ASK & DISCUSS INDEX

7 years ago - John Lubran

There must be many ways to raise money and working in a job to earn it is just one. Unless one has some particular high value skill to offer an employer or client or perhaps have independent means of paying ones bills, rent, mortgage, groceries etc., it'd take most people a very long time to save £10,000, which is still only a micro budget. Not many oil rig jobs going these days, and they don't take just anyone either. Apart from my doctor and a few entrepreneurs, aristocrats and landed gentry the only person I know working a regular job, and who could stash 10K together in a month, is an engineer whose skills are in short supply and are worth hundreds of pounds per day. It took him however, a decade to reach that degree of skill, as is most likely with any other profession where serous money can be earned. So unless there's a few of you working to an end and all chipping in, the notion of working a job for it doesn't have much appeal.

The best asset for raising a budget is the film project itself. If the concept can't enthuse funds from anyone then it's probably not compelling enough to be viable anyway. Try to come up with an idea that at least some people are likely to be enthused by. Using the 'long tail business model' that the Internet has given us, even niche human interests are worth millions. Ultra low budget vanity projects that sort of emulate many other concepts that are and have been done by proper production companies with viable budgets and distribution channels are unlikely to enthuse anyone beyond ones own family and friends. You know the old adage, 'there's only seven stories but there's lots of ways to tell them'. Look around; what do people care about? If one can discern that then one might be able to get them to contribute without going through all that rewards palaver associated with some forms of crowd funding.

There's more than one way to skin a cat.

'Long tail business model' One can Google it if necessary.

6 years, 12 months ago - Mark Jepson

Are we talking £10k for a short or a feature? Either way, £10k is a tall order in three months!

6 years, 12 months ago - Tim Benjamin

10k what? USD or GBP? 1960s Deutschmarks?

I'd question whether you even need that much (GBP) to make a very passable short. My first short as a director got TV distribution along with various awards and festival selections and was made with a full, paid crew on less than half that (in GBP).

I don't think you would work a normal job to raise the 10k, as (as previously stated) you would lose a load to taxes, to begin with - it's inefficient. You'd start off by incorporating a company to make the film, and possibly contract yourself out from that. Then once you've made the film and spent what you billed as a contractor, you won't be paying taxes on it (unless you paid yourself, but you didn't do that, right?). Indeed, in the UK you'll eventually get back 25% in relief, so that's only 7.5k you need to "raise" and you could borrow that quite easily, probably (that would be stupid, of course, but it's still possible). And if he's talking USD then really we're down to about 5 or 6k in GBP now. If you VAT registered the company you would claim back 20% VAT on things like kit hire and save even more on your budget. Maybe we're down to needing to "earn" only 4 or 5k in actual cash, in 3 months, for our 10k film. That's not hard.

Now, how much of that can be "in kind"? e.g. can you get space, costumes, props, food, professional advice for free (of course you can). Do you really need to hire a RED or whatever? (of course not).

So yeah, what Herzog said can definitely be done if you really want to make a film and have determination, which I guess is his entire point!

(There's something a little distasteful, but sadly probably true, when Herzog qualifies it with "able-bodied" - depending on the disability, it would be a lot harder to stash even 4k in 3 months, and set up a company, etc etc)