Budget Costs for Documentary Films

Video Transcript

"Budget is a thing to consider because you know, you have to you know get the camera and that's going to cost you some money. Lights are going to cost you some money. The audio is going to cost you money. So you know there might be a couple thousand dollars right there, and then you have to figure out well is the documentary going to be a local or is it going to be a national, because if it's local all you just have to spend money on gas. That's your budget, and tape stock and all that. So it isn't like you're flying across the country and stuff. So I would say for the first documentary keep it like local. Keep it within your same state because that will really, you know, keep your budget down. Because you know you don't want to spend a ton of money on this because you're not going to make a lot of money, and that's the thing with a budget is, you know, if you're in this for making, you know, a zillion dollars, you know, thinking that you're going to make your fortune being a documentary film maker, well, you know, do something else because the only reason you're really doing this is because you want to be a film maker and you really want to make a project. It doesn't, the money you know will come down the line, but it's kind of extraneous and not your number one driving force, but at the same time you want to save as much money as you can, you know, making this thing. So the budget, you know, try not to spend any money on this thing. If you can get stuff for free, get stuff for free, but really I would recommend, you know, doing a local documentary, you know, and there's tons of subjects, you know, tons of subjects."