Looking to shoot with 16mm or 35mm - cost?
 

I am looking at a 8-10 min piece shot on 16mm/35mm colour stock film. This is going to be distributed on DVD.
So what are my cost involved in such a project? I am looking to come up with a round estimate figure for the people involved. I have a DOP already, I am going to be directing and we have the actors already taken care of. What I need to know if the cost for equipment rental (average per day), film stock, film developing - and lastly, is it feasible to edit it on an NLE after it is shot to cut down on costs? What are the downsides to this? Thanks, I know alot of questions!

I don't have any numbers to share but you're going to find film is many, many times the cost of DV and 35mm is much more expensive than 16mm. For a 10 minute finished film you're going to need to shoot several times that length of raw stock. At 24 frames per second, 16mm film runs at 36 feet per minute while 35mm burns 90 feet per minute. 10 min running time, even if you get a shooting ratio of 1:1 (very unlikely), that translates into 360 feet of 16mm film and 900 feet of stock in 35mm. Then there's lab, telecine, etc. Even at a price of, say, $5.00 per foot you can do the math. Sure you don't want to shoot on video?

Steve is right, film is pricey. If you want to shoot on it though, don't let anyone talk you out of it as nothing looks like it when you have a great DoP.

That being said, there are deals that can be had for re-cans and package deals. Bono Film(www.bonofilm.com) has deals on 400 foot loads, developing, prepping and transfer to either mini-dv or hard-drive for as low as $230. Better deals can be found if you shop around, but Bono makes it convenient.

Camera rental will run from $300 to $400 per day for an Aaton XTR, which is about the best you can get as far as Super-16 goes, with about a three day week. Of course lesser cams can be had for less and 35 will run you twice as much. A good lens will run about $200, give or take as well, but the experience of shooting film is well worth the trouble, and some may even say, make your project more marketable.

Hope this helps.

Tim

Yes, this is helping. I am trying to get Canadian amounts for this - so I might have to phone around Toronto and see...