3 posts tagged “costs”

YouTube is on track to lose $470 million in 2009.  Estimated operating costs = $711 million.  $360 million of that is on bandwidth costs.  In short, YouTube is bleeding a LOT of money.

Still, that probably doesn't make you feel any better about the cost of your own webisode...

Susan Ee
www.feraldream.com

According to Entertainment Weekly, the average cost to make and market a Hollywood film in 2006 was $100 million. 

I've been asked to put together a budget for a feature film and so I've been calling around trying to find out how much things cost.  Yes, there are such things as pre-made budgets with sample estimates.  That's where I started but it's different in every town and for every script and since this will be a low-budget film, I thought I should get a better idea of how much it would really cost...

WRONG! 

It turns out that everything is negotiable when it comes to movies and nobody likes to come right out and say a price.  This can work for you or against you, depending on who you're talking to, how comfortable you are negotiating and also, like everything else in life, how charming you can be.  Sometimes, there's the stated price on a vendor's website.  But when you call them and spend about 60 seconds with the vendor on the phone, you'll realize that you MIGHT be able to negotiate them down to 80%, 60%, 30%, and yes, even down to $0.  I emphasize the word MIGHT because they offer that tantalizing possibility without actually committing.  I don't blame them because in order to budget for a film, you'd call them months in advance.  But what if they get someone who's willing to pay full price between now and then for the same time slot?  A lot of things can happen in 6 months.  So instead of giving you an estimate, they hem and haw and tell you their favorite movies and chat about their family and in the meantime, they're feeling you out and you're feeling them out... and in the end, you walk away with very few numbers and a gut feeling (or an outright promise) that they'll consider a "fair and genuine" offer when the time comes. 

So how do you know what's a fair offer if you don't know what the market rate is?  You don't.  You guess.  This is the ultimate free market where it's fair when the two of you agree that it's fair.

Do you have to negotiate?  No.  You can pay the price on the website.  But you won't be making a movie.  On a low-budget film, it's negotiate or watch your project get eaten alive by out of control costs.  So today's lesson is:  if you're not the negotiating type, team up with someone who is.  And may the force be with you.