For a few seniors, a bottle of champagne on the steps of Olin represented more than just endless hours of work – it meant the completion of a project that took up not only time and energy, but also their own financial investment. Film majors who chose to do a production thesis and create their own 12-minute film had their first taste of the real-world concerns of the industry as they had to find a way to make their projects practically and financially feasible. While the Film department supplies the technical equipment for a senior film – cameras, lighting and editing tables – students must fund the extraneous costs of film, props, food for the cast and any other expenses that arise. The cost of producing a senior thesis film can run typically from $500-2,000 for a digital film, and $5,000 to $7,000 for a 16 millimeter film, according to Film Department Chair Jeanine Basinger.

“The best solution is an old-fashioned one, which is one I’m familiar with: get a job,” she said. “$5,000 is not actually out of sight if you work two summers. It is doable.”

Before embarking on a thesis, film students first must figure out how to make their projects economically viable.
Ben Kuller ’11, a film major in the process of deciding whether to do a production thesis, said cost was a consideration, but students find ways to raise the money.

“It’s definitely a major factor in deciding whether or not to do it. It can be an extra $8,000 on top of your tuition. People who really want to do it, find ways to do it– borrowing money or finding ways to do it really cheap.”

Seniors who had gone through the process said that they were always committed to the project and the cost just compelled students to be resourceful. The potential price tag did not dissuade any of the filmmakers from pursuing their goal.

“I think all those people that really have their hearts set on doing a thesis will do it regardless,” said Pete Binswanger ’10. “My advice is just to do it. I think the only people that are impacted by [the cost] are the people who are on the fence and would rather write a screenplay or analysis.”

Professor Basinger stated that the exercise of fundraising and budgeting was essential to filmmaking, and was a problem every filmmaker faced. Passion, and not cost, was the determining factor for students.

“In my experience [50 years] I have never seen anyone, to my knowledge, there has never been a case where a senior who really wanted to make a senior film didn’t do it,” Basinger said. “[…] There is no correlation between the financial background of the student and if they make a film. The very wealthiest students I have ever had did not make films, the very poorest did. It’s just about passion. A filmmaker knows it doesn’t get handed to you.”

Like many film majors, Robert Broadfoot ’10 came to Wesleyan determined to study and create films. Using his fellow students as cast and crew, he cut down on costs.

“I really wanted to make a film, and I would do whatever I could to make that work within the confines of a small budget,” said Broadfoot. “There are restrictions that you work around, but that’s a lot of what film is. It prepares you because you don’t go about it haphazardly – you have a budget to think about, you have people’s time.”

While 16mm film is the traditional medium, it also drives the production cost upward of $5,000 because of the cost of the film itself followed by the extensive processing at an outside lab. Students who choose to film on digital only have to purchase a hard drive and have unlimited takes.

“I definitely did a lot of stuff over the summer to get some money,” Binswanger said. “Especially since I’m doing 16. At the same time, it is something that in the end helped me figure things out and make a better movie. If I’m going to spend all this money I’m going to make sure it’s worth the money and my time.”

With the improvement in quality of digital film in recent years, some students did not see a trade-off in using digital, and appreciated its lower cost and ease.

“I feel like digital looks just as good as film,” Broadfoot said. “To me, given the quality, I feel like I could do more with digital, there is more room for error.”

Before shooting, students have to enumerate all possible costs and submit it to a film professor, who advises on their budget, and can suggest how to carry out their artistic vision within practical confines.

“They go over the budgets with us very thoroughly, they let us know if what we are trying to do is realistic for us,” said Phil Singleton ’10. “Sometimes you get swept up in the idea of making a movie, you don’t think straight about how much it is going to cost.”

Students and film professors have found ingenious ways to fundraise and save money on film shoots. One student in previous years whose short film featured a bottle of Coca-Cola being passed around was able to receive money from the company. Professor Basinger does receive some grants year to year through the generosity of alumni, which she can dispense to students, but funding is limited. Broadfoot used all student actors, and Middletown and campus locations to save money. Middletown restaurants such as Iguanas Ranas and Esca have donated food to shoots. Many students find ways to cut costs by keeping it local.
“I definitely had a lot of help,” Binswanger said. “MPD [Middletown Police Department] gave me a police car for the day, which was really nice. We wrote them a letter. We couldn’t drive it, but they let us play with the lights and the sirens – they were really nice about that.”

Students also learned to work around the restrictions of a low budget and limited equipment, which is shared amongst the senior thesis films and the Sight and Sound courses required for juniors.

