I looked on a website called Indie Wire at '10 Tips for Successfully Producing a Micro-budget Feature' to gain some advice. These tips are from indie producer Jennifer Westin, who has created three low budget features called The Big Ask, Mutual Friends and Dead Within. As she has created these successful low budget films, I was interested in reading about her suggestions.
Make sure the script is written as a micro-budget feature
As I am not writing the script I need to liaise with Alex and agree with him to write the script as a low budget show. Once the script is written I can look at it and work out the practicalities of it and whether it is manageable or not. I now know the story behind VET-MAN and Alex has done his best to keep the cost down. I've started writing a props list and the majority of object we'll need to include can be sourced by ourselves, there is only a few which we will actually need to buy.
In terms of locations, Alex has set the story in two houses, outside on a road, at the Kent Owl Academy and in a pub. The houses are free as we found that the most suited houses for our project are our own and we are planning on using both roads outside these houses. The Kent Owl Academy has already said we can film whenever and wherever we want on their site. The final location of the pub is also free as I have got in contact with the landlord and he is not expecting a payment for using the pub.
Jennifer explains that the main things which cost money are car crashes, loads of VFX and period pieces, so as long as it doesn't include anything such as those large-scale things our film shouldn't cost an extreme amount.
Jennifer explains that the main things which cost money are car crashes, loads of VFX and period pieces, so as long as it doesn't include anything such as those large-scale things our film shouldn't cost an extreme amount.
Have a 'home base' location during production
It is helpful to have one primary location to prevent lugging equipment around. This space could even be used as a prep area, such as a production office, rehearsal space, wardrobe etc. As far as I can understand from the script, we don't have one primary location, we have four, but we're at each of the locations for a good amount of time. Meaning that we won't have to lug the equipment to a location for a short amount of time. Nevertheless, the location that we will be spending the most time at will be the Kent Owl Academy so we can use one of their rooms as a base as Jennifer suggests. The only problem is that because the Owl Academy is public and not as secure as a house, we will be unable to leave the equipment there, it will be a case of bringing it with us each day we're shooting, until we're shooting at the house locations, where the equipment can stay overnight.
Don't have the whole film set in one location
According to Jennifer, if the film is shot in one location then it can make the production look like it had a micro-budget. We have already accomplished this by having five different locations, by filming in different areas our film will hopefully look more professional and as if it had a bigger budget than what it does. Luckily we don't have to pay for any of the locations. If we had to pay for a location we may have been more inclined to not use it due to our limited budget.
Shoot while locations are open
Jennifer recommends to shoot when location are open because they will be less likely to charge you. If we ask a business to close so we can film then they are more likely to charge us because we will be prevent them from gaining customers during the hours we're filming. The Kent Owl Academy and the pub are the only locations we have that are businesses and have opening hours. We have already established that we can film at The Kent Owl Academy when it is open and closed. We have already carried out test shoots there while they were open as the staff were able to help us when they had a free minute. They have also said that we are able to film during their closed period in January. This is because the site will be closed for the public but the staff will still be there due to maintenance works. If we chose to film during this period when the site is closed, we won't have the public to worry about. Therefore, on this occasion it may be more beneficial for us to go against Jennifer's advice and shoot there during their closed period. We have agreed to carry out rehearsals during January, but conduct the real shoot in February, so at least we will have the rehearsals without having to worry about the public.
Cast matters a lot
The amount of effort that I put into casting is something I've already thought about. The cast need to be believable and realistic in order to create our sitcom. They need to have experience in comedy, as the way they act will be a big part in our film. I have already put out a casting advert on Mandy.com in order to get candidates, we have also carried out our auditions and we have our final cast members. The chosen cast all gave a strong and believable performance.
We want our cast to be reliable and easy to communicate with to keep everything as simple as possible, and I believe our chosen cast will be. I have given them a date for a call back and 4 out of 5 cast members can make it. This proves that they are reliable as they know the real shoot isn't until February but they are still eager to attend a 2 hour long call back, just to meet everyone and read through their lines. They could have said refused to come and said they can read their lines at home, but the majority of them can come. If they prove to be unreliable, we may have to end up re-casting. This would have then been a waste of time and money, getting them to the call backs. The auditions were a good way to predict this, if they were difficult when arranging auditions or have a lot of commitments, then we would have reconsidered them for the shoot days. However, the people we picked had all attended the auditions. We would rather pick these than the people sending in self-tapes because we can see straight away that they have given the time to come in to meet us.
There's no excuse for bad production values
We want VETMAN to look professional and feel like a real sitcom. The look of the film is Katie's job as Director of Photography, we have already carried out a test shoot where Katie tested out different cameras at the Owl Academy. This has allowed her to analysis the difference in each camera and what one she thinks will be best for our project. As a result of our test shoots, we should have a professionally shot sitcom. All the equipment we use will be from the camera store at uni, therefore we will get the equipment with no charge, and we'll be getting the highest quality equipment as well.
Make sure the cast and crew have worked at your budget level before
If everyone involved is used to working on a low-budget film then there should be no concerns to do with money. This is more relevant with cast as the crew involved will have come from our university course and have only participated in and created low-budget films anyway. However, we sourced our cast on casting websites and we stated that this was a student project. All the people we auditioned also asked about our uni course and seemed interested in it. This shows that they understood the advert and they will be getting involved with a low budget film, and therefore not getting paid. We want to keep the budget as low as possible so we will not consider paying them. I will write up contracts for the cast to sign during the callback stating that they will not be getting paid. By having it on paper and signed for, we shouldn't have anyone disputing this. We will be paying for their food and travel and I have already started budgeting this and working out how much it'll cost.
Figure out how your core filmmaking team will pay their bills while you make the movie
As I am in charge of the whole budget, I will make sure that all the expenses will come out of my bank account so I can keep track of it. I will also make sure that the cast are paid their food and travel money on shoot days. I will keep track of the money incase of overspending. We know we already need to put in a bigger amount than on our other projects, because of this we definitely don't want to overspend and need to put more into the budget than we already have. I will consider paying them back in a large amount at the end of the shoot days, rather than in small amounts.
Know what you can figure out yourself, and when you need to pay for an expert
We have all chosen different roles during this project, and with just the three of us we have covered most of the jobs needed to create a successful show. We may be able to hire some people in from outside the university, such as a make up artist and photographer. As we are making our sitcom with a low-budget we don't have the money to pay for an expert, we may hire a couple of people who specialise in these fields of work if we know them and they don't expect paying, for example, I know someone studying stage makeup at university, so if they were good in working with fake blood then we would happily have them on board. One of us could splash some blood on a face but it will never look as good as someone who specialises in make-up. We also wouldn't want to worry about having to put make-up on the female characters as we have our own jobs to concern ourselves with. Therefore, getting in a makeup artist may be worthwhile. We definitely want a runner on food and drinks on the shoot days so we can concentrate on our jobs, and the food will be ready for whoever wants it, without them having to wait for us to complete our jobs first.
Our budget:
My budget broken down:
TRAVEL EXPENSES
Fuel
After receiving the audition forms from the cast, I realised that most of them will be traveling by car to our shoots. As a result of this, I will need to reimburse them for their fuel. At the start of this project, I had no idea on how to reimburse them so I carried out some research into how businesses reimburse for fuel.
Mileage reimbursement is when you compensate employees for using their personal cars for business errands. In our case, the cast will be driving to and from our filming locations with their own vehicles, therefore I need to give them their fuel money back. There are different mileage reimbursement amounts for different vehicles, such as vans, cars and bikes. However, the cast members who need to be reimbursed from fuel are all driving to the locations with cars. This makes the work simpler for me as I only need to look at car fuel prices rather than bikes and vans as well.
