One day I got caught up in an in
depth discussion about how budgets dictate filmmaking. I was talking
with Jay Aubrey; a producer, writer and director who has been working
in the industry for over three decades. He has dealt with all types
of budgets from multimillion dollar union films to the mid-level
family movie made for Roger Corman called Looking For Trouble.
Jay was also the executive producer of Cam-Girl; a contained
thriller which I wrote and directed.
This conversation confirmed what I
already believed about budgets, the higher the budgets get, the more
pressure is put on everyone involved to deliver. When it comes to
union productions, producers have to deal with all manor of insurance
costs, guaranteed minimums for cast and crew salaries and medical
benefits. We all deserve these things but the expenses add up
quickly and can be enough to make your head spin like that girl from
The Exorcist. The thing is, it takes a high budget to
make a very big return on investment. The first thing most
distributors look for when they are considering a film is, who's in
it? The one sure thing that can add to a movie's marketability is
having the name and face of a well known actor to put on the poster,
DVD cover or trailer. An actor of this caliber means higher budgets,
unions and higher expectations. The production design, audio mix,
post production, quality of lighting and camera work; everything
needs to be top quality to match what is seen in the theaters these
days.
On the other hand, low budget
independent films have their own set of pros and cons. The
filmmakers have mush more control, they can and should tell stories
that do not pull any punches or are even a little controversial.
High budget films have much more on the line, so they must appeal to
a broad audience which can result in everything going through a
filter, it is filmmaking by comity and for good reason. The down
side to working with small budgets may seem obvious; no movie stars,
you cannot afford high tech camera rigs like cranes or dolly track;
simply put; less money to through at problems and add production
value. The low budget filmmaker needs to be fully prepared before
production and come up with creative ways to make their movie stand
out. You can build a dolly track out of a ladder by using the sides
as rails. Just youtube “Ladder dolly” and you will find a few
versions of this. The viewer would not know how you achieved that
shot, they would just see the camera movement and how it adds to the
emotion of the scene.
What I ended up saying to Jay
Aubrey was that filmmakers need to know what budget type is best for
their story, realize the benefits that your budget grants you, then
do all you can to maximize your results. To help you along with
these decisions, here is a chart. What counts as being high budget or low budget is up for debate; I consider high budget to be two-million and up and low budget to be five-hundred-thousand dollars and below.
There you have it. If you combine all
these common trends you get an idea of how much budget dictates the
stories and the types of films we see. Independent low budget film
fills a void by giving us bold, unconventional stories that Hollywood
could easily afford yet have no interest in. The big budget studio
pictures give us epic spectacles and a level of production quality
that low budget movies never could.
Not one type of movie is better
than the other, it just helps to know what comes along with your
budget and using it to your advantage. In short, low budget
filmmaking is all about doing a lot with a little and the privilege
of working with a high budget requires doing much more with a lot.
- Curt Wiser is a Filmmaker and Author, he is currently writing a guide to screenwriting titled: How To Write A Screenplay That Gets Produced.
