Money, money, money...

...must be funny in a rich man's (not art department's) world. I quote this ABBA tune & say a little prayer that a money tree grows in my backyard tonight.

As production designer for our film, I am in charge of all the props, costumes, and set design for each frame, which entails 7 (kind of deadly) stages:
1. picking a color palatte
2. sketches of room designs
3. asking friends/other art people for common prop items
4. buying things online & praying they look like their picture
5. multiple trips to Salvation Army/Walmart
6. improvising....a lot (the prop weed is cotton balls rolled in glue, then rolled around in various spices, but hey it looks pretty realistic so thats ok)
7. crying because you have no money left

Depending on the project, an art department's budget can either be very minimal, or rather large. Because this is part of my independent study I went in with a "i'm going to plan for a lot of stuff and then get paid back later because I want this to look good and be worth it!!!" But right now I'm in that scary place of having spent money on art department and not getting paid back for it yet. Which means my bank account looks like this:

So I'm hoping that by some happy miracle more money is donated to our indiegogo so that I can afford to be paid back :) :) :)

Then again, if the film looks awesome, it's all worth the temporary debt, right???

Can You Pay Our Bills?

*cue this song.

The reason I've been getting so involved in our story and constantly editing it is for two reasons. (1) I want it to be as good as it can be (obviously); and (2) I want that Pendleton grant!

Everyone in our group agreed that Dollhouse would be a low-budget film. However, having some grant money would be very helpful. I think that if we want to be a serious contender for the grant, we need to have a grammatically flawless script, which is why I've been working with Theo to edit it. Last fall I took Developing Story Narratives with Julie Blumberg, so I have a good amount of experience editing scripts. I also brought our textbook for that class, The Hollywood Standard by Christopher Riley, back to school with me specifically for moments like this.

After about five drafts (and help from Anna), we've created a story that is more compelling and interesting than it was a couple days ago. Tomorrow it should be ready for storyboarding, which is super exciting.

How we would use our money:

• Gas money - to transport talent, crew, and gear ($30)
• Craft services - food for cast and crew for a 3 day shoot ($70-$100)
• Production design - printing photos, props, room/house decor ($30)
• Wardrobe ($20)
• Gaffing supplies ($25)
• Emergency fund - for when we inevitably have situations to deal with that are unpredictable ($40)

_________________________________________________

Total - $245

I am rounding up to get these estimates, so we may not end up using all of the $245. Any leftover money would be used to submit our film to festivals.

Hopefully our submission goes well and we're awarded some grant money. The next step is for us to focus on pre-production and prep everything that we can.

Shooting on a Budget

Before college I never had the equipment, knowledge, or courage to create films. I was always scared to put myself out there and accept criticism. However now that I am at college I have friends that drive me and the resources to create beautiful pictures. Over the past two summers I decided to start building my arsenal of camera equipment. The summer before freshmen year I bought a GoPro Hero 2 and this past summer I bought a Canon Rebel T3i which came with a 18-55mm lens kit. I now find myself wanting to expand my accessories but wanting to make sure I get my money's worth. I feel as though this lack of equipment is somewhat holding me back when it shouldn't be because in the end I will find myself getting quality shots as long as I just keep filming. I have started to follow a few photography and DSLR film blogs to try and learn how to get better shots and perhaps stumble upon some equipment deals. When scrolling through the blogs I found one post called "Working with Less (or, Get Out There and Shoot."  This post is all about making the most of what you have. David Kong, the author of the post and creator of Portrait of Macerata, an impeccable video portrait, talks about how when he was traveling he only had his backup camera yet he still created a professional video with less then 1000 dollars worth of equipment. Before going any further watch the video David Kong made below.

As you can see this is a beautiful video. What interested me so much was that it was very simple and done with inexpensive equipment but it looks like it was shot with a 5D Mk3. In actuality it was shot with a Canon T2i. This fact really excited me because I have a T3i. I figure if I put enough effort into it I can make a video very similar to it. The next part of the blog post is a video of David Kong going through each piece of equipment in detail and how he used it. It helped me learn about some accessories I will find useful in many situations and I should make the investment in. This is a series that David Kong does and I plan on following very closely.
The biggest point I'm trying to make from this point is that money doesn't make quality, and also the only way I am going to get better is if I learn more about my camera and I can do simply by using it more and more. I plan to try and make an effort to film anything at least once a week hopefully more. I hope you enjoyed this post and just remember the more you shoot the better you'll get.

To see the original blog post visit the link below.
Working with Less Part 1