As I don't have enough knowledge on reimbursements, I wouldn't know how much to give back to our cast members. To get an idea I looked up if there was an average price per mile or something similar. I found that businesses usually use the IRS standard mileage rate for reimbursement. This is set each year and at the moment the rate is 54.5 cents per business mile - which works out to be 43p per business mile. However, I thought this was quite high, so I researched into different companies specifically. Jury duty is one example in which people get reimbursed for their travel, because they are asked to attend and therefore get their travel paid for. For jury duty, people get paid 31.4p per mile. To get another figure I got in contact with someone who I know does an apprenticeship at Pfizer. They go to university once a week in order to complete their course and Pfizer reimburse them for their fuel. They pay 40p per mile. As a result of looking around at different prices, I have decided that I will reimburse 37p per mile for our cast. In order to come to this fair amount, I found the average between the other three amounts I previously researched.
This reimbursement methods works by the employees keeping a track of the mileage they drive for business. They might keep a pen and paper in their cars for keeping record. Most businesses also give employees mileage reimbursement forms. These forms ask the employees some information about their business-related drive, such as the date, destination and the miles travelled. Creating one of these forms would be really helpful to me as I could work the prices off these. As reimbursement is very important and is to do with money and our cast, I want to do it correctly and professionally. If I don't, the cast may think they aren't going to get their full and fair amount of their travel and in the worse case scenario they may withdraw. I started looking online at mileage reimbursement forms in order to find a professional one but they were all so different and as I don't know a lot about this I wasn't sure whether they included everything. As a result of this, I knew my friend had just qualified to be a teacher and during September she had to go on a number of home visits to meet her new class and parents. As she was using her own car for business-related journeys, the school gave her a reimbursement form in order to claim back her travel expenses. I asked her for a copy of one to see how they set theirs out. Once I had seen her copy, I compared it with the ones online and I created my own with the appropriate column headings.
Below is the mileage reimbursement form I created:
I added a 'business purpose' column so they have to state that the purpose was travelling to the shoot locations. This means that they cannot use the reimbursement for any other travel. The 'mileage before trip' column allows them to put in their current miles before they travel to our filming locations. The 'mileage after trip' allows them to put in their new mileage amount once they are home. The 'round trip miles' is the calculation of the new milage subtract their previous current mileage. At the bottom, I put in rows for the total miles, which I can add at the end when they hand it back to me. The mileage rate to simply state again what rate we agreed on. Lastly, the reimbursement amount. I decided to set it up like this so it is clear how I came to the final reimbursement amount. By having it set out like this at the bottom shows that I multiplied the total miles by the mileage rate to work out the final amount. I also added a note saying that the forms must be completed within 7 days of their last shoot days, this was so I had a time scale in which the forms should be returned by, this is so I could sort out all the money within a week after the shooting period. If I hadn't stated this, they may have taken weeks or months to get the form back to me. I also said please allow 7 days for reimbursement. This gives them a rough time of when they will receive their money back. This time allows me to check over the calculations on the sheet and send the money over bank transfer.
Instead of purely relying on my calculations, I thought it would be best to create a mileage reimbursement form because each car has a different engine size and takes in fuel differently. I don't mind reimbursing that bit extra for a bigger engine tank, but the one thing that will stay the same will be the pence per mile. I created a information pack including a contract stating the pence per mile so the cast can each sign one, in order to fairly state the amount we will be reimbursing them. This way there can be no confusion if it is written down on paper and signed for.
Within this information pack, I stated the amount they would be reimbursed per mile is 37p. I also asked if they would accept a bank transfer in order to pay the travel expense to them. I would prefer to send it over bank transfer because our budget will be brought together in one bank account, therefore we will not be carrying any paper money. Also, by sending the reimbursement over bank transfer, there will be no need to get any cash out. The amount will be an odd number rather than rounded up so to prevent having to get the exact change, bank transfer seemed like the best idea. If they are fine with this, when we meet with them again, either for a call back or at the rehearsal in January, I will create a form where they can add their bank details. I will reassure them that the information would stay with me and once the film had been completed (by May 2019 at the latest) I will dispose of the information so no one would be able to see it. I will also agree with the cast to reimburse them all the travel expenses after the shooting period in one lump sum, rather than small amounts. This will be easier to keep track of whether I have paid them or not. As long as they are happy with this then they can sign the form. If they aren't then I can talk to them individually and see how it is best to pay them.
I thought it would be best to estimate the mileage myself for the people that are driving as they also stated her location on the audition form. This way I can get a rough idea of how much fuel I'll be repaying to help create the budget total.
Tess
Shoot location: Tess's house, New Ash Green
Her location: East London
Distance between locations: 15 miles
15 (miles) x 0.37 (pence) = £5.55
Return journey: £11.10
Shoot location: The Bell Inn, Bearsted
Her location: East London
Distance between locations: 30 miles
30 (miles) x 0.37 (pence) = £11.10
Return journey: £22.20
Tess's total travel reimbursement: £33.30
Sheila
Shoot location: Sheila's house, Margate
Her location: Maidstone
Distance between locations: 48 miles
48 (miles) x 0.37 (pence) = £17.76
Return journey: £35.52
Shoot location: The Bell Inn, Bearsted
Her location: Maidstone
Distance between locations: 6.6 miles
6.6 (miles) x 0.37 (pence) = £2.50
Return journey: £5.00
Sheila's total travel reimbursement: £40.52
Mollie
Shoot location: The Kent Owl Academy x2 days
Her location: London
Distance between locations: 39 miles
39 (miles) x 0.37 (pence) = £14.43
Return journey: £28.86
2 shoot days: £55.72
Mollie's total travel reimbursement: £55.72
Total reimbursement for fuel for 3 people: £129.54
Train
There are 2 people getting the train to the shoots. As they stated their location on the audition form, I was able to give an estimate as to how much it will be to reimburse their train fare. In order to gain their reimbursement, they will just need to give me the recipes for the train tickets so I can check them and distribute the correct amount back. As train fares are easier to obtain receipts for I will not need to work out the miles in between the locations, I will just reimburse the amount stated on the receipt.
Luke
Shoot location: The Kent Owl Academy, x2 days
His location: Hertfordshire
Return train form Royston to Maidstone: £58.10
2 shoot days: £116.20
Shoot location: Road in New Ash Green
His location: Hertfordshire
Return train from Royston to Longfield: £49.50
Shoot location: Road in Margate
His location: Herefordshire
Return train from Royston to Margate: £72.50
Shoot location: The Bell Inn, Bearsted
His location: Herefordshire
Return train from Royston to Maidstone: £58.10
Luke's total travel reimbursement: £296.30
Tim
Shoot location: The Kent Owl Academy, x2 days
His location: Northolt, London
Tube from Northolt to London Victoria
Return train from London Victoria to Maidstone East: £24.90
2 shoot days: £49.80
Shoot location: Tess's house, New Ash Green
His location: Northolt, London
Tube from Northolt to London Victoria
Return train from London Victoria to Longfield: £17.70
Shoot location: Road in New Ash Green
His location: Northolt, London
Tube from Northolt to London Victoria
Return train from London Victoria to Longfield: £17.70
Shoot location: Road in Margate
His location: Northolt, London
Tube from Northolt to London Victoria
Return train from London Victoria to Margate: £40.30
Shoot location: The Bell Inn, Bearsted
His location: Northolt, London
Tube from Northolt to London Victoria
Return train from London to Maidstone: £24.90
Tim's total travel reimbursement: £150.40
Total reimbursement for train fares for 2 people: £446.70
CREW EXPENSES
We have four members of extra crew, as well as Katie, Alex and myself. One sound assistant, one camera assistant, one runner and a make-up artist. We are planning to take them to and from the shoots ourselves in order to save money on the budget. We also don't need them for every minute of the day so we may not need to pay for their lunch every day either. Nevertheless, I have budgeted for extra members of crew.
