My first film was mostly self-funded with little bits and pieces thrown in. I only made $25,000 a year at the time and spent every spare dime I had on buying equipment just to make the film possible. It took over a year to gather it all, and renting wasn't an option or borrowing. I lived in a town of 1200 and anything I bought was based on online reviews and whatever I could dig up.
The film was in the can for that $25,000 because nobody was paid, and we shot the film many days spread out over a year. Actors wore their own clothes, no makeup, we shot in locations we got for free, and the actors weren't even actors they were friends/family.
I was producer, writer, director, dp, editor, colorist, web designer, graphic designer, marketing guy, dvd authoring, etc. The only jobs left open were composing and the final mix which I got done later and were paid. I did have a gaffer on set who also held boom and actors carried what they could. It was a 2 man crew almost every day...hard work.
I did have to spend more to finish the film (like I said music/final mix) but doing so much in house kept everything free. A credit card was used eventually but only $5000 or so which was paid off before the film came out. A little investment here/there to finish up some lose ends and get the initial DVD copies made, but those were all paid back before the film came out.
This IS possible folks. The profits on the film have been substantial and we've done well across the board after being out over 15 months or so. We just came out on Cable VOD and online VOD, with TV Broadcast coming in late Spring 2012, national RedBox release, and we've been on DVD in over a dozen foreign countries with more coming.
Self-funding a project is risky, but self-funding a project that can't sell is even riskier, and most don't give that a thought. We all want to make our art, but we need to eat too. Make something targeted at a market you can sell in, and make it good enough to sell. Don't spend your life savings hoping to strike it rich. Anyone of us who reaches success is likely to stay in the 6-figure business, so keep that in mind. Know what other examples are out there in the market you're going for, and what they spent, and how they did. Shoot conservatively, not stupidly. Also, the more you can do yourself, the better off you are getting your foot in the door and getting started. The less fingers in the pie on the backend (if any) the better off you are because any profit that DOES come in, you want to keep that.
Next time I do a film, I look forward to getting some investment money but I'm still keeping it sub $100,000 for now, and I'll be paying people on the film but pushing as much money as I can to the production side, not the post-production or pre-production side where I can have a lot of muscle without the need to pay others. Marketing I specialize in now for others, so I can do a lot of that myself, but sometimes there's capital needed regardless not for people but for ads themselves. Knowing where/when to push that money is key, and I"m happy to be doing well in that regard.
It's not all a crapshoot, but it's not an exact science either. Bottom line no matter who's money you're spending, know your audience, know your end use, study the market, study your film, and if they don't match up...you're in trouble. Get it right while it's still words on a page, and you'll be better off then most of the yahoo's out there trying to give this a shot.
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Peace!
So targeting that stamp could well make the leap for us from hobbyists who have gone through the process of learning the craft over the last 8 years to career filmmakers