We have a screenplay ready to make into a low budget feature film. We also have some of the cast and locations in place, along with a business package, ready to look for money. Now, through bi-weekly installments, watch us raise the money, shoot the movie and assemble the pieces in post-production. Feel free to read long, comment, and suggest. It will be as if you are on our production crew.

WHO'S MAKING THIS FILM?

We are Huntington Action Films, a Long Island based film Production Company, made up of myself, Glenn Andreiev, an independent filmmaker and Paul Kanter, CPA. In May, 2001, we completed SHARP AND SUDDEN, a suspense thriller shot on Digital Video for $ 9,000. We will use the same money raising and production techniques to make a second film with a larger budget.

WHAT IS THIS FILM?

It's April 1, 2001. I am going to test screen a near completed SHARP AND SUDDEN to an audience at the I-Con Science Fiction convention. This is the audience I want. A theatre filled with strangers whose reactions will be honest, with no need to be polite. Prior to the screening, I sit in on a panel discussion on low budget filmmaking.

"As an independent low budget film-maker, you can make a very personal film that comes from your heart and soul, and it won't make a dime," stated the producer leading the discussion. "Or you can make a lousy exploitation film, which will make a fortune." I thought, does it have to be lousy?

I imagined what I would need to do to make a low budget exploitation film that was both good and profitable. I decided to rework a Super 8 student film I made in 1981. In the student film, which was titled PLUTOMAR, eccentric members of the Astakia family inherit ancient Egyptian jewels from their recently departed archeologist grandfather. The riches hold a curse; Plutomar, a fearsome lizard like creature, will hunt anybody who wrongly possesses them down.

This being a low budget film, we decided, what kind of monster can we afford? What will our monster look like? Vernon Gravdal, my co-producer from SHARP AND SUDDEN, and I kicked around some ideas, ranging from the possibly scary (A giant walking statue, something like THE GOLEM) to downright silly (Superimposing my cat over images of fleeing extras) Finally, we decided on a squid like creature.

THE SCREENPLAY

The first thing I wrote was the treatment, a one-page synopsis of PLUTOMAR. I gave the PLUTOMAR treatment quite the acid test by showing it to a screenwriter friend, Lawrence Sufrin. Larry's not afraid to be impolite and rip apart what you wrote. You need that constructive criticism that at first feels destructive.

He pointed out cliches, inconsistencies with characters and logic problems that the original author can very often miss. The basic plot of the film wound up centering on Ted, a male nurse caring for the dying archeologist grandfather. Ted steals a Plutomar jewel, and the curse is placed on him. We worked on the character of the archeologist grandfather, who, back in 1932, discovered the Plutomar rings and started a modern day Plutomar cult.

I tried not to hamper the writing by worrying how much the special effects would cost. For example, in one scene, Ted is unable to attend a party for his friends. In the first draft, the squid creature sinks the yacht where the party is held. Vernon suggested shooting the party in an easy to afford limousine.

I also made a shopping list of everything available to me for free. (Indie director Robert Rodriguez figured he had access to a jail, a bus and several bars. All of these added to the production value of his $6,000 film, EL MARIACHI.)

I figured I have available to me, a helicopter, police cars, several no-budget production tricks (which you'll learn of in further chapters) and old buildings from 1932.

The screenplay for PLUTOMAR has sequences set in 1932, when the cult began. This meant the dialog in those scenes had to ring of period slang and speech patterns. I began watching films made in 1932 (Films with urbane settings such as 42nd STREET, SCARFACE, and ALIBI) This became worthwhile research as far as what period props and costumes would be needed.

So, now it's June 2001. The screenplay is written, and registered, and protected with a copyright. You can register your screenplay with The Writers Guild of America, located at 555 West 57th Street, Suite #1230 New York, New York. Their number is (212) 767-7800. You can protect the screenplay with a U.S Copyright, which is available through The Library of Congress. Their phone number is (202) 707-9100 or (202) 707-5000. Once The Library of Congress sends you their very simple application, you return it with a copy of your screenplay and a small fee.

In writing, there is no such thing as a one-draft wonder. The first draft had far too many scenes, and was too dependent on dialog. Later drafts had the information from several scenes compounded into one tighter scene, and the dialog trimmed. As we go along, and even before we shoot, the screenplay will become more streamlined.

Now, we need to determine how much money we need to raise. I never liked shooting only on weekends, or shooting until you run out of money. I like shooting the film all at once. Stretching the production out over several months allows allow you to make the film for dirt cheap, but it leads to severe continuity problems, cast and crew dropping out or losing interest, any number of things.