FOOD EXPENSES
When realising I would be organising the budget and specifically the food expenses, I had to think about what sort of meals would be appropriate to feed our cast. To give me some ideas I researched into food on filming locations and found some helpful tips.
Don't be stingy: There should always be enough food to go around, and possibly more than enough. No cast member should ever be concerned about taking seconds. No producer should ever consider rationing. The best and simplest way to make your cast happy is by keeping them constantly fed. Not with just the amount of food but also the quality of the food. If you are on a low budget, think long and hard before minimising the meal allowance.
Aim for variety: Put variety into the food. Even the best food becomes tiresome over time. Switch out the snacks day to day. Your cast will be working long hours and have a wide range of preferences. Represent many tastes and food groups in the meals.
Keep it caloric, but healthy: Junk food will not cut it for the bulk of what you're serving. Meals should be healthy enough to sustain energy over long periods of time. Making a film is very demanding and you will need to meet the demand with hearty and energising meals. Consider lean proteins, plain starches, superfoods and energy bars.
Pay attention to dietary restrictions: Dietary restrictions are very important for the people who have them. By ignoring or underserving these restrictions, you could end up putting someone in life-threatening danger. As the producer is responsible for food, it's their job to ensure that everyone is adequately fed. On the audition form I gave to each cast member was a question about their dietary requirements and any allergies they may have. This was so I could plan the food for the shoot days with their requirements in mind.
Keep it hot and punctual: The only right way to serve a meal on set is hot and on time. It's a difficult balance to strike but a necessary one. Paying attention to timing is crucial. We will have scheduled lunch breaks throughout the shoot days. If the food isn't ready during these breaks then we may overrun into filming time, which could then cause us to rush at the end of the day, or possibly not get everything filmed on time.
Avoid anything that creams, curdles, dusts or requires assembly. The food needs to be quick and easy to make in order to have it ready for the scheduled food breaks. Snack ideas include energy bars, granola bars, fruit, crisps, dips and hummus. There will be plenty of snacks during the shoot days for the cast to keep their energy up with. I will make sure to have healthy snacks to keep them alert for filming.
Coffee and water, always and forever: Coffee and water are non-negotiable. Other beverages are also encouraged but not as important. The coffee should be hot and ready for the moment the cast and crew arrive and stay that way until filming has finished. Many people rely on caffeine to keep them alert to drive home safely. Water and hydration also amount to a safety concern. With the physical labour while filming on set, dehydration is a risk. I will ensure I have a case of water bottles on each filming day in order to keep the cast's hydration levels up. I will also be on hand to make tea and coffee whenever someone wants one.
Choose bulk catering: On smaller shoots, it can be tempting to order delivery from a nearby establishment. While platter orders are fine, individual orders are not. This move can be disastrous - individual orders will almost always cost more and take more time than bulk catering.You also have less self control, with mass individual orders, there are frequently mistakes that could leave someone hungry.
Special touches matter: A great way to keep crew and cast happy is by showing how considerate you can be. It can be as simple as adding avocado to the salad or bringing out a fun dessert after lunch. If you know a day is going to be hard, consider planning a fun surprise snack like biscuits or hot chocolate. I will ensure there are treats as well as healthy meals available for our cast. Therefore, there will be the variety they want, if they fancy something sweet then it'll be there.
As we are filming during the cold months between January and March, it is essential that the cast get hot food while on the shoots. We want them to be as comfortable as possible and happy with the eating arrangements. Throughout all shoots there will be tea, coffee and snacks on offer and then we will stop to have scheduled breaks in order to sit in the warmth and eat hot food. Our runner will come in very useful during the shoot days as they will be getting tea and coffee whenever the cast want one, as we are filming in the cold I will make sure this is a regular trip.
Tess's house
During the scene at Tess's house we will only have two of our cast members - Tim and Tess, and five crew members.
Both of these actors are adults and therefore will need a more substantial meal than a child would. For example, a child would be happy with something small like chicken nuggets and chips, but an adult would need more food than this. As a result of this, we would need to put on a higher standard of food such as:
- Soup (a couple of tins £2) and a bread roll (£1)
and
- Burgers (£5) / veggie burgers (£5), rolls (£1)
Total price of food: £14.00
Road in New Ash Green
The road we will be using in New Ash Green is very near the location for Tess's house. Therefore, we will be able to go back to house we used for that for our lunch break. There will only be two cast members on this day - Luke and Tim, and five crew members.
- Hotdogs (£1), rolls (£1) and chips (£2)
and
- Curry (£3) and rice (£2)
Total price of food: £10.00
Sheila's house & road in Margate
There will be three cast members on set at Sheila's house - Tim, Luke and Sheila. Luke is the youngest and therefore may not be as open to foods as Tim and Sheila might. I will create a menu before organising any food and send it on to all cast and crew members in order to check with them if the food is acceptable for them.
- Chilli (£3) and a bread roll (£1)
and
- Shepherds pie (ingredients (£7)
and
- Chips (£2)
Total price of food: £13.00
The Kent Owl Academy
As this location does not have access to a kitchen as well as the house locations do, I decided that we would have to take the cast out for lunch. This will be the only way we will get an appropriate hot meal for everyone. Near the academy there is the Beefeater Malta Inn, which is a pub and grill restaurant. I have looked at the menu and there are a variety of meals available for people with dietary requirements. A couple of our cast members are vegetarian and the Beefeater does a number of vegetarian meals, ranging from salads, to lasagnes to vegan burgers. So depending on what our vegetarian cast members fancy there is a lighter option and a slightly heavier option which I was very impressed to see.
There will be a total of 3 cast and 5 crew members during the two days we are schedule to be shooting at the Kent Owl Academy, therefore we will be paying for 8 meals. Looking at the menu for the Beefeater, the main meals are around £10-£15 each. Including a drink we are looking at around £13-£17 per person. This will add a substantial amount to our budget but it would add even more to the budget if we tried to transport the cast and crew to a house elsewhere. Also, the fact that we will have to eat half way through filming, we don't want to go far from the location, and paying for the cast and crew to go back to a house and then back to the location will add more to the budget. As a result of this, I have decided that paying for their meals will be the cheaper option.
As I won't know what exactly the cast and crew will eat until the day I can only estimate the amount for this location. I've overestimated the amount so we will have more money for the food rather than less when it comes to the actual shoot day.
Total price of food for the Beefeater: £136
The Bell Inn
Similarly to the owl academy, we do not have access to a kitchen at The Bell Inn. However, it is a pub itself and it serves hot food. At this location we will be catering for 4 cast and 5 crew members. Looking at the menu and the meals are around £10-£15 without drinks, it'll be around £13-£17 with drinks, which was the same as the owl academy. The amount of money we would need to spend here will be roughly the same as the owl academy, the only difference is that we will be paying for an extra cast member as there will be 4 at this location instead of 3. However, the scene at the pub isn't long. Filming schedules can change at any point but if we were able to finish in the morning we would be happy to have a couple of snacks during this time instead of a full meal. This isn't confirmed because something could happen on the day which causes us to film over lunch and into the afternoon, e.g. one of the cast members is late due to traffic or train delays. As a result of this I will add the meal prices onto the budget. I would rather overestimate than underestimate.
