To what extent does a film’s budget affect its outcome?

Hal Smith

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In this study, I intend to explore the question “To what extent does a film shoot’s budget affect its outcome?” From Hollywood blockbuster movies, to Independent British films, I intend to analyse this question through discussing the rise in commercially available high quality media products, the blur between the producer and the consumer and the way that having a large film budget could impact the director’s creative decision making.

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Introduction

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PERSONAL EXPERIENCE

The amount of vehicles, crew and actors in the production stage was staggering and I managed to talk to a few cameramen and pro-duction crew who were happy to talk to me about their job, equipment and such. I saw a number of 35mm cameras on the set, with lots of reels of film being carried around. The

sheer number of people on set was really something you have to witness first hand to understand and appreciate how a Hollywood film is made. The trailer has now been re-leased, the shots of horses running down the beach is the scene that I observed myself on the beach.

The teaser poster for Snow White and the Huntsman which is going to be released later this year. With a budget of $70,000,000 this film is estimated to be a Hollywood ‘epic’.

Snow White and the Huntsman

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I have a strong interest in film and I intend to study the production aspect of it at uni-versity. In the summer of 2011, I still wasn’t certain that film was for me, so I de-cided to try and get some work experience. I recently managed to shadow the loca-tions department on a film shoot for Universal Studio’s blockbuster ‘Snow White and the Huntsman’ a modern gothic interpretation of the classic fairytale, due to be re-leased in Summer 2012. It was being filmed on a beach near a relative’s house on which there were about 50 knights in armor riding up and down the sand towards an imaginary castle on which they would be superimpos-ing on a big hill at the far end of the beach.

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Some of the photographs that I took on the beach where the scene was being shot.

PHOTOGRAPHS

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Snow White and the HuntsmanFirst Trailer

This is the first trailer that has been released for Snow White and the Huntsman. The scenes of horses running along the beach in this trailer were filmed during the week that I spent down in Wales.

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PERSONAL EXPERIENCE

In my opinion, the final piece that we created was really impressive, the fact it was all done in one take helps to draw the viewer in through the fact it has been shot from the perspective of the audience watching a play. Having a dolly that goes in and out requires a lot of skill, for people to push it the suitable distance and also to the fo-cus puller who needs to constantly adjust the fo-cus to keep everything looking sharp. With the acting creating a humorous mood, the use of red in the colouring really helps to create a nice warm, rustic feeling to the video, making it seem

like the performance is happening in an old thea-tre. The relationship that the actors managed to hold during the performance, really helped add an extra element to the piece, as the audience can see the magician is madly in love with his assis-tant, whereas she doesn’t feel the same. This keeps the humorous mood, but also mean that the viewer creates an emotional attachment to the lead character. As a small group of people who are highly passionate about film, I am very proud with this output.

I already had a few contacts in Cornwall, and through family friends and people I know, I managed to secure work experience on a music video set as a runner for freelance filmmaker Ian Bucknole. The music video was for John Smith’s track ‘Genie in a bottle’. Shot on a Canon 5D Mark II the Ian owned, the video contained John Smith miming the words to his song whilst performing magic tricks to try and impress his beautiful assistant. The shoot was incredibly intimate, with only about 7-8 people actually working behind the scenes. The way that it was shot, with a dolly track zooming in and out to the performers onstage, was a very tricky way of producing the video because the whole piece had to be shot in one take. We did 6-7 takes of the video and I stood backstage moving the curtains and changing the magician’s tricks over.

Genie in a Bottle

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An image of musician John Smith, who starred in the music video and also recorded the song.

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Music Video

This is the final music video for ‘Genie in a Bottle’ that we produced. In the credits I have been kindly listed as a production assistant.

