New film!!!

[Dleo]

We've made a new film!!! Most was shot on A Sony NEX VG10, but some was shot using the Canon HV20 -- We moved up a bit to the Sony, but we still love the HV20, and we used it for all kinds of shots!!!

The Movie: Demon Equation
runningtime: 99 minutes
genre:horror

Site: http://demonequation.com/

We are premiering it to the public at the Farmington Civic Theatre on 11-11-11 a suburb outside of Detroit michigan. at 9pm tickets are $8 dollars. If your in the area please come by and check it out.

If you're not in the area-- then please check out our poster and TEASER/TRAILER at the Demon Equation WEBsite. Please let us know what you think of them.

Dleo

[Almohada]

What was the budget?

[Dleo]

I'm interested in answering your question, but before i do what is your best guess of our budget?

Just to see what it looks like to you

[Almohada]

$200 - $250

[Daniel Rutter]

I would say $1000 or so, but your DOP needs to be fired. He has no sense of how to 1a) light a scene, or 1b) Use the natural light to his advantage. He also can't frame a shot to look cinematic. This doesn't help the "production value" of your film, and it infact looks very cheesy and very low budget because of this.

[Dleo]

your DOP needs to be fired

More than a thousand!

I'm the writer,DP, Director, Editor of this film. Please Daniel--let me know how you would have shot these shots differently, so next time I won't make the same mistake.

This was meant to really be a teaser--with a trailer coming some time after the premiere.-- I know-- I should have gotten done with the trailer by now, but I'm still working on CGI elements. and we premiere the film in 2 weeks.

Dleo

[Albien]

Hi Dleo,
I am not in the michigan so I will check your poster and TEASER/TRAILER at the Demon Equation website later and will comment on your film soon. Hope you are getting house full for your movie.

[Dleo]

Thanks Albien,

We had an almost sold out crowd! The reactions to the film even surprised us!! People were generally excited about the film when it ended! We got a standing ovation from the crowd, and they clapped for quite a few minutes when it was over. That FELT GREAT!! We feel great about the film.

Dleo

[Gillvane]

First off congrats on making a feature. I think it's a big accomplishment and I respect anyone that pulls it off regardless of the genre of the movie they make, the budget, etc.

I thought the trailer was odd. It's a lot of shots of dialogue, which I can't hear, and instead there is a sound track. Why am I looking at people talking, when I can't hear what they are saying? I could be wrong but I don't think I've ever seen that technique in a trailer for a theatrical release.

What source did you use for music?

[Almohada]

So, what was the budget?

[Albien]

Hi Dleo,
Congratulations on getting your film successful and you must be flying in skies.
When will you release your second film!

[Dleo]

I thought the trailer was odd. It's a lot of shots of dialogue, which I can't hear, and instead there is a sound track. Why am I looking at people talking, when I can't hear what they are saying? I could be wrong but I don't think I've ever seen that technique in a trailer for a theatrical release.

What source did you use for music?

First off, I like the teaser/trailer. I was trying to show emotions, and show a bit about what to expect from the movie. I will cut another trailer soon.

As for the music, our producer, make-up artist and composer all the same person by the way-- composed the music from scratch!!! Using a PC, and a midi set-up.

[Dleo]

Congratulations on getting your film successful and you must be flying in skies.
When will you release your second film!

Demon Equation is our second film!! Our first film was "Shadow of Crime" Check out the trailer here!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ig0HgDFFgMs

[Dleo]

So, what was the budget?

More than $200-$250, we had SAG actors, and we paid them through SAG.

[sasquatch]

The film looks pretty well done for a low budget. How did you raise the funds for the SAG actors? Aren't they at least $100 a day each? I'm trying to make a film, and this seems to be the biggest obstacle. I've done tons of work myself and have considered my work as part hobby/ part hoped for return someday, but to get others to work on a SPEC. basis seems to be running into a few roadblocks and may be very unrealistic.

[Dleo]

When thinking about going SAG, and with very little money 2 very important things need to be considered...We learned this the hard way!
1) There is a deposit which ends up being about whatever your salary ends up being--plus pension and agent fees, so your whole salary plus another 25%.
example: if your total salary on the ultra-lowbudget contract is $100 a day for say, just your main actors--lets say there's 3 SAG main actors which will work for say 14days that's $4200, before you can even start shooting you need to give SAG there deposit which would be $5250 plus you have to show SAG you have the salary in the bank--which would be $4200, so before you start shooting you will need $9,650, and you haven't shot one second of your film yet. But you’re a SAG signatory film now. You will get the deposit back in a few months if you do everything correctly. We did everything correctly we needed to get our deposit back!

2) The paper work is archaic at best, and it is not user friendly, and you will have to give SAG there deliverables (basically everything about the film, script, company info, budget, and schedule). You must keep really good records of everything (Weekly), and you send SAG the pay checks, and SAG distributes them to the actors. If an actor complains to SAG about anything, SAG can stop your production to investigate. We were lucky none of that happened to us.

Basically in our production we had three SAG actors, and the rest were non-SAG which by the way is only doable using the ultra-lowbudget agreement. On all other SAG contracts you have to use SAG or TAFT HARTLEY(pay SAG's going rate) to everybody.

So why go SAG, it was a big mistake! We will not use SAG for another low-budget film. It's not worth it--unless you can get a SAG actor to work for $100 a day that has a Decent box office draw.

We came to the conclusion when it was all over, that the $100 a day, sounds great on paper, but in the end it took half our budget, and it didn't end up helping us as much as we thought. Yeah the actors were good, but we could have gotten about the same performances from non-SAG actors.

We basically learned not to go SAG!

As far as raising money there is no easy answer to this. No matter what anybody tells you, raising money is the most difficult thing when it comes to making a film. How did we do it? We saved, we scrimp, we car pooled, we asked at x-mas time to get cash instead of presents, we had more taken out of our taxes--so we would get a bigger return, and we used credit cards for the rest. Try not to use credit cards--that sucks. Investors at the budget we are talking about will be very difficult to find--but if you have generous family members that's a good way to go.

So my advice is figure out how much you can save in a year, and during that time work on your script, a year will go by fast, and you will have a more polished script and money for your film.

[Dleo]

THE BUDGET without Defferrements was just over $8,000. Most of this was for SAG actors. We had about a $1000 budget for special effects. The rest was permits, food for cast and crew, etc. With defferrments it was over $12k