As I won't know what exactly the cast and crew will eat until the day I can only estimate the amount for this location.
COSTUME:
Costumes shouldn't take up a lot of our budget as many of our costume ideas are everyday wear, therefore, the cast can wear their own clothes. They may just need to bring a couple of different tops and trousers to wear if we're filming two days in the script on one shoot day.
The main part of the clothing budget we would need to spend is on Tess's clothes. As I described in the Costume blog post, we want her to look successful in smart clothes. If we were to go for cheap clothes then these may not give off the look we want. Therefore, we may have to go into high street stores such as Debenhams to get slightly more expensive clothes. The actress for Tess may have some of these clothes herself, therefore we won't have to buy them which will save money for the budget.
We will also need to buy a cheap hoodie to stain, this should be around £10 from Primark, and some leggings to get muddy. In Primark these are only around £5.
As a result of this, I have only budgeted £40 for costumes.
PROPS:
Props are a very important part of the film, they cannot be underproduced. I must ensure I get the best props possible no matter what the cost is to help us create a successful film. There are some props that can't be negotiated such as the vinyl stickers for the side of the van and some that can, for example the broken vases in the house. As a result of this, all the props that aren't as specific as the others I have been looking around for the best price possible for them. I searched online at different shops to see where was the best place to buy them from. Below are all our props and the websites in which I found the best price:
Don't have the whole film set in one location
According to Jennifer, if the film is shot in one location then it can make the production look like it had a micro-budget. We have already accomplished this by having five different locations, by filming in different areas our film will hopefully look more professional and as if it had a bigger budget than what it does. Luckily we don't have to pay for any of the locations. If we had to pay for a location we may have been more inclined to not use it due to our limited budget.
Shoot while locations are open
Jennifer recommends to shoot when location are open because they will be less likely to charge you. If we ask a business to close so we can film then they are more likely to charge us because we will be prevent them from gaining customers during the hours we're filming. The Kent Owl Academy and the pub are the only locations we have that are businesses and have opening hours. We have already established that we can film at The Kent Owl Academy when it is open and closed. We have already carried out test shoots there while they were open as the staff were able to help us when they had a free minute. They have also said that we are able to film during their closed period in January. This is because the site will be closed for the public but the staff will still be there due to maintenance works. If we chose to film during this period when the site is closed, we won't have the public to worry about. Therefore, on this occasion it may be more beneficial for us to go against Jennifer's advice and shoot there during their closed period. We have agreed to carry out rehearsals during January, but conduct the real shoot in February, so at least we will have the rehearsals without having to worry about the public.
Cast matters a lot
The amount of effort that I put into casting is something I've already thought about. The cast need to be believable and realistic in order to create our sitcom. They need to have experience in comedy, as the way they act will be a big part in our film. I have already put out a casting advert on Mandy.com in order to get candidates, we have also carried out our auditions and we have our final cast members. The chosen cast all gave a strong and believable performance.
We want our cast to be reliable and easy to communicate with to keep everything as simple as possible, and I believe our chosen cast will be. I have given them a date for a call back and 4 out of 5 cast members can make it. This proves that they are reliable as they know the real shoot isn't until February but they are still eager to attend a 2 hour long call back, just to meet everyone and read through their lines. They could have said refused to come and said they can read their lines at home, but the majority of them can come. If they prove to be unreliable, we may have to end up re-casting. This would have then been a waste of time and money, getting them to the call backs. The auditions were a good way to predict this, if they were difficult when arranging auditions or have a lot of commitments, then we would have reconsidered them for the shoot days. However, the people we picked had all attended the auditions. We would rather pick these than the people sending in self-tapes because we can see straight away that they have given the time to come in to meet us.
There's no excuse for bad production values
We want VETMAN to look professional and feel like a real sitcom. The look of the film is Katie's job as Director of Photography, we have already carried out a test shoot where Katie tested out different cameras at the Owl Academy. This has allowed her to analysis the difference in each camera and what one she thinks will be best for our project. As a result of our test shoots, we should have a professionally shot sitcom. All the equipment we use will be from the camera store at uni, therefore we will get the equipment with no charge, and we'll be getting the highest quality equipment as well.
Make sure the cast and crew have worked at your budget level before
If everyone involved is used to working on a low-budget film then there should be no concerns to do with money. This is more relevant with cast as the crew involved will have come from our university course and have only participated in and created low-budget films anyway. However, we sourced our cast on casting websites and we stated that this was a student project. All the people we auditioned also asked about our uni course and seemed interested in it. This shows that they understood the advert and they will be getting involved with a low budget film, and therefore not getting paid. We want to keep the budget as low as possible so we will not consider paying them. I will write up contracts for the cast to sign during the callback stating that they will not be getting paid. By having it on paper and signed for, we shouldn't have anyone disputing this. We will be paying for their food and travel and I have already started budgeting this and working out how much it'll cost.
Figure out how your core filmmaking team will pay their bills while you make the movie
As I am in charge of the whole budget, I will make sure that all the expenses will come out of my bank account so I can keep track of it. I will also make sure that the cast are paid their food and travel money on shoot days. I will keep track of the money incase of overspending. We know we already need to put in a bigger amount than on our other projects, because of this we definitely don't want to overspend and need to put more into the budget than we already have. I will consider paying them back in a large amount at the end of the shoot days, rather than in small amounts.
Know what you can figure out yourself, and when you need to pay for an expert
We have all chosen different roles during this project, and with just the three of us we have covered most of the jobs needed to create a successful show. We may be able to hire some people in from outside the university, such as a make up artist and photographer. As we are making our sitcom with a low-budget we don't have the money to pay for an expert, we may hire a couple of people who specialise in these fields of work if we know them and they don't expect paying, for example, I know someone studying stage makeup at university, so if they were good in working with fake blood then we would happily have them on board. One of us could splash some blood on a face but it will never look as good as someone who specialises in make-up. We also wouldn't want to worry about having to put make-up on the female characters as we have our own jobs to concern ourselves with. Therefore, getting in a makeup artist may be worthwhile. We definitely want a runner on food and drinks on the shoot days so we can concentrate on our jobs, and the food will be ready for whoever wants it, without them having to wait for us to complete our jobs first.
Our budget:
TRAVEL EXPENSES
Fuel
After receiving the audition forms from the cast, I realised that most of them will be traveling by car to our shoots. As a result of this, I will need to reimburse them for their fuel. At the start of this project, I had no idea on how to reimburse them so I carried out some research into how businesses reimburse for fuel.
Mileage reimbursement is when you compensate employees for using their personal cars for business errands. In our case, the cast will be driving to and from our filming locations with their own vehicles, therefore I need to give them their fuel money back. There are different mileage reimbursement amounts for different vehicles, such as vans, cars and bikes. However, the cast members who need to be reimbursed from fuel are all driving to the locations with cars. This makes the work simpler for me as I only need to look at car fuel prices rather than bikes and vans as well.