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EQUIPMENT

Budget - Equipment

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Budget really can affect your film in many ways. The music video I worked on was shot on a Canon 5D Mark II, a stills DSLR camera which only recently have evolved movie shooting capabilities, whereas SWATH (Snow White and the Huntsman) was shot entirely on 35mm film. Canon and Nikon DSLRS are now beginning to be seen as ‘the camera to own’ espe-cially if you’re a freelance film-maker, despite the fact that they’re not actually designed for film. The extremely high quality of the foot-age, opportunity to interchange lenses, connect external monitors, fit it to virtually any tripod and having full, simple control over the depth of field really makes these cameras extremely popular. Of course, the 5D Mark II is an expen-sive camera at about £1659 each (and even more for a prime lens),

but when you think about low budget film making, you would never be able to hire a 35mm camera, let alone buy the film to go in it, get it developed and then digitally transferred, especially consider-ing that there is only lab in the whole country that still develops 35mm, this would take a long time to do. For one day of filming, an average 35mm camera costs £1250, and the film costs £404 per reel, which when filmed at 24 frames per second, only last about 11 minutes. Why spend so much money on using film when you could have fast high quality footage on a computer in only a matter of min-utes after filming as much as you like when you like on a camera that you can have for life? It’s even industry recognised, as Darren Aronofsky recently proved in his critically acclaimed film, Black Swan, which was shot on a Canon 7D, 1D Mark IV, 5D Mark II DSLRS and Super 16mm.

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FUNDING

After filmmakers pitch their film to production and funding or-ganisations, they tend to decide a budget. They would take into account the medium of filming, the location, possible big starring actors and most importantly the film’s commercial viability, whether it be in Hollywood or British art house cinemas. There are many films that have become massive hits in Hollywood that have had such a small budget. Take for example ‘The Blair Witch Project’ which had a $25,000 budget yet grossed at $248,639,099, or ‘Paranormal Activity’ which really takes it to the extreme, with a $15,000 budget, it grossed at $193,355,800. This proves that with little budget, you can really create a piece of filmmaking that is considered to be commercially popular. We then move onto films that have large budgets, yet are complete cinema ‘flops’. A film called ‘The Big Year’, featuring some famous Hollywood names,

Jack Black, Steve Martin and Owen Wilson, had a budget of $41,000,000 yet only grossed $7,410,646, an insane substantial loss of many millions of dollars. I recently watched a debut film from director Paddy Considine, ‘Tyrannosaur’ a typical gritty British drama, probably the best film I have watched over the past three years. Critically acclaimed, winning a BAFTA for best writer/directional debut and many awards at festivals for the powerful acting involved, ‘Tyrannosaur’ was made for under a million pounds. It grossed at £250,000 making the point that a film that is incredibly critically acclaimed; BAFTA winning material can eas-ily be a cinema ‘flop’. This is a typically British example, low budget, award winning, mesmerising material that won’t be re-leased into mainstream cinemas, possibly due to budget and the production companies involved.

Funding

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CONCLUSION

As a student who is very passionate about film, I like to think that if I ever become a director, or someone who is directly involved with the production of a film, that re-gardless of budget I could make something that could make a difference, not something that is dependent on purely money making. The British cinema scene is a prime example of this, we can create these outstanding

films knowing we have little budget, which in turn can effect a director’s creative decision making in a positive way. In my opinion, knowing that your budget isn’t ex-pendable really would make you start to think more about your film as a director and producer, not only in money saving ways, but in ways to appreciate the oppor-tunity and money you’ve been given.

Conclusion

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BIBLIOGRAPHY

Paranormal Activity:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paranormal_Activity

Swath:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snow_White_and_the_Huntsman

The Big Year:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Big_Year

The Blair Witch Project:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Blair_Witch_Project

Tyrannosaur:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tyrannosaur_(film)#Reception

Black Swan:http://nofilmschool.com/2010/12/darren-aronofskys-black-swan-shot-16mm/

35mm Film:http://store.kodak.com/store/ekconsus/en_US/pd/VISION3_500T_Color_Negative_Film/productID.229250100

35mm Camera Hire:http://www.aimimage.com/kit_forhire.php?group=35mm+Camera++

5D MkII:http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B001E97GIK/ref=asc_df_B001E97GIK6463026?smid=A220CV825QZ42C&tag=hydra0b-21&linkCode=asn&creative=22218&creativeASIN=B001E97GIK

Snow White and the Huntsman trailerhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=55Dq2psogSw

Genie in a Bottle music videohttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ljIW2rSykOs

Bibliography

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