Help Needed In Regard to Indie Film Budgets

[ZRB]

Hey film experts,

I'm working on a paper about a movie I'm involved with, comparing it to the "norms" of low-budget film production. I'm trying to find a resource where I can find out an average budget for "low budget" movies, probably more accurately "ultra-low budget" films. Movies in the thousands, not millions.

If anyone knows where I can find this information, that would be great, as google doesn't seem to be turning much up.

If anyone can give me a hand here, that would be great.

Thanks

[CanuckAmok]

1. Pick up a copy of:

Richard Rodriguez book about the making of "El Mariachi". Sorry, but I can't remember what the book is called. He wrote it just as he was finising post production on "From Dusk Till Dawn", and he makes some budget comparisons in it.

Also a good reference is Rick Schmidt's "Feature Film Making at Used Car Prices", in which he takes a step-by-step account of making a movie for, if I remember correctly, $8,000.

Finally, Bruce Campbell's autobiography, "If Chins Could Talk", because a great deal of the book is about the making of the "Evil Dead" films, and the growth in budget and technique from the first movie through "Army of Darkness".

Good luck!

[ZRB]

2. Thanks a lot

I will check those out.

[drumwolf]

3. Have you seen this page yet?

http://www.the-numbers.com/movies/records/budgets.html

That page has a few different lists of records, but the second one is a list of "Movies With Lowest Budgets to Earn $1 Million at US Box Office." None of the movies in that category cost over $200,000, and most of them are relatively recent.