“I could have used a 40 kilowatt light and lit up the entire campus at night, if I had that available I would have used it,” said Reilly Park ’10. “I knew what I could do beforehand with the equipment, so I planned my scenes around that. Rarely were we in a scene in which we were shooting more than one room so we didn’t need as many lights. I’ve shot night scenes in the past, it’s very difficult with the equipment we have, especially on digital, so I didn’t shoot at night. It’s kind of knowing what the tools are, and shooting with what we have.”

Production theses remain popular year after year, despite the time and cost to students. A senior thesis is optional in the film department, and students can then choose to make a film, write a screenplay, an animation thesis, or an analysis paper. Basinger noted that noted that since President Roth removed the materials fee for Sight and Sound, a required production class at Wesleyan, there is no outside cost associated with the major pre-thesis. This year, the film department received more applications for production theses than resources will allow.

“We’ve always made it every year,” Basinger said. “We don’t require it, but we open it up and 90% of our students do senior theses [including screenplays, etc.]…We make a chart and we look – we haven’t got enough cameras for that and editing tables, can we make any shifts here. The most we have ever been able to manage is 22 [production theses] and that damn near killed us. Twenty is sort of a maximum level. We just have to juggle a little bit. We sort it out. The year before last, we thought there was no way we will make it – the faculty will have to make a decision. Some people decided they would rather do a screenplay.”

Ultimately the limitations are not the faculty but the equipment, she said.

“The faculty will step up, they will put in the extra hours, they will do the Saturday and Sundays, working nights, they will come in over break, but you can’t stretch the equipment,” Basinger said. “The basic Sight and Sound class…uses the same equipment [as the] seniors. We have cameras in 16 mm that are museum pieces. What would make me happy? Let’s have Michael Roth buy me two new 16 millimeter cameras. I think the ones I have were purchased in 1966. We have kept them going with students, beginners, [who] drop them on the floor.”

Students at other film schools face the same challenge of fundraising.

“In the senior year, the projects must be pitched in order to be approved and, depending on the class, the students receive either $800 or $1,325 to help them make their film or video,” said Rosanne Limoncelli, the Director of Production for Film & New Media at NYU Tisch. “As far as how much money students spend on their films, it’s really up to them and their own resources. We provide them with over $150,000 worth of production equipment per student shoot, insurance coverage, and all the post-production facilities they would need, and we try to promote an environment of frugal filmmaking… I would say that in this last year, an average budget for an advanced project is between six and seven thousand dollars.”

At Wesleyan, students are required to film within a 50-mile radius of campus and are prohibited from hiring professional editors or cinematographers, to level the financial playing field. NYU does not have the same location restriction, and students said that some senior thesis films have exorbitant budgets.

“My experience has been – I’ve worked on a lot of rich kids’ theses, where some students drop thirty grand on a film, it’s not even close to how much some spend,” said Matt Marks ’11, a film and TV production major at NYU. “I worked on one last semester where they spend twenty-five grand. I think there are a lot of students who are smart enough and passionate enough to raise the money. There are some kids whose parents pay for it, some of them you are sure that’s what’s going on. If [raising money] deters you, you shouldn’t be in this industry because it’s cutthroat and that’s how it goes.”

Marks said he was flown to San Francisco for one student film he worked on. However, NYU’s policies on student films have changed recently, now requiring extensive insurance for film sets, after a student died in May 2009 from electrocution in a condor lift while working on a student film set in Georgia.

“NYU film school is starting to feel like it’s run by an insurance company,” Marks said. “It’s pretty ridiculous. People just like to make ridiculous movies at NYU, although nothing compares to USC – I hear they do helicopter shots and explosions.”

Wesleyan students and faculty said that the best films are not necessarily the most expensive. Park said a film he worked on last year that cost only $350 won honors and Professor Basinger mentioned a film that cost $500 won a $1,000 prize one year, ironically turning a profit on a student film.

After learning for four years how to look at films critically, producing a senior thesis ultimately prepared students for a universal issue in filmmaking: money.

“Because this problem does not go away, even when you win the Oscar, this problem never leaves you,” Basinger said. “You have to learn to get money, no one is handing it over to you…There will be no free films, there will be no scholarships, no aid, no handing over, [you] will have to go over and find the money. That’s budgeting, having a good project, and doing it for less, and realizing you have to get more than you think you need, knowing how to pitch a film. But it’s always about money.”

This year’s filmmakers weren’t bitter about the financial investment in their films and considered it money well spent. While the future is uncertain, this year’s soon-to-be-graduates hope they will get the opportunity to direct again.

“The goal is to someday make movies with other people’s money,” Binswanger said. “But the way the industry is, you have to start with your own money.”