To help determine the budget for PLUTOMAR, we needed to know how many days it would take to shoot it. We figured PLUTOMAR would take 26 days to shoot (3 with exteriors, 19 with interiors, 3 with standing sets, and one day designated as a "pick up" day.) The "pick-up" day is an extra day at the end of production that allows you to get shots or scenes missed or not done right. With that 26-day schedule, you can determine the following costs.

SALARY

Some people wondered why I included a small salary for myself. It may seem cavalier not to take a salary for yourself, but do you really want to worry about monthly bills while trying to make creative decisions? It's good to pay everybody the exact the same price (we usually settle on $ 90 a day, plus transportation and meals.) This way, you eliminate the feeling of favoritism.

Of course, on a small budgeted film, you can't have an enormous crew filling all jobs. Then again, the one-man-band approach allows for you being overworked, without the benefit of helpful suggestions. We figured on a crew of about three, no bigger than an average news crew.

TECHNICAL

We had to figure in the cost of enough digital video stock to allow for a 10 to 1 shooting ratio. PLUTOMAR looks as if it will be a 90-minute film. The 10 to 1 shooting ratio allows for 900 minutes (15 hours) of tape to be shot. We also had to include the cost of still film and developing. Stills will be as important as the video stock, because in publicizing your film, you want to be able to allow for photographs.

SPECIAL EFFECTS

"How are we going to build a giant squid?" was our big question. "Not CGI. Unless we spend an enormous amount of cash, we may have something that looks worse than the phony-baloney snake in ANACONDA."

"You really only need to build one good tendril." stated Paul Ehlers (Paul starred as the grunting, ax-wielding "Mad-Man Marz" in MADMAN, a fun Long Island produced slasher film. We looked at a few monster films made before CGI, films where on-screen monsters had to be mechanically built. We studied mistakes these early filmmakers made in photographing their beasts. We looked at what was done effectively and what made audiences say "Ah, lookie! I see the zipper on the monster suit!"

FOOD & TRANSPORTATION

You can't skimp on food. A Sound Recordist told me in disgust of a film he worked on where lunch was simply cold Chef-Boy-R-Dee out of the can. We figured every day, we'll have about five actors and four crew people to feed. Since we are shooting in video and can work eight-hour days, we only need to worry about one meal, and snacks on the set. (Don't make the snack just junk food. Remember that food is fuel.)

In all of my past films, I relied on mass transit for getting the cast and crew to and from locations. Mass transit routes, such as trains, subways, etc, normally only go about 15 minutes behind schedule. If you decide to carpool your cast and crew, you can caught in a traffic jam that could delay you for hours.

NAME ACTOR

I'm asked all the time, "How is this film going to make money? Why would people want to rent it?" The answer is, put a name actor or actress in the film. We will let you know in the next installment who we got, and how we got them. Count on spending a chunk of change for the name actor's salary, plus the expenses needed (a limo service for the actor, a make up artist and/or a personal assistant for the day.)

FINAL BUDGETING TIPS

Here is the summary for our budget, one of the first things we will show potential investors. They will be welcome to see our carefully detailed three-page budget, but we want to make the initial approach short and sweet.

Overhead is mainly fees such as an incorporation license, legal fees to draw up contracts with cast, crew and investors, and production insurance. The subtotal for completing PLUTOMAR came to $ 80,909. We added a $ 8,091 contingency (10 percent of the subtotal). Whenever you take a trip, you always take a little bit more money than you really need. This put our budget at $ 89,000.

HOW DO YOU START LOOKING FOR MONEY?

Last year, I made SHARP AND SUDDEN on a $9,000 budget. This money didn't come from Mom and Dad, and it didn't come from credit cards.

I'm glad I have Paul Kanter, a CPA as my other co-producer on PLUTOMAR. He is an accountant who thinks only in money terms, not creative terms, thus protecting the film from the "too many cooks spoil the…" syndrome. He told me. "Nobody likes the be the virgin. Meaning, nobody wants to be the first investor." He suggested the first investor be somebody who invests with a donation. This donation can be letting us use a location for free, or lending out equipment for free.

"Once people see that there has been investments, and they can be investments of services, not cash, then people will be more willing to write out that check. Everybody loves a crowd." Stated Paul.

Coming in Two Weeks: Read how we cast the movie, put together the business proposal, we get name actors to be in the film, and get those first investors. I can be e-mailed at Gandreiev@aol.com, for any more questions, comments, suggestions.