As I don't have enough knowledge on reimbursements, I wouldn't know how much to give back to our cast members. To get an idea I looked up if there was an average price per mile or something similar. I found that businesses usually use the IRS standard mileage rate for reimbursement. This is set each year and at the moment the rate is 54.5 cents per business mile - which works out to be 43p per business mile. However, I thought this was quite high, so I researched into different companies specifically. Jury duty is one example in which people get reimbursed for their travel, because they are asked to attend and therefore get their travel paid for. For jury duty, people get paid 31.4p per mile. To get another figure I got in contact with someone who I know does an apprenticeship at Pfizer. They go to university once a week in order to complete their course and Pfizer reimburse them for their fuel. They pay 40p per mile. As a result of looking around at different prices, I have decided that I will reimburse 37p per mile for our cast. In order to come to this fair amount, I found the average between the other three amounts I previously researched.
This reimbursement methods works by the employees keeping a track of the mileage they drive for business. They might keep a pen and paper in their cars for keeping record. Most businesses also give employees mileage reimbursement forms. These forms ask the employees some information about their business-related drive, such as the date, destination and the miles travelled. Creating one of these forms would be really helpful to me as I could work the prices off these. As reimbursement is very important and is to do with money and our cast, I want to do it correctly and professionally. If I don't, the cast may think they aren't going to get their full and fair amount of their travel and in the worse case scenario they may withdraw. I started looking online at mileage reimbursement forms in order to find a professional one but they were all so different and as I don't know a lot about this I wasn't sure whether they included everything. As a result of this, I knew my friend had just qualified to be a teacher and during September she had to go on a number of home visits to meet her new class and parents. As she was using her own car for business-related journeys, the school gave her a reimbursement form in order to claim back her travel expenses. I asked her for a copy of one to see how they set theirs out. Once I had seen her copy, I compared it with the ones online and I created my own with the appropriate column headings.
Below is the mileage reimbursement form I created:
 |
| Mileage reimbursement form |
I added a 'business purpose' column so they have to state that the purpose was travelling to the shoot locations. This means that they cannot use the reimbursement for any other travel. The 'mileage before trip' column allows them to put in their current miles before they travel to our filming locations. The 'mileage after trip' allows them to put in their new mileage amount once they are home. The 'round trip miles' is the calculation of the new milage subtract their previous current mileage. At the bottom, I put in rows for the total miles, which I can add at the end when they hand it back to me. The mileage rate to simply state again what rate we agreed on. Lastly, the reimbursement amount. I decided to set it up like this so it is clear how I came to the final reimbursement amount. By having it set out like this at the bottom shows that I multiplied the total miles by the mileage rate to work out the final amount. I also added a note saying that the forms must be completed within 7 days of their last shoot days, this was so I had a time scale in which the forms should be returned by, this is so I could sort out all the money within a week after the shooting period. If I hadn't stated this, they may have taken weeks or months to get the form back to me. I also said please allow 7 days for reimbursement. This gives them a rough time of when they will receive their money back. This time allows me to check over the calculations on the sheet and send the money over bank transfer.
Instead of purely relying on my calculations, I thought it would be best to create a mileage reimbursement form because each car has a different engine size and takes in fuel differently. I don't mind reimbursing that bit extra for a bigger engine tank, but the one thing that will stay the same will be the pence per mile. I created a information pack including a contract stating the pence per mile so the cast can each sign one, in order to fairly state the amount we will be reimbursing them. This way there can be no confusion if it is written down on paper and signed for.
Within this information pack, I stated the amount they would be reimbursed per mile is 37p. I also asked if they would accept a bank transfer in order to pay the travel expense to them. I would prefer to send it over bank transfer because our budget will be brought together in one bank account, therefore we will not be carrying any paper money. Also, by sending the reimbursement over bank transfer, there will be no need to get any cash out. The amount will be an odd number rather than rounded up so to prevent having to get the exact change, bank transfer seemed like the best idea. If they are fine with this, when we meet with them again, either for a call back or at the rehearsal in January, I will create a form where they can add their bank details. I will reassure them that the information would stay with me and once the film had been completed (by May 2019 at the latest) I will dispose of the information so no one would be able to see it. I will also agree with the cast to reimburse them all the travel expenses after the shooting period in one lump sum, rather than small amounts. This will be easier to keep track of whether I have paid them or not. As long as they are happy with this then they can sign the form. If they aren't then I can talk to them individually and see how it is best to pay them.
I thought it would be best to estimate the mileage myself for the people that are driving as they also stated her location on the audition form. This way I can get a rough idea of how much fuel I'll be repaying to help create the budget total.
Tess
Shoot location: Tess's house, New Ash Green
Her location: East London
Distance between locations: 15 miles
15 (miles) x 0.37 (pence) = £5.55
Return journey: £11.10
Shoot location: The Bell Inn, Bearsted
Her location: East London
Distance between locations: 30 miles
30 (miles) x 0.37 (pence) = £11.10
Return journey: £22.20
Tess's total travel reimbursement: £33.30
Sheila
Shoot location: Sheila's house, Margate
Her location: Maidstone
Distance between locations: 48 miles
48 (miles) x 0.37 (pence) = £17.76
Return journey: £35.52
Shoot location: The Bell Inn, Bearsted
Her location: Maidstone
Distance between locations: 6.6 miles
6.6 (miles) x 0.37 (pence) = £2.50
Return journey: £5.00
Sheila's total travel reimbursement: £40.52
Mollie
Shoot location: The Kent Owl Academy x2 days
Her location: London
Distance between locations: 39 miles
39 (miles) x 0.37 (pence) = £14.43
Return journey: £28.86
2 shoot days: £55.72
Mollie's total travel reimbursement: £55.72
Total reimbursement for fuel for 3 people: £129.54
Train
There are 2 people getting the train to the shoots. As they stated their location on the audition form, I was able to give an estimate as to how much it will be to reimburse their train fare. In order to gain their reimbursement, they will just need to give me the recipes for the train tickets so I can check them and distribute the correct amount back. As train fares are easier to obtain receipts for I will not need to work out the miles in between the locations, I will just reimburse the amount stated on the receipt.
Luke
Shoot location: The Kent Owl Academy, x2 days
His location: Hertfordshire
Return train form Royston to Maidstone: £58.10
2 shoot days: £116.20
Shoot location: Road in New Ash Green
His location: Hertfordshire
Return train from Royston to Longfield: £49.50
Shoot location: Road in Margate
His location: Herefordshire
Return train from Royston to Margate: £72.50
Shoot location: The Bell Inn, Bearsted
His location: Herefordshire
Return train from Royston to Maidstone: £58.10
Luke's total travel reimbursement: £296.30
Tim
Shoot location: The Kent Owl Academy, x2 days
His location: Northolt, London
Tube from Northolt to London Victoria
Return train from London Victoria to Maidstone East: £24.90
2 shoot days: £49.80
Shoot location: Tess's house, New Ash Green
His location: Northolt, London
Tube from Northolt to London Victoria
Return train from London Victoria to Longfield: £17.70
Shoot location: Road in New Ash Green
His location: Northolt, London
Tube from Northolt to London Victoria
Return train from London Victoria to Longfield: £17.70
Shoot location: Road in Margate
His location: Northolt, London
Tube from Northolt to London Victoria
Return train from London Victoria to Margate: £40.30
Shoot location: The Bell Inn, Bearsted
His location: Northolt, London
Tube from Northolt to London Victoria
Return train from London to Maidstone: £24.90
Tim's total travel reimbursement: £150.40
Total reimbursement for train fares for 2 people: £446.70
CREW EXPENSES
We have four members of extra crew, as well as Katie, Alex and myself. One sound assistant, one camera assistant, one runner and a make-up artist. We are planning to take them to and from the shoots ourselves in order to save money on the budget. We also don't need them for every minute of the day so we may not need to pay for their lunch every day either. Nevertheless, I have budgeted for extra members of crew.
