The cost of making Flood Bound
January 2012
To date I have invested about 120 hours of my own time, and about 40 hours of donated time from other videographers to make this film. The time has included shooting video, conducting interviews, scheduling interviews, researching and collecting photos and videos taken by other community members, editing the trailer and building the Flood Bound web site.
I hope to conduct another 15 interviews over two more days. The next step is to log all the interviews and footage. With over 35 interviews and hours of other footage, it will take me over 40 hours to simply watch it all. Next the edit begins. I estimate that will take between 200 and 400 hours.
Expenses are few, but they do add up. To store all the media and have proper back up of the files I will need at least 3 sets of drives holding 3 terabytes each (one for me to edit, one for my collaborating editor to edit from, and one for a safe back up). There will be music rights. I hope to broadcast the film on Vermont Public Television and enter it in festivals, rights for broadcast music can easily cost a few thousand dollars. I may need voice over talent and studio time for narration. I have been able to use my own equipment for this project including a full HD broadcast camera set up with audio gear and lights, and my edit studio. Lastly there are day to day expenses like lunch and mileage for the volunteer crew.
If time and equipment were not donated, the film would cost between $35,000 and $40,000.
My actual out of pocket expenses will end up being between $4,000 and $5,000.
I am happy to give some of my time to make this film, but I do have to balance that against time it takes from family and paying work. Any donation will help to offset that. $10 buys lunch for a volunteer crew. $50 makes a big dent in the cost of a hard drive. And all donations let me know that people are behind this project and want to see it done.
Thank you.
To date I have invested about 120 hours of my own time, and about 40 hours of donated time from other videographers to make this film. The time has included shooting video, conducting interviews, scheduling interviews, researching and collecting photos and videos taken by other community members, editing the trailer and building the Flood Bound web site.
I hope to conduct another 15 interviews over two more days. The next step is to log all the interviews and footage. With over 35 interviews and hours of other footage, it will take me over 40 hours to simply watch it all. Next the edit begins. I estimate that will take between 200 and 400 hours.
Expenses are few, but they do add up. To store all the media and have proper back up of the files I will need at least 3 sets of drives holding 3 terabytes each (one for me to edit, one for my collaborating editor to edit from, and one for a safe back up). There will be music rights. I hope to broadcast the film on Vermont Public Television and enter it in festivals, rights for broadcast music can easily cost a few thousand dollars. I may need voice over talent and studio time for narration. I have been able to use my own equipment for this project including a full HD broadcast camera set up with audio gear and lights, and my edit studio. Lastly there are day to day expenses like lunch and mileage for the volunteer crew.
If time and equipment were not donated, the film would cost between $35,000 and $40,000.
My actual out of pocket expenses will end up being between $4,000 and $5,000.
I am happy to give some of my time to make this film, but I do have to balance that against time it takes from family and paying work. Any donation will help to offset that. $10 buys lunch for a volunteer crew. $50 makes a big dent in the cost of a hard drive. And all donations let me know that people are behind this project and want to see it done.
Thank you.