Hi everyone, I'm seeking advice for costing and development on a documentary project I'm looking to develop with an interesting renewable energy project. The organisation I will be working with is part local government, part community trust and has links with industry.
It has funding to provide low cost energy to people in social housing and there is an opportunity to film installation of huge new generation equipment from start to finish - including plenty of revealing technical insights and social commentary from people who will benefit in the community etc - over the period of about a year.
Filming would take place probably one day of every week over that year period. Local and national firms involved with the project could potentially pay for the filming up front, so funding may not be a problem. I estimate 52 days of filming, 26 days of editing (too little?)
Local and national firms would receive short films in return for their investment that would highlight their input to the project (justifying their investment). The local gov/trust would receive their own promotional videos and documentary, plus the aim of filming is also to end up with a one hour documentary at the end of the project that could be pitched to national networks and digital channels (BBC, BBC4, C4, Discovery, etc).
My first step is to estimate the up front cost of production. I'm costing low in my head at about £250 ($400) per day. At 78 days (filming and editing) that would be around £20,000 ($31,000), then any money made from selling the film on to a network would be mine following the end of production.
Cameras would be an HD semi-pro camcorder (Sony NEX), HD compact (Sony RX100), GoPro-style cams, and a Sony Z1, though I am open to suggestion and could hire in kit if anyone thought 4K or another standard should be a consideration. I am pretty sure BBC would happily accept 1080i footage, so the Z1 is a solid go-to here (again, suggestions would be gratefully accepted). One or two man shoots will be standard here - shooter director style.
Any advice people can give me on development, costing or cam set ups for documentary shooting would be gratefully received. Thank you in advance for any help you can give me.
Rob.
It has funding to provide low cost energy to people in social housing and there is an opportunity to film installation of huge new generation equipment from start to finish - including plenty of revealing technical insights and social commentary from people who will benefit in the community etc - over the period of about a year.
Filming would take place probably one day of every week over that year period. Local and national firms involved with the project could potentially pay for the filming up front, so funding may not be a problem. I estimate 52 days of filming, 26 days of editing (too little?)
Local and national firms would receive short films in return for their investment that would highlight their input to the project (justifying their investment). The local gov/trust would receive their own promotional videos and documentary, plus the aim of filming is also to end up with a one hour documentary at the end of the project that could be pitched to national networks and digital channels (BBC, BBC4, C4, Discovery, etc).
My first step is to estimate the up front cost of production. I'm costing low in my head at about £250 ($400) per day. At 78 days (filming and editing) that would be around £20,000 ($31,000), then any money made from selling the film on to a network would be mine following the end of production.
Cameras would be an HD semi-pro camcorder (Sony NEX), HD compact (Sony RX100), GoPro-style cams, and a Sony Z1, though I am open to suggestion and could hire in kit if anyone thought 4K or another standard should be a consideration. I am pretty sure BBC would happily accept 1080i footage, so the Z1 is a solid go-to here (again, suggestions would be gratefully accepted). One or two man shoots will be standard here - shooter director style.
Any advice people can give me on development, costing or cam set ups for documentary shooting would be gratefully received. Thank you in advance for any help you can give me.
Rob.