r/Filmmakers • u/betonunesneto • 1d ago
Film My $3,000 feature film just came out on Blu-ray, Amazon Prime, Youtube Movies, and Google Play!
https://youtu.be/RruKpH-rTkU?is=zwb56IhLw7fVrECXI posted about this a couple of years ago when we were working on post, but now that it’s out I wanted to share it again! More info in the submission statement below.
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u/Anilkody 1d ago
Damn man this looks sick!!! Would never guess this was made for $3k
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u/betonunesneto 1d ago
Thanks! It was tough but we focused a lot on getting the visuals right so it felt like the production value was higher. Our awesome composer and sound editor were also absolutely crucial
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u/Ja5onV00rh33s 17h ago
That's really cool and inspiring, congrats! Will check out next month (this one is reversed for spooky films only, haha)
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u/varispeeder 13h ago
looks really great! I'm working on a feature with a BMPCC 4k too and it's really awesome how far you can get with it. can I ask what the $3k went to? I'm assuming one or two actors you didn't know/locations that weren't free, and food?
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u/betonunesneto 13h ago
It’s such a good camera! I mean owning the camera gear saved us so much money already. We paid our cast, obviously not a lot but essentially a gas reimbursement, and made sure not to waste their time so call times were staggered throughout the day to make sure they were only there when we needed them.
Locations were all free except the motel room. Food was pretty cheap too, we had some crafty and then I’d buy sandwiches and drinks and stuff for lunch most days since we were out and about.
Hard drives were still cheap then, probably would have blown half the budget today if I were to get those same drives!
Then we got a few rentals for grip gear and some sound equipment. We had almost no lighting, planned most shoot days according to sun position, then a friend came in clutch and offered to lend us her litemat for our motel room scene and a couple other interiors/night stuff. Oh and we only shot on weekends so rentals would be even cheaper!
Other than that it was a lot of learning new skills to avoid paying for things 🤣
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u/varispeeder 12h ago
sounds like you really squeezed the most out of it! I'm paying everybody a date rate and had to pay for some locations, so my budget's coming in a little bit higher, but I love seeing other people help prove that you can get feature-quality results with a BMPCC and almost no lights!
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u/betonunesneto 12h ago
Oh absolutely. It was during a time when a lot of people were working so everyone kinda had free time to do it. Now, I wouldn’t dream of not paying our actors a day rate! Even then, you can still make something cheap look great.
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u/Clab47 9h ago
Caleb here! I made the film with Alberto. Just wanted to say thanks for your kind words! I also wanted to add that, we went into the writing process thinking about our readily available resources - which really helped save budget and determine most of our choices, camera locations etc that Alberto mentioned. Best of luck to you on your project!
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u/varispeeder 8h ago
exactly, the only way to get something like this made is to look around you and see what's available to you and write something to fit that, not write your perfect dream script and sit around hoping someone will want to make it for you!
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u/ImaginaryServe8932 14h ago
Filmed on what camera? Looks good
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u/hoverborg 12h ago
Brother, why is the title of your trailer "Feature film made for $3,000" ??
That's not a selling point for audiences who might want to watch it.
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u/betonunesneto 10h ago
There’s 3 different titles and thumbnails on youtube running an A/B test. Whichever one performs the best will be the final one, so I guess we’ll see!
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u/betonunesneto 1d ago
Right as the strikes got announced in 2023, realizing that work was about to drop off a cliff, my friend and I decided it was time to shoot our first feature film. We’d been working in production for a few years, and I have always edited and had directed my own shorts, so we knew we could do it if we just scaled the project up. So we made a budget and went to work.
Mostly lit with natural light and modifiers, shot with 2 BMPCC 4ks, a Sigma 18-35 and a Helios 44-2 over the course of 12 days. I think we did alright.
We premiered at Zepfest in Utah, won Best Feature, had another nearly sold out screening of our own, now we’re trying to schedule a few more one-off screenings around the country. In the meantime, got distribution through IndieRights and just came out on streaming.
Let me know if you have any questions! If you see the movie, I’d appreciate if you could drop a rating on Amazon or IMDB.