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Actors are usually the biggest expense, but if you know people who’ll do it for free 
Very interesting… By chance, have you ever written up a post about it? (I wouldn’t want you to have to re-tell, but I’d love to know the details)… I’ve been in a very short movie, but it was mostly waiting.
So, let’s average it out to $1 million dollars. With the usual caveats about genres and the idiosyncrasies of particular projects, about how do you think that $1M budget for a straight domestic feature-length film would be typically broken down?
What does the person funding it expect in return? Because honestly, I’d use the money throw a giant fancy party for my family & friends, pay a videographer to film it, and turn that in as my movie.
Yes.
Five figures? I have a couple of Aaton super-16 cameras that would be great for that. (Also lights, support, assorted grip gear, western dolly, skateboard dolly…)
I worked on my friend’s film First Man On Mars (2016). It was shot on super-16 (my Aaton) and Ultra-16 (my friend’s Canon Scoopic) for about $14,000.
Five figures ain’t gonna get me Nick Cage, and Nick is sorta a must for the sick, twisted feature film I’m going for. Without signing Nick Cage would Buscemi even take my call?
I don’t see Cage or Buscemi mentioned anywhere. 
I’m prettttty sure the movies Nic Cage are doing nowadays aren’t paying him anywhere close to six figures.
In fact, I suspect that he’s working for drinks lately.
Still, you may have to make it a bottle movie, with Cage in a room with a couple other actors, and most of the production should be done in less than a week. But he’ll do it.
Sure! I was an actor and helped with props and costuming on several student-made short movies when I was in high school, and had a blast. I’d love to take a crack at making a movie of my own, even (especially?) with a tiny budget.
Well, anyone can do it for ultra-cheap, but you have to skip a lot of the things that make it watchable, or decide not to pay anybody, or set it in one room, which isn’t always practical. I can leave my camera running in my living room for two hours and it would cost me nothing, but is that a movie?
$500 on the camera and $99,499.99 for tropical on-location shooting and catering.
Did you read the review?
No I didn’t, I had to head out quickly.
A budget that low means you compromise on things. It can be done, it’s easier than ever to do things on the cheap that look pretty good, but most people won’t be paid, and equipment might be lacking, and locations and costumes and effects will be simplified and messy. If you want to make a decent job of it, a low budget is typically in the hundreds of thousands, or even in the low millions. Any less and it will be a real struggle.
I know several producers who know several old school producers. If the only stipulation was to deliver “a movie” then I’m confident that goal could be achieved while siphoning off 90% of the “budget” to personal shit that could legitimately be called “essential” to the movie making process.
I don’t have access to anybody’s budget, that’s usually kept very private. But I’m sure there are many made-up examples online that will give you what you’re looking for.
There’s pre-production, which is writing, casting, location-scouting, costume design, concept art, storyboards, set design and building, props assembling crew. There’s production, with costumes, hair/make-up, camera, sound recording, lighting, standby props, 1st and 2nd AD, runners, special effects. There’s post-production, which is editing, visual effects, music, sound effects, marketing. There’s a whole bunch more. Each of those teams are made up of at least two, sometimes as many as four people, on a low budget feature. A mid- to high-budget feature often has twenty crew or more in each department.
They each have to be fed, some have to be driven or flown in, some require accommodation, some will have personal assistants. It adds up fast.
An in Hollywood, typically they inflate their prices so each resource costs that much more than in your own local area. Finding the cheapest location can alone save millions for a feature film shoot.
A typical feature film budget in Australia or New Zealand (probably UK too) that is not Hollywood funded will probably cost maximum $20m, and more often under $10m, and that is considered a decent-size. A friend of mine made a movie last year, he was aiming originally for $5m, but after struggling to find financing, he compromised multiple times to get it to $1.5m. Most of the cuts were paying people less and reducing the crew to bare-bones, while hoping to scrape up more during Post-.
Actual text conversation with producer friend…
Me:How do you pad [del]cocai[/del][personal stuff] into a movie budget again? Asking…for a friend…
Her: Haha! We’ll it’s the cowboy hat analogy. Set up the budget to be all the things it’s supposed to have. Then add in the superfluous stuff that isn’t necessarily like the actors $500 cowboy hat. As you get asked about going thru the budget start with the superfluous shit and work towards the necessary shit. Everytime something gets rejected add it to the bottom line (the most expensive and most necessary thing) and you get everything you want
Me: I’m not sure I follow. Are you considering the [personal shit] necessary shit or not?
Her:The point is you just lie about how much the important shit costs.
Me: Ok, I figured that much. So the $500 hat is really $10+$490 of [personal shit], right?
Her:No. The hat is all [del]coca[/del][personal stuff] and the camera budget goes up by 500$ when they say no to the hat!
Me: ha! Love it!
Her: Thanks [name redacted]!
Me:Next question, for an ultra low budget (>$100k) that you cared nothing about and your only stipulation was that you delivered “an movie”, what percentage of the budget could you siphon off to [personal shit]or other personal things and then legitimately claim as essential to the movie making process? I was talking outta my ass on that there internets and said 90%.
Her:Depends on all of the other participants, but if you pulled a [mutual scumbag friend name redacted] production, maybe 40% but then you could also keep 20% to pay yourself and your necessary cohorts
Me: so 60ish %?
Her:Yeah. Might be able to shank that more but it depends on the type of movie. Closer to 90% if it’s a talking heads drama/doc. Anything w actual cinemagraphic or visual or acting dependant motif closer to 60%
Me: ������ I’ll leave names out when I retell this.
Her: Don’t share my trade secrets asshat!!
Me: Bahahaha! What’s it worth to you!??
Her: I won’t tell you how to hide the bodies if you don’t adhere to my policy
Me: which bodies?
…aaaand let’s just leave it there.
I’m not sure if it works like that everywhere.
Of course not. It’s just an example of what CAN happen and still be considered funds ONLY for a movie.
Man, it disappoints me if a $100m budget could be 60% spurious sneaky bullshit.