A new year, another pre-production update

Halloween.  Thanksgiving.  Christmas, New Years Eve.  And Sixufus is still in pre-production.  Like all things announced, it runs the risk of never happening.

Sometimes delays like these are staff-based, as in we can't find the folks to do the work.  But that's not the case this time:  Maurice has identified and recruited all his actors.  And his production and post-production staff, a team that Moe has worked with before, are in place and eager to take on the challenges presented by Sixufus.

The problem in this case is the stereotypical indie problem:  The almighty dollar.  Or lack thereof.

So even though the script was written with a goal of being a zero-budget shoot, money must still be found for various and sundry items.  To wit:

The Shoot
Locations, meals, props, time.  Though Sixufus has a bare minimum of these, they still require an outlay.  Even if someone is willing to turn their apartment over to wacky indie filmmakers for a couple of weeks, the talent and crew still need a burger and the accompanying fries.  Let's say one meal for 8 people for 2 weeks:  At the wildly unrealistic 5 bucks a head, you still need (8 * 14) * $5, or $560.  Too bad that stuff doesn't grow on trees.

The On-screen Talent

The actors in our production are undeniably talented, but also undeniably members of a union.  The Screen Actors Guild, to be precise.  If Maurice wants to work with the actors in his town, he has to pay cold hard cash to the on-screen talent of this production.  That, or be blackballed for life; unable to hire a SAG actor again.  (And just to be clear, most actors are, or are aspiring to be, SAG affiliated.)  This is not an option, but a reality.

The Off-screen Talent

Maurice's team is made up from folks in Austin and Spain.  Austin, as in Texas; and Spain, as in Europe.  Getting to LA, on time and with all their gear in tow, is not going to be cheap.

Realistically?  A 0-budget feature-length film needs some money.  Sure, you hear of guys producing $70 movies, but that number is not an accurate accounting metric of the assets used to produce it.  Cameras, lights, microphones, software, hardware; plus the time and expertise to use them, has a financial value.  As an indie filmmaker, the question is "What can you trade to use them?"  Burger King won't trade fries for video editing favors.  Typically.

So, to tackle this goal, Maurice has generated a budget and is eliciting interest amongst his contacts in LA.  Only a matter of time, really, until someone sees the value of the team and project, and ponies up for a slice of the pie.

Pre-production: Concept, Part 2

So how do you make a feature-length movie with little or no money?  'Spen done and written about, most famously by Robert Rodriquez.  Basically, you use what you have, beg and borrow what you don't.  Production resources, I'm talking about.  

With that in mind, started thinking about the cheapest kind of production you can have.  Or I could have, specifically. Minimum locations for starters (so you don't spend time carting your equipment all over the planet).  Mostly interior (so you're not slave to the weather or the time of day).  Small cast (so you don't... OK, you're getting it).  Zero number of things I can't do myself, like model and animate Godzilla, or shoot at the Eiffel Tower.

And still be interesting to watch.  

Taking all those factors, and then munging them whilest I slept, I concluded that we should do something noirish.  You know; crime & punishment, passion, bad guys and bad girls with guns and lethal weapons, and a lot of money involved.  With a psychological angle.  (Hey, I majored in Psychology in school.  That needs to pay off somehow.)

So that's how Sixufus was born.  

[Well, if you want to get technical, "Sixufus" was just a word that popped in my head while driving to Starbuck's one morning.  Wasn't quite awake yet, really.] 

Up next:  What's Sixufus, and how far along are we?