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Need good source for budgets of certain films


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Hello, I was watching Pieces of April, directed by Peter Hedges.

The movie is a character driven drama, shot in 16 days, with two Sony DSR-PD150's, transferred to 35mm and cost, according to Hedges commentary for $7million.

 

It stared Katie Holmes, Oliver Platt, and Patricia Clarkson. Hedges talks about this movie being so small, and how the actors all wanted to be in it for reasons other than money. It looks very low budget, so why would it cost 7million? I'd really like to know the inside story or see the budgets of films like these and I’d like to find a website that lists the budgets of independent movies. Can any of you direct me?

Thanks Craig Tarry

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Hello, I was watching Pieces of April, directed by Peter Hedges.

The movie is a character driven drama, shot in 16 days, with two Sony DSR-PD150's, transferred to 35mm and cost, according to Hedges commentary for $7million.

 

It stared Katie Holmes, Oliver Platt, and Patricia Clarkson. Hedges talks about this movie being so small, and how the actors all wanted to be in it for reasons other than money. It looks very low budget, so why would it cost 7million? I'd really like to know the inside story or see the budgets of films like these and I’d like to find a website that lists the budgets of independent movies. Can any of you direct me?

Thanks Craig Tarry

Hi Craig. Wikipedia is showing a budget of $300,000 with a $2,360,184 gross revenue. IMDb shows the budget and weekly gross. As far as a detailed budget goes, I would have no idea.

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Hi Craig. Wikipedia is showing a budget of $300,000 with a $2,360,184 gross revenue. IMDb shows the budget and weekly gross. As far as a detailed budget goes, I would have no idea.

 

Thanks Steve, I noticed that at the end of Hedges commentary, he says that they made it for a fraction of what they had expected. Maybe the $7million price tag they originally had was a projected cost proposed by someone with a different vision for the script? It as Hedges first directing effort and probably his first budget. Reality has a way of changing things.

Thanks for your reply - Craig

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I actually found an

with Hedges. Maybe it's the one you saw. He says that he brought his film in for less that 300k, and that while he could have equaled it for 7mil, he could not have done better, which is actually a pretty cool attitude. So now I see where that 7mil figure might have come from. He also noted that he wrote the story to be filmed on digital video because he wanted a "home movie" sort of look, which is sort of interesting. Rather than trying to get a film look out of digital, he decides to use the native look to his advantage. And this was 2003.

 

When I ran across that interview, by the way, I also saw that someone has put Hedges’ entire film up on youtube in 10 minute sections. How is this possible?

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I actually found an
with Hedges. Maybe it's the one you saw. He says that he brought his film in for less that 300k, and that while he could have equaled it for 7mil, he could not have done better, which is actually a pretty cool attitude. So now I see where that 7mil figure might have come from. He also noted that he wrote the story to be filmed on digital video because he wanted a "home movie" sort of look, which is sort of interesting. Rather than trying to get a film look out of digital, he decides to use the native look to his advantage. And this was 2003.

 

When I ran across that interview, by the way, I also saw that someone has put Hedges’ entire film up on youtube in 10 minute sections. How is this possible?

 

I don't know. Wouldn't you need the Copyrights? Either way, I heard the 7million figure from Hedges' DVD commentary. He said "This movie sat up and fell apart 3 times on a budget of 7million, and finally the fourth time we called Gary Winnick at Indigent and they green lit it right away."

 

Hedges doesn't go on to say what they green lit it for. That's why I think whoever came up with the 7million got a reality check from someone.

That's quite an adjustment.

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