FOOD EXPENSES
When realising I would be organising the budget and specifically the food expenses, I had to think about what sort of meals would be appropriate to feed our cast. To give me some ideas I researched into food on filming locations and found some helpful tips.
Don't be stingy: There should always be enough food to go around, and possibly more than enough. No cast member should ever be concerned about taking seconds. No producer should ever consider rationing. The best and simplest way to make your cast happy is by keeping them constantly fed. Not with just the amount of food but also the quality of the food. If you are on a low budget, think long and hard before minimising the meal allowance.
Aim for variety: Put variety into the food. Even the best food becomes tiresome over time. Switch out the snacks day to day. Your cast will be working long hours and have a wide range of preferences. Represent many tastes and food groups in the meals.
Keep it caloric, but healthy: Junk food will not cut it for the bulk of what you're serving. Meals should be healthy enough to sustain energy over long periods of time. Making a film is very demanding and you will need to meet the demand with hearty and energising meals. Consider lean proteins, plain starches, superfoods and energy bars.
Pay attention to dietary restrictions: Dietary restrictions are very important for the people who have them. By ignoring or underserving these restrictions, you could end up putting someone in life-threatening danger. As the producer is responsible for food, it's their job to ensure that everyone is adequately fed. On the audition form I gave to each cast member was a question about their dietary requirements and any allergies they may have. This was so I could plan the food for the shoot days with their requirements in mind.
Keep it hot and punctual: The only right way to serve a meal on set is hot and on time. It's a difficult balance to strike but a necessary one. Paying attention to timing is crucial. We will have scheduled lunch breaks throughout the shoot days. If the food isn't ready during these breaks then we may overrun into filming time, which could then cause us to rush at the end of the day, or possibly not get everything filmed on time.
Avoid anything that creams, curdles, dusts or requires assembly. The food needs to be quick and easy to make in order to have it ready for the scheduled food breaks. Snack ideas include energy bars, granola bars, fruit, crisps, dips and hummus. There will be plenty of snacks during the shoot days for the cast to keep their energy up with. I will make sure to have healthy snacks to keep them alert for filming.
Coffee and water, always and forever: Coffee and water are non-negotiable. Other beverages are also encouraged but not as important. The coffee should be hot and ready for the moment the cast and crew arrive and stay that way until filming has finished. Many people rely on caffeine to keep them alert to drive home safely. Water and hydration also amount to a safety concern. With the physical labour while filming on set, dehydration is a risk. I will ensure I have a case of water bottles on each filming day in order to keep the cast's hydration levels up. I will also be on hand to make tea and coffee whenever someone wants one.
Choose bulk catering: On smaller shoots, it can be tempting to order delivery from a nearby establishment. While platter orders are fine, individual orders are not. This move can be disastrous - individual orders will almost always cost more and take more time than bulk catering.You also have less self control, with mass individual orders, there are frequently mistakes that could leave someone hungry.
Special touches matter: A great way to keep crew and cast happy is by showing how considerate you can be. It can be as simple as adding avocado to the salad or bringing out a fun dessert after lunch. If you know a day is going to be hard, consider planning a fun surprise snack like biscuits or hot chocolate. I will ensure there are treats as well as healthy meals available for our cast. Therefore, there will be the variety they want, if they fancy something sweet then it'll be there.
As we are filming during the cold months between January and March, it is essential that the cast get hot food while on the shoots. We want them to be as comfortable as possible and happy with the eating arrangements. Throughout all shoots there will be tea, coffee and snacks on offer and then we will stop to have scheduled breaks in order to sit in the warmth and eat hot food. Our runner will come in very useful during the shoot days as they will be getting tea and coffee whenever the cast want one, as we are filming in the cold I will make sure this is a regular trip.
Tess's house
During the scene at Tess's house we will only have two of our cast members - Tim and Tess, and five crew members.
Both of these actors are adults and therefore will need a more substantial meal than a child would. For example, a child would be happy with something small like chicken nuggets and chips, but an adult would need more food than this. As a result of this, we would need to put on a higher standard of food such as:
- Soup (a couple of tins £2) and a bread roll (£1)
and
- Burgers (£5) / veggie burgers (£5), rolls (£1)
Total price of food: £14.00
Road in New Ash Green
The road we will be using in New Ash Green is very near the location for Tess's house. Therefore, we will be able to go back to house we used for that for our lunch break. There will only be two cast members on this day - Luke and Tim, and five crew members.
- Hotdogs (£1), rolls (£1) and chips (£2)
and
- Curry (£3) and rice (£2)
Total price of food: £10.00
Sheila's house & road in Margate
There will be three cast members on set at Sheila's house - Tim, Luke and Sheila. Luke is the youngest and therefore may not be as open to foods as Tim and Sheila might. I will create a menu before organising any food and send it on to all cast and crew members in order to check with them if the food is acceptable for them.
- Chilli (£3) and a bread roll (£1)
and
- Shepherds pie (ingredients (£7)
and
- Chips (£2)
Total price of food: £13.00
The Kent Owl Academy
As this location does not have access to a kitchen as well as the house locations do, I decided that we would have to take the cast out for lunch. This will be the only way we will get an appropriate hot meal for everyone. Near the academy there is the Beefeater Malta Inn, which is a pub and grill restaurant. I have looked at the menu and there are a variety of meals available for people with dietary requirements. A couple of our cast members are vegetarian and the Beefeater does a number of vegetarian meals, ranging from salads, to lasagnes to vegan burgers. So depending on what our vegetarian cast members fancy there is a lighter option and a slightly heavier option which I was very impressed to see.
There will be a total of 3 cast and 5 crew members during the two days we are schedule to be shooting at the Kent Owl Academy, therefore we will be paying for 8 meals. Looking at the menu for the Beefeater, the main meals are around £10-£15 each. Including a drink we are looking at around £13-£17 per person. This will add a substantial amount to our budget but it would add even more to the budget if we tried to transport the cast and crew to a house elsewhere. Also, the fact that we will have to eat half way through filming, we don't want to go far from the location, and paying for the cast and crew to go back to a house and then back to the location will add more to the budget. As a result of this, I have decided that paying for their meals will be the cheaper option.
As I won't know what exactly the cast and crew will eat until the day I can only estimate the amount for this location. I've overestimated the amount so we will have more money for the food rather than less when it comes to the actual shoot day.
Total price of food for the Beefeater: £136
The Bell Inn
Similarly to the owl academy, we do not have access to a kitchen at The Bell Inn. However, it is a pub itself and it serves hot food. At this location we will be catering for 4 cast and 5 crew members. Looking at the menu and the meals are around £10-£15 without drinks, it'll be around £13-£17 with drinks, which was the same as the owl academy. The amount of money we would need to spend here will be roughly the same as the owl academy, the only difference is that we will be paying for an extra cast member as there will be 4 at this location instead of 3. However, the scene at the pub isn't long. Filming schedules can change at any point but if we were able to finish in the morning we would be happy to have a couple of snacks during this time instead of a full meal. This isn't confirmed because something could happen on the day which causes us to film over lunch and into the afternoon, e.g. one of the cast members is late due to traffic or train delays. As a result of this I will add the meal prices onto the budget. I would rather overestimate than underestimate.
As I won't know what exactly the cast and crew will eat until the day I can only estimate the amount for this location.
