My partner and I are dead fucking broke, but we're going forward anyways. Unfortunately, many of our expenses require cash, so we're being stretched really thin and need to keep the last 14 days of the shoot EXTREMELY cheap. I'm talking 30 bucks a day for food cheap.
So basically, I need some advice from those of you who've worked on sets before, or, even better, made your own movies. What were the cheapest, most efficient foods for craft services? What did you use for holding? Did you have any luck finding investors (we never tried...a mix of laziness and ignorance, I think)? We've hurled ourselves into a very unfamiliar, somewhat frightening world here, because our crew will sit around at lunch and talk about how cool it was to be one of the gaffers on Spider-Man and shit, while I've never been on a movie set in my life.
No matter what, we'll finish this thing. But if anyone has answers (or an extra five grand they don't need), I'd greatly appreciate it.
Sorry if this is not View Askew-centric enough, but I really don't read any other movie-related boards, so I thought I'd ask you guys.