Budget - "The Box"

The budget for “The Box” is still a complete mystery at this point. The catchy Squidoo title “How Does a Movie Get Made…For Under $1,000?” is hopefully accurate but that’s kind of a broad “ballpark” estimate at the moment.

A quick note about that figure, however, is in order. Because Freedom Productions has been around making movies for many years we already have the basic tools to make a movie in the sense of cameras, lighting equipment, editing gear and so on. If we were starting from scratch a thousand dollars wouldn’t go very far. So we don’t want to give the impression that anyone with a thousand bucks could do exactly what we’re setting out to do unless they already had basic production gear at their disposal. The expenses discussed here are going to be for things like props, costumes and set construction.

The set will probably be the biggest expense and as soon as the designs are finalized we’ll probably have a better idea of what that’s going to cost. The next biggest expense will probably be the costumes, which consist primarily of orange jumpsuits. The props and set decorations are fairly limited so they shouldn’t be too expensive. Every movie has expendables that have to be considered like blank videotape, spare light bulbs and gaffer’s tape but these shouldn’t be too bad either. The one thing that could really make the cost balloon is if we decide that we need some kind of “specialty” lighting equipment that we don’t already own. A simple decision like that could make the budget practically double overnight.

We’ll try to keep track of things as they go and pass the information along. Since the key to successful microbudget movie making is good “microbudgeting” we’ll hopefully be able to provide some helpful insights into the art of stretching a dollar.

MONEY SPENT TO DATE:

• White rug (Props) – 6.50
• Lava lamp (Props) – 13.77
• 2 White plastic chairs (Props) – 13.00
• Tinted sunglasses (Costumes) – 1.55
• Inflatable mattress (Props) – 4.86
• Dry cleaning (Costumes) – 3.25
• Lumber (Sets) - 31.11
• Plastic sheeting (Sets) - 8.44
• Misc. building supplies (Sets) - 18.33
• 2 inflatable matresses (Props) - 12.86
• Lumber (Sets) - 13.18
• Lumber (Sets) - 23.77
• Light bulbs (Expendables) - 9.78
• Gas - (Expendables) - 35.00
• Hookah (Props) - 30.31
• Lighting instruments (Lighting) - 35.31
• Lumber (Sets) - 33.45
• Glass table (Props) - 14.95
• 3 Orange Jumpsuits - 57.01
• Lumber (Sets) - 27.19
• Misc. building supplies (Sets) - 10.53
• Lumber (Sets) - 152.47
• Lumber (Sets) - 23.79
• Misc. building supplies (Sets) - 13.54
• Lumber (Sets) - 27.19
• Misc. building supplies (Sets) - 47.55
• Lumber (Sets) - 22.95
• Lumber (Sets) - 43.39
• Lumber (Sets) - 43.39
• Misc. building supplies (Sets) - 7.84
• Misc. building supplies (Sets) - 41.48
• Lumber (Sets) - 54.42
• Lumber (Sets) - 33.33
• Misc. building supplies (Sets) - 66.10
• Stuffed tiger (Props) - 16.18
• Lumber (Sets) - 19.69
• TOTAL: $1071.88

PROJECT UPDATE 10/31/08:

Well it's Halloween and our treat was to go over the thousand dollar mark. At least Charlie Brown got a rock! Even worse, it rained last night...one day before the rood was scheduled to be completed. It doesn't look like the damage is too severe so hopefully we won't be set back too much.