Total price of food for the Bell Inn: £153
Total cost of food (as prices above are estimates): £300
Total cost of food (as prices above are estimates): £300
COSTUME:
Costumes shouldn't take up a lot of our budget as many of our costume ideas are everyday wear, therefore, the cast can wear their own clothes. They may just need to bring a couple of different tops and trousers to wear if we're filming two days in the script on one shoot day.
The main part of the clothing budget we would need to spend is on Tess's clothes. As I described in the Costume blog post, we want her to look successful in smart clothes. If we were to go for cheap clothes then these may not give off the look we want. Therefore, we may have to go into high street stores such as Debenhams to get slightly more expensive clothes. The actress for Tess may have some of these clothes herself, therefore we won't have to buy them which will save money for the budget.
We will also need to buy a cheap hoodie to stain, this should be around £10 from Primark, and some leggings to get muddy. In Primark these are only around £5.
As a result of this, I have only budgeted £40 for costumes.
PROPS:
Props are a very important part of the film, they cannot be underproduced. I must ensure I get the best props possible no matter what the cost is to help us create a successful film. There are some props that can't be negotiated such as the vinyl stickers for the side of the van and some that can, for example the broken vases in the house. As a result of this, all the props that aren't as specific as the others I have been looking around for the best price possible for them. I searched online at different shops to see where was the best place to buy them from. Below are all our props and the websites in which I found the best price:
New briefcase
As Tess's character is very organised and neat, her props would be in this condition as well. Tess will need a new briefcase with no marks on it such as undone stitching.
As Tess's character is very organised and neat, her props would be in this condition as well. Tess will need a new briefcase with no marks on it such as undone stitching.
Sourced from: eBay for £23.94
Old doctors bag
This prop needs to look old and worn because in the script the bag belonged to Tim's dad when he was younger. As a result of this, I have looked around for the best prop that can give this aesthetic.
Sourced: eBay for £20.00
This prop needs to look old and worn because in the script the bag belonged to Tim's dad when he was younger. As a result of this, I have looked around for the best prop that can give this aesthetic.
Sourced: eBay for £20.00
Latex gloves
Two pairs of gloves, sourced from: eBay for £1.99
Two pairs of gloves, sourced from: eBay for £1.99
Face mask
Pack of 1 mask, sourced from eBay at 99p
Syringe
Sourced from: Amazon at £1.97
Sourced from: Amazon at £1.97
Scalpel
There are different types of scalpels, such as a crafting scalpels and surgical scalpel so in order to get the most appropriate prop I made sure I was researching the correct type of scalpel.
Sourced from: eBay for £1.69
There are different types of scalpels, such as a crafting scalpels and surgical scalpel so in order to get the most appropriate prop I made sure I was researching the correct type of scalpel.
Sourced from: eBay for £1.69
Blanket at Tess's house
Sourced from: Primark Home for £5
Two Breakable vases
Sourced from: Primark Home for £5
Vinyl transfer sticker for the van
Sourced from: bannerbuzz.co.uk for £50
Luke's road map
Sourced from: WHSmiths for £5
Sheila's tissues
Sourced from: Tesco for £1
Fake black cat
We need a fake sleeping cat which we will use for Sooty, Sheila's cat. We won't be seeing the cat for long but it still needs to look like a real cat. There were other cats which were cheaper but they didn't look realistic
Sourced from: eBay for £9.99
We need a fake sleeping cat which we will use for Sooty, Sheila's cat. We won't be seeing the cat for long but it still needs to look like a real cat. There were other cats which were cheaper but they didn't look realistic
Sourced from: eBay for £9.99
Feathers for when the bird falls down after being punched
I looked at different websites and high street stores in order to find the best priced pack of feathers for the amount that are in the pack.
Goose feathers from eBay at £3.32
Natural feathers from Hobbycraft at £3.00
Goose features from The Range at £1.00
Natural feathers from Amazon at £2.20
They all have a decent amount inside them and they aren't very big, which is good as the owl we will be using is quite small. I decided that the best looking feathers for our owl are the natural feathers from Hobbycraft at £3.00. These aren't the cheapest option but they were the most appropriate for our project.
I looked at different websites and high street stores in order to find the best priced pack of feathers for the amount that are in the pack.
Goose feathers from eBay at £3.32
Natural feathers from Hobbycraft at £3.00
Goose features from The Range at £1.00
Natural feathers from Amazon at £2.20
They all have a decent amount inside them and they aren't very big, which is good as the owl we will be using is quite small. I decided that the best looking feathers for our owl are the natural feathers from Hobbycraft at £3.00. These aren't the cheapest option but they were the most appropriate for our project.
Pint glasses in the pub
We will buy two pints at the pub in order to have our half full glasses on the table.
One pint at the Bell Inn is £3.50, therefore two pints will be £7
We will buy two pints at the pub in order to have our half full glasses on the table.
One pint at the Bell Inn is £3.50, therefore two pints will be £7
Empty Kleenex box/packet
We can buy a pack of tissues and take them out, allowing us to have the empty packet
Tesco Kleenex box for £2.00
Asda Kleenex box for £1.50
As tissues are quite vague we can use any as long as they are branded with Kleenex as this is what is stated in the script.
We can buy a pack of tissues and take them out, allowing us to have the empty packet
Tesco Kleenex box for £2.00
Asda Kleenex box for £1.50
As tissues are quite vague we can use any as long as they are branded with Kleenex as this is what is stated in the script.
As well as these props, there are some more which Katie, Alex and I can source ourselves. Again, these props not very specific so we thought in order to save some money for the budget we can source these from our own houses. These include:
Blue scrubs
Sourced from: the last project
Dust pan and brush
Sourced: The location we are using for Tess's house has a dust pan and brush
The cup of tea Tess brings Tim
Sourced: The house we are filming in for this scene has cups available for us to use
Sourced: The house we are filming in for this scene has cups available for us to use
The mirror Tim looks in to clean his hoodie
The location for Tess's house has a mirror in the living room which we have permission to use
Fake blood
Sourced: from the previous project. We still have plenty left
Vet Van
We are using Alex's grandad's van at no cost. This has saved us a lot of money because we wouldn't be able to afford to hire a van. The only thing we'll need to pay for will be to top up the fuel. During the film, the van will not be on the road for long, for a minute at the most, so we won't have to top up the fuel by much. We may also need to pay for the van insurance but this is an extra rather than a prop.
We are using Alex's grandad's van at no cost. This has saved us a lot of money because we wouldn't be able to afford to hire a van. The only thing we'll need to pay for will be to top up the fuel. During the film, the van will not be on the road for long, for a minute at the most, so we won't have to top up the fuel by much. We may also need to pay for the van insurance but this is an extra rather than a prop.
