How to make a Film

What’s on at Australian Film Base July 2012

  • Saturday 11th August ,  Sunday August 12th
    Sydney CBD Sydney
  • Sydney 4 Month Film School 
    Thursday Night 13th September 2012 -Friday  January 18th 2013
    Screen Australia Studios 101 Eton Road Lindfield NSW

How to make a Film Now: The Film Budget
A Film Production is easy enough to produce once one knows how to do it. 


Firstly one has to get the correct mindset  to make a film happen. When one decides and becomes certain about the film production,nothing will stop the film maker from making their film. Provided they do not get sidetracked by negativity, their film will be a certainty. There are three types of film productions. 

Studio and Big Finance Films. These films require a star and studio or major distribution backing with an exceptionally big marketing budget. US$15 million is the minimum dollars for a Prints and Advertising Budget release in the US. 

Secondly, the Full Budget Film. Many high quality film productions are full budget films. Often they have B List names and everybody gets paid.
Generally one is looking at US$1million – US$10million. 
Finally, the Micro Budget Films. These films have very little money and are made with massive contributions and favours. Student Short Films fall into this category as well as micro budget feature films up to a budget of US$100,000. 


Marketing budgets are virtually zero so promotion needs to rely on Online Sources such as Youtube channels Facebook websites and blogs. For the very lucky a major distributor will get behind the film. This happens once in a blue moon.I am always a great believer that one should have a full budgeted film in development and concurrently a micro budget film happening now so that one can make and practice film making now. Often the full budgeted films can take years in development and can drain the passion from even the most enthusiastic film producers. 

So for the purpose of this article, I will focus totally on Micro budget films. 

The first requirement is a Solid Deadline. There must be a date where the film will be shot and also a date where the film is completed.These deadlines must be set in stone. If they are wobbly, they will not happen. Make a solid Deadline. 

All films are a mixture of the following elements. 

  • Script
  • Cast
  • Crew
  • Production Management Personal
  • Film Equipment
  • Locations
  • Props and Set Dressing
  • Wardrobe
  • Makeup
  • Post Production
  • Marketing


The cost of the above elements is the budget of the film.

So for the micro budget film, it is very important to minimise the spending and maximise the Favourse contributions and freebies to make the film happen.

Each section will be dealt with over the next 11 emails.

If you are interested in learning in detail and having all the tools and knowlege and practical experience necessary to make your own films, please look at our film courses happening soon 



Next Post on The Script and best practices writing the script. 

Best


Colm O’Murchu      Director
http://www.australianfilmbase.com/

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