One of the things we tout about is how little this film cost – but surely we spent something. So how much did this movie cost? Depends who you ask. When you have a dual-income, no kids (dinc) financial situation like my wife and I, a movie that has very few production expenses, a crew who owns and operates all of their own equipment, and software bought by your college, there’s really no reason to budget for the film. You just kinda pay for shit as it comes up. So I’d say we spent about three thousand dollars or so – that’s a guess, but that’s probably the amount we wouldn’t have spent if we didn’t make a movie (gas, food, hard drives).

But what if we made the movie from scratch, and bought every piece of equipment we ultimately used, and accounted for everything (excluding salaries, I’m just talking about raw, necessary expenses)? Check out the break down below:

NOTE: You’ll notice this doesn’t account for festival submissions and DVD/Blu-ray dupes and mailers, which I’ve already spent a few hundred dollars on.

Camera Equipment:

2 Canon 7D camera bodies at $1350 each:     $2700.00

50mm 1.4 lens:     $350.00

17-55 EFS 2.8 Lens:     $875.00

10-22 3.5-4.5 Lens:     $650.00

Canon 24-70mm f2.8 EF:     $1,330.00

Canon 16-35 f2.8 EF:     $1,550.00

Canon 70-200 f2.8 IS EF USM:     $1,930.00

Canon LC-E6 Battery Charger:     $60.00

Kingston 16GB CF Card:     $38.00

Kingston 8GB CF Card (2x):     $44.00

Lowel Pro-Light Focus Flood:     $130.00

Lowel Omni-Light 500w:     $160.00

LowelTota-Light 750w:     $135.00

250 watt bulb for the Pro-Light:     $20.00

500 watt bulb for the Omni-Light:     $20.00

750 watt bulb for the Tota-Light:     $17.00

1000 watt Westcott Softbox:     $150.00

Flexfill Arm:     $50.00

Flexfill:     $87.00

Light Stands (2x):     $50.00

RoscoCalColor Kit:     $45.00

FlyCam 5000 Stabilization Kit:     $350.00

Glidecam HD 2000:     $450.00

IndieSLIDERmini Deluxe:     $150.00

0055xdb Bogen Tripod:     $192.00

Manfrotto ART-351 with 116 Head:     $400.00

Supplies to Build Homemade Zacuto Rig:     $36.00

Port-a-Brace Camera Bags:     $165.00

3 16GB Sandisk Compact Flash Cards at $40 each:     $120.00

2 8GB Sandisk Compact Flash Cards at $30 each:     $60.00

Canon LP-E6 Battery Pack:     $67.00

Additional Battery:     $13.00

Audio Equipment

Edirol R-44 Portable Recorder:     $735.00
2 Sennheiser HD202 Headphones     $120.00
3 Sennheiser K6 Power Bases and ME66, ME67, and 2x MKE-2 Microphones:     $1400.00
3 Sennheiser EW100-ENG wireless lapel kits:     $1200.00
XLR cables:     $60.00
Lightwave boom pole:     $139.00

Post Production

2 1.5TB USB Hard Drives at $110.00 each:     $220.00

All software will be used at Emerson College and hardware will be personal computers.

Travel

All locations are in the Boston or Southeastern Massachusetts areas, so travel will be done entirely by car. Travel expenses will only include gas.     $300.00

Food

Food will mostly be wholesale snacks and pasta dinners for post-shooting.     $250.00.

Locations

Bus reservation     $125.00

Costumes and Props $200.00.

Cast and Crew

All cast and crew are volunteer and non-union.

Total: $17,143.00

But, yeah. We didn’t pay that. We had social capital biznatches! So, thankfully, we didn’t have to set up a Kickstarter, with an $18,000 goal, where we raise $1300 and have a dead grandparent pay the rest…not that that’s every happened.