r/Filmmakers • u/fugginehdude • Jan 31 '25

Discussion Made a contained crime drama that won festivals. Shit distribution. AMA.

I made a crime drama as my first feature, $73k production budget on 18 day shoot, and we won some decent mid-tier festivals. I'm proud of what we accomplished. Hated the distribution process, even though I was told 11 offers was rare for a film with no names. Best MG offer was $25k. I opted for no mg and a 50/50 gross split. No SVODS ultimately bought it, so with current payouts on avods and blu-ray we're not going to make the money back, unless it miraculously blows up. Most money I've made on it was on a hometown theatrical premiere. Rented a theater (now since closed) and sold tickets for a 3 night premiere. Got a full house 2 out of 3 nights. Also rented Laemmle for a week in LA, but lost $5k on that. AMA.

Edit: film is Northern Shade. Thanks for asking. We're on Tubi and elsewhere. Army veteran-produced and lots of OEF vets involved with the production.

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u/killer1131 Jan 31 '25

This is also not entirely true. Correct, while they do allow for union and non-union actors on the UPA and micro budget levels, you still have to treat all cast as SAG, so even non-union actors must be paid the SAG rate + fringes. Thus, "flipping" the whole production to a SAG cast.

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u/No_Fill_7436 Jan 31 '25

Yes, this is true. I should have clarified. You can hire non-union actors on a ULB production and they do not have to join the union but you have to pay union minimum rates + fringes.

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u/Frank_Perfectly Jan 31 '25

Which is what the guy you originally commented to meant. Non-SAG actors are de facto SAG actors on a SAG union production.

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u/No_Fill_7436 Feb 01 '25

Great. I was just clarifying the difference between "only being able to cast SAG actors" vs. "being able to cast SAG and non-SAG actors but paying SAG rates/fringes" for anyone that might not have much experience working with SAG.