What is it that costs so much about movies?

Sure, the actors needs acouple of Mil' to make their living, but other than that?
Is it the make-up, the specialeffects, renting places and such? Could you explain to me.

You already did. Cameras cost alot, traveling for the whole crew, and so on...

I guess actors are the small part, but behind the camera there is a huge army of guys and girls doing this and doing that that you have to pay!

Besides you need to pay for rights and plenty of bureaucratic stuff

As I suspected then.

People want money.

Don't forget the film itself. I did a little figuring once and I think it came up to about $80 a foot as the cost for film. Figure that every 1000ft = 10 minutes and you make a 3 hr movie and that doesn't include all the stuff you edit out or the takes that didn't make it.

And as others said, there's the crew, there's the actors, there's insurance, then there's post production and marketing costs.

Honestly, I think most people get paid waaaay too much for what they do on the film set, but hey, I never turned it down.

With new digital technology though the cost of film production can go down a bit, but not much because other than the savings on film costs, everything is pretty much the same.

Movies with big explosions require specialist crews, graphic guys, etc.

Don't forget needing money to use certain appliances, music, items etc in a movie. But also you get companies paying the makers to add in some product too.

Originally Posted by Da Skinna

Don't forget needing money to use certain appliances, music, items etc in a movie. But also you get companies paying the makers to add in some product too.

lol the goddamn ipod adds.

How stupid was that guy in blade trinity who does nothing at all except listen to an ipod and eventually die? And the stupid scene explaining how cool an ipod is. Seriously fair enough the guy is drinking coke instead of pepsi but the Ipods in movies are allways really stupid.

Good CGI. That stuff take time and talented people.

If you watch the extras on the DVDs you can get a feel for what goes on.

What costs a lot?

*cracks nuckles*

Casting, scripting, catering (important!), cameras, costuming*, film, traveling, actors, crew, post-production, advertising (that's a big one), rotoscopers, special effects artists, licensing, concept artists, executive salaries/royalties (directors, producers), petrol (of course!), stuntmen, green screen paint ($250 a bottle!), misc other salaries, and extras. Lol, I probably even missed a few things.

..the directors chair..

Think of a movie like a construction site. It takes many different skills and elements and materials to create a well designed well built structure.

catering (important!)

Yeah, you want to see a crew lose moral quick? Shirk on the food.

Which reminds me of another big cost, overtime. You push a meal for more than 15 minutes and you get into meal penalties. I think I made over a couple of hundred bucks in one day on meal penalties alone since they pushed some members of the crew into 7 meal penalties.

Then you have golden time where I believe, its been a while, you get double your rate an hour. And if you have to shoot a 6th day on a 5 day contract, the crew gets time and half the entire day, plus into their next work day to account for the turn around they missed.

I worked one job that was run so bad I made more than double my rate in overtime, time and a half, meal penalties, equipment bumps etc. And that's just one person. Imagine having to do that for an entire crew like they had to on jobs like Titanic.

I heard that they were shooting so much film on Titanic that some people were sneaking their personal short films into the labs with Titanic labels and no one noticed. But this may just be an urban myth like the PA leaving the days shot film in the cab in NY.

Don't forget bribes. And the traditional "dipping your hand into the till".

Yeah, I'm cynical.

As some has mentioned, the crew and traveling has to be expensive.

Imagine, shipping/flying a crew over from the states to f.e Morocco and shooting there, then, after some weeks, flying to Bangkok and such. Then paying hotel's, cars and such.

Making a movie can be a logistical nightmare. You have to pay the cast & crew, shelter them, transport them, feed them, etc.

And then you have to worry about where you're filming (getting a permit), the cost of film, building sets, costumes, pyrotechnics, lighting, the camera(s), and other kinds of equipment and gadgets.

There's all kinds of things to worry about. I've made a few low-budget pieces of crap (just for my own amusement), and that still costed me a few hundred bucks (for a 10 minute running length shot on digital handheld). You can only imagine a big movie production filming hundreds of hours of film over several weeks (or months even).

If you ask me, I think the scriptwriters don't get paid as much as they should. I can't really say our standards of scriptwriting is topnotch, but neither is the acting and directing.

Don't be duped by what these fools are saying.

It really only costs a few million dollars to make a movie, but some people have such costly egos that add up to hundreds of millions.

Originally Posted by Juno

Don't be duped by what these fools are saying.

It really only costs a few million dollars to make a movie, but some people have such costly egos that add up to hundreds of millions.

Originally Posted by Ramashan

Honestly, I think most people get paid waaaay too much for what they do on the film set, but hey, I never turned it down.

Agreed. But you must remember actors are like a corporation in and of themselves. I'm not saying they need millions to run their lives, but they also must pay a publicist, a secretary, an agent, an assistant, a lawyer, a manager, an accountant, the union, etc.

Last low budget film I made cost me $1500 and that included camera rental, stock, and paying all my actors. (Crew owed me favors for all the free gigs I did for them)

The most important thing is telling well composed, well thought out, story with characters an audiance is interested in watching.