Sourced: Alex's grandad has given us permission to use his van
Keys to the van
Sourced: we will get the keys to the van from Alex's grandad
Luke's phone when looking for directions for The Kent Owl Academy
Sourced: we can use one of our phones
Stethoscope
Sourced: from the previous project. We are able to reuse this prop in order to save money for the budget
Two screwdrivers
Sourced: I have screwdrivers at home I have permission to bring
Sourced: I have screwdrivers at home I have permission to bring
Hammer
Sourced: I have a hammer at home I have permission to bring
Sourced: I have a hammer at home I have permission to bring
Door lock for owl enclosure
Sourced: Alex has access to many different locks so we can use one of them
Sourced: Alex has access to many different locks so we can use one of them
Tim's leaflets
Sourced: I will be creating the leaflet that Tim gives to Mollie
Sourced: I will be creating the leaflet that Tim gives to Mollie
Needle
Sourced: last project, still have many needle props left over
Sheila's cats food bowl
Sourced: Alex has a spare food bowl we can use
Blood stained tissues
Sourced: we will use the tissues that Luke gives to Sheila and stain them with the fake blood we have already sourced
Blood stained tissues
Sourced: we will use the tissues that Luke gives to Sheila and stain them with the fake blood we have already sourced
Bin bag & something solid for inside (dog)
Sourced: the house being used for Sheila's house has a spare bin bag we can use. To show the weight and size of the dog in the bag we have access to an old piece of carpet. This can be rolled up and put in the bag for the dead dog. As it is an old piece of carpet we can cut this to the right size we want the dog to be
Fake owl
Sourced: we have already brought this and used it for a test shoot. The fake owl survived the shoot and the condition is good enough to be used again
It was from eBay £10.99 + 3.50 delivery
Leather gauntlet
Sourced: provided by the owl academy. As we will be flying their animals they have given us permission to use their equipment, such as the gauntlet
Owl food (dead chicks)
Sourced: provided by the owl academy. They have given us permission to use their owl food
Total prop price: £138.07
EXTRAS:
I have budgeted for the van insurance even though we aren't sure whether we'll need to insure ourselves on it or not. We may be able to get someone who has enough years of driving to bring it to and from our locations for us. This will mean we will not need to pay for an insurance because as long as the van is insured to someone (Alex's grandad), the person bringing it to the locations will be legally allowed to drive it.
As it is my job to work out the budget, it is also my job to find the best price for each part. Van insurance is bound to be expensive but I may be able to find it cheaper at different insurance companies. The main this is that the van is covered with fully comprehensive insurance, as this will cover us for any incidents that may happen, for example, if it's in a road traffic accident. Although, this is very unlikely, it still needs to be considered. The safety of our cast and crew is the most important thing.
Our actor for Tim has 20+ years of driving so ideally he should be able to drive any car as long as it's insured, and then we won't have to spend anything on the insurance.
The insurance I found was through Confused.com. I specifically chose this company because they are well-known. This website compares different insurance quotes so we don't have to. They found the cheapest fully comprehensive cover to be £87.26 from Haven Insurance. This is covering the four days we would need it for, with me on the insurance. Out of the three of us, I have the most driving experience with 4 years so it will be cheapest for me to drive it.
To check this was a consistent value, I compared it with another recognised company, MoneySupermarket.com. Again, for a fully comprehensive cover for a total of four days it was £89.81. As the amount was consistent over the two different websites, I will take an average of £88 for the insurance of the van.
Van insurance: £88.00
Extras
I have budgeted for more than just the van insurance for extras just in case there is something else we need to buy closer to the filming period that I haven't thought of now. However, these shouldn't be as expensive as the insurance so I have only budgeted an extra £20 for now.
RESHOOTS:
I have budgeted for reshoot costs incase we need to re-do some scenes. These costs will mainly be made up of travel and food expense because we will have already brought all the props and costumes. It will simply be a case of reimbursing the travel money for the specific cast members who we need to reshoot. Depending on how long the day of reshooting is, we may need to provide food again. However this is not definite until we know if we need to reshoot or not and how long for. As I do not know the answer for this yet, I will overestimate the amount for food expenses. This will prevent us putting more money into the budget later on. If we do not need to reshoot or pay for any meals during the reshoots then Katie, Alex and I will split the money evenly back out again.
I have overestimated for us to reshoot for one day with all the cast members. We may not need all of them but I have budgeted for it just in case. Therefore, if we do need everyone on location again, we have more money for it. If anything we may only need to reshoot with the two main characters, Tim and Luke. As these characters have the most to do and say in the film, we are more likely to run out of time shooting with them. For example, Sheila's biggest part is in one scene at her house in Margate, as she is only in this scene for a short amount of time and we have a whole day scheduled for the shoot in Margate then we should have the time to re-do the scene a couple of times before we get the best scene. However, with Tim as we will need to get through a lot of scenes with him we will have less time to re-do the scenes to get the best one.
To calculate a rough reshoot cost, I have used the amounts above for each characters travel to Maidstone for one day and added on one meal for £17 for each of them.
One reshoot day
Five members of cast - Tim, Luke, Tess, Sheila, Mollie
Travel expenses: £119.86
Food expenses: £100.00
Rough reshoot cost: £219.86
These costs added together make £1448.69 as our final budget allowance. This has included extras and unexpected costs so if anything we should get money back rather than have to put more money in. We are also hoping to have some donations to put towards this from crowdfunding.
RESHOOTS:
I have budgeted for reshoot costs incase we need to re-do some scenes. These costs will mainly be made up of travel and food expense because we will have already brought all the props and costumes. It will simply be a case of reimbursing the travel money for the specific cast members who we need to reshoot. Depending on how long the day of reshooting is, we may need to provide food again. However this is not definite until we know if we need to reshoot or not and how long for. As I do not know the answer for this yet, I will overestimate the amount for food expenses. This will prevent us putting more money into the budget later on. If we do not need to reshoot or pay for any meals during the reshoots then Katie, Alex and I will split the money evenly back out again.
I have overestimated for us to reshoot for one day with all the cast members. We may not need all of them but I have budgeted for it just in case. Therefore, if we do need everyone on location again, we have more money for it. If anything we may only need to reshoot with the two main characters, Tim and Luke. As these characters have the most to do and say in the film, we are more likely to run out of time shooting with them. For example, Sheila's biggest part is in one scene at her house in Margate, as she is only in this scene for a short amount of time and we have a whole day scheduled for the shoot in Margate then we should have the time to re-do the scene a couple of times before we get the best scene. However, with Tim as we will need to get through a lot of scenes with him we will have less time to re-do the scenes to get the best one.
To calculate a rough reshoot cost, I have used the amounts above for each characters travel to Maidstone for one day and added on one meal for £17 for each of them.
One reshoot day
Five members of cast - Tim, Luke, Tess, Sheila, Mollie
Travel expenses: £119.86
Food expenses: £100.00
Rough reshoot cost: £219.86
These costs added together make £1448.69 as our final budget allowance. This has included extras and unexpected costs so if anything we should get money back rather than have to put more money in. We are also hoping to have some donations to put towards this from crowdfunding.
References:
- Westin, J. (2014). 10 Tips for Successfully Producing a Micro-Budget Feature. Available: https://www.indiewire.com/2014/05/10-tips-for-successfully-producing-a-micro-budget-feature-25970/. Last accessed 23rd Oct 2018.
- Harvey, S. (2016). Food on Set: Do's and Don'ts for Feeding Your Crew.Available: https://nofilmschool.com/2016/11/meals-production-crew-crafty-set. Last accessed 18th Nov 2018.
- IQ Blog. (2018). Calculate Business Mileage Using HMRC’s Rates For 2018. Available: https://www.mileiq.com/en-gb/blog/calculate-business-mileage-hmrc-rates-2018/. Last accessed 18th Nov 2018.
- Harvey, S. (2016). Food on Set: Do's and Don'ts for Feeding Your Crew.Available: https://nofilmschool.com/2016/11/meals-production-crew-crafty-set. Last accessed 18th Nov 2018.
- IQ Blog. (2018). Calculate Business Mileage Using HMRC’s Rates For 2018. Available: https://www.mileiq.com/en-gb/blog/calculate-business-mileage-hmrc-rates-2018/. Last accessed 18th Nov 2018.
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