‘Anyone There?’ – A Micro-budget Production
Budget Analysis
The script as is written poses some significant challenges to budget. In order to make the film more viable for a micro-budget, there are some key changes required.
The first challenge is the location, the difficulties of which are detailed by P. Hardy in Filming on a Micro-budget. As per the script, the shoot would take place on a desert road without public interference and a large manor. Bearing in mind Hardy’s suggestions, some the of the difficulties in finding an appropriate location may include that the site itself would likely be expensive to rent, may entail costs related to permissions and permits, would need to be a considerable distance from the city in order to meet the requisite visual qualities thereby entailing travel and accommodation expenses, and/or safety officer requirement for shooting beside a public road. Shooting across multiple locations and therefore days may be required in order to achieve both roadside and manor scenes, therefore multiplying fees associated with extending the production timeline (hire costs, staff costs, accommodation costs, etc.). In order to mediate these expenses, the shooting location could instead be a South-West coast Australian house. These houses are within 1-2 hours of Perth city, are not open to public access nor near main roads, are inexpensive to rent per night, serve as accommodation and often have long private driveways. While these houses reside within lush bush locations, and therefore would not match the aesthetics of the script, it would allow for shooting to take place entirely on one location, minimising many of the aforementioned costs and increasing production efficiency.
The second challenge imposed by this script is related to the impact of sound requirements upon both production and post-production, the expense of which was discussed extensively during classes. The script involves a considerable amount of audio which would need to be recorded either on site or by a foley artist; the sounds of the fuel tank, ticking watches and bike bells. Further to this, quality effects such as footsteps, doors opening and closing, clothing rustling, breath and buzz track will be required in order to sell the remoteness of the location and support the suspense of the film. By removing those aspects of the script which require particular sound effects, particularly the bike bell, watch and doors opening, the amount of time and thus cost associated with sound production could be reduced.
Lighting considerations may be another means by which this film’s budget can be minimised. Should one use natural light sources in tandem with reflectors and diffusers as opposed to artificial light then this film could be produced to a high visual and stylistic standard without needing to hire lighting equipment. A lighting assistant would be required, however the total cost of lighting would be significantly reduced.
There are some other measures which may be taken to further minimise costs; lack of music would nullify licensing/commissioning expenses, an actor could be employed under a performance for reel footage agreement, blocking out windows for interior scenes would allow them to be produced at any time of day thereby shortening the production schedule, set dressings may be able to be sourced for free from verge-side collections and costume duplicates could be sourced from inexpensive stores such as Best&Less.
Creative Statement
Anyone There? is an emotionally complex and intensely suspenseful thriller that examines the interplay between memory warping, guilt and the experience of emotional trauma. I propose some key adaptations that will both reduce the cost of production processes and support the emotional complexities of the film.
Michel J. Duthin’s original script calls for a middle-aged, overweight man. While this is a reasonable choice within the film thematics, as it allows for the piece to explore the experience of fatherhood in terms of retrospection and emotional turbulence, the specificity of the script limits the casting choices significantly. Instead, this character could be cast as a 20-something individual. This would come with some considerable changes to the implications of the script; where the man visits what one is led to assume is his child’s former bedroom, engage with outdated relics of his own family and reminisce on his experience of fatherhood, the protagonist would instead be visiting their childhood bedroom. As opposed to reminiscing on an outdated family life from the perspective of a maturing father the lead would instead be doing so from the perspective of an adult who has outgrown their childhood. This would allow the film to consider the experience of familial estrangement that comes with growing into adulthood. Although not reflecting those ideas which arise from the representation of fatherhood, such still aligns with the core of the film’s themes and allows for the film to express and utilise psychologies of memory warping and emotional trauma with respect to familial life, however does so through the lens of an experience which is more universal and therefore appeals to a greater audience diversity.
The production of this film, instead of being a manor down an abandoned country road, would take place on the common mid-century Australian houses of South-Western Australia. These houses, seen in the likes of Breathe (2018), are typically outdated and somewhat decrepit in appearance. In these houses being architecturally outdated, the use of these kinds of locations further supports the idea that the protagonist is revisiting a previous time. Where the character is cast as a youthful individual, the dissonance in the age of the protagonist and that of their environment creates a sense of temporal displacement that makes ideas of revisitation and memory blatant, thereby supporting the examination of memory warping within the film.
The film is to be produced so as to be dependent upon natural light and use of reflectors/diffusers to create a surreal yet authentic visual appearance. The use of predominantly natural light sources (ie. outdoor lighting, candles, etc.) borrows from photographic techniques seen in the works of artists such as Petra F. Collins; by using natural light and several reflectors, subjects are made to appear luminous and with an almost unrealistic clarity that distinguishes them clearly from a purely naturally lit background. This lends images produced in this way a dream-like appearance. Where the film’s concerns are trauma, re-memory and memory warping, the use of this lighting technique and the surreal visual qualities it produces would emphasise further enhance the presentation of a partial reality being experienced largely through memory and, in being visually unusual and therefore unsettling, would support atmospheric tension.
(Petra F. Collins: reflector use)
Reflection
While it has been easy to consider budgets in a very vague and hypothetical sense during tutorials and class discussions, having to apply these discussions was a valuable learning exercise for it revealed to me that there are particular aspects of production costs which are more interrelated than I had realised, and how these interrelated costs drive the expense of production up rapidly. I came to realise this when considering the location requirements of the film and how such may extended the production schedule, initially in isolation (ie. hiring out locations and location permits), however quickly found myself also considering the immediate secondary costs of location such (eg. transport and/or accommodation), then soon thereafter tertiary costs (eg. equipment hire and staff costs). This process involved me combining the class discussions on the costs of individual aspects of production in a pragmatic sense which, ultimately, revealed to me that one of the most effective ways to economise film production is to minimise the amount of time a film spends in production.
In a more general sense, applying vague and hypothetical knowledge was a considerable challenge when completing this assessment as I found that it was difficult to evaluate the potential production costs and feasibility of a micro-budget for this film. While I realise that production costs vary to the extent that it is not reasonable to discuss them in specific terms, I was unable to quantify and therefore decisively analyse production economics. While I worked around this for this assignment by approaching my discussion in the same way as our class discussions, I wasn’t able to fill this gap in my knowledge during my completion of this assignment.
Working with Anyone There? has made me aware of the importance of simplicity when composing a film piece for a micro-budget; the more simple a script it, the fewer the production variables and the less likely costs are to accumulate beyond an affordable budget. Moving forward, simplicity will be a cornerstone consideration.
REFERENCES
Breathe. (2018). [film] Australia.
Hardy, P. (2012). Filming on a Microbudget. Harpenden: Oldcastle Books. pp. 36-70
