Smartest spend: taking the MG.

Biggest mistake: PR spend.

Would change: no more crowdfunding.

Smartest spend: dog and name talent actor

Biggest mistake: How e handled the food, and needed more crew

Would change: More time and some specific crew positions

Smartest spend: Interview as many people as possible each day

Biggest mistake: Spending the money on continued marketing

Would change: I would be more organized

Smartest spend: Sweat equity

Biggest mistake: Onboarding a graphic design artist too early, before the voice of the film had been finalized

Smartest spend: budgeting for crew, abandoning the 100% DIY endeavor

Biggest mistake: Not budgeting more for crew/working with friends & family

Would change: Budget more realistically for days and employ a true line producer for a proper budget breakdown (not myself)

Smartest spend: Self post-production

Biggest mistake: Paying premium for colour grader that wasn't much better than what I could do.

Would change: Planning for paper deliverables like E&O insurance and clearances ahead of time better

Smartest spend: Joining Facebook groups that focused on the theme

Biggest mistake: Putting money towards influencers and not having a clear goal

Would change: We did! We have since made a new film Demonetize for $300k

Smartest spend: Conventions selling merchandise

Biggest mistake: Traditional Distribution route

Would change: Am doing it now, being more budget aware and keep story simpler.

Smartest spend: Keeping expenses low

Biggest mistake: Theatrical

Would change: Niche down. Make costs more efficient. Better marketing push. I have ideas for all of these.

Smartest spend: Owning my own equipment

Smartest spend: Base Camp, locations, permits.

Biggest mistake: Insurance premiums

Would change: Verify Insurance

Smartest spend: Live at location

Biggest mistake: Meta Ad's

Would change: Only local people.

Smartest spend: Shooting in studio and small cast controlled a lot of costs

Biggest mistake: Paid too much for talent and did not get firm commitment for talent promotional appearances

Would change: Lower budget or much bigger budget

Smartest spend: Crowdfunding

Biggest mistake: Crowdfunding

Would change: Less cast.

Smartest spend: Working relationships

Biggest mistake: Keeping people around too long

Would change: I would cut folks as soon as they wrap. Be more streamlined

Smartest spend: Investor donations, and government small business loans during Covid

Biggest mistake: None

Smartest spend: to film on weekends

Biggest mistake: advertising

Would change: more story driven vs shock and awe

Smartest spend: Director/Cinematographer/Editor was all one person

Biggest mistake: Moving states during pre-production

Would change: More organization

Smartest spend: Buying second hand equipment and partially DOPed the film

Biggest mistake: Spending crowdfunding money just to get into film festivals

Would change: I'm currently in post for two more movies. Crowdfunded and not put any personal money and make sure everyone gets paid

Smartest spend: investing in the key art was huge, poster via Creepy Duck Design

Biggest mistake: hard to say, we were under pressure after losing funding and we all agreed to go ahead with it under the agreement I would pay everyone in installments over time

Would change: smaller crew, smaller cast, more constrained locations

Smartest spend: online ads and multiple revenue streams associated with the short movie

Biggest mistake: broad focused online add

Would change: have a higher marketing budget for all my revenue sources and releases

Smartest spend: Keeping cast and crew time to a minimum, renting only what's necessary, and buying food in bulk for provided meals.

Biggest mistake: Overestimating our production cadence which required more shooting days and therefore more expenses.

Would change: Bring in a few extra people specifically for camera and lighting department.

Smartest spend: Not hiring a "name actor" / location

Biggest mistake: Not having any money for post / cost my time + life

Would change: Would not have 100+ effects shots

Smartest spend: Trade of services agreements

Biggest mistake: Festival submissions

Would change: Not to have long breaks between shooting days

Smartest spend: One location

Biggest mistake: Not spending the rest of the budget

Smartest spend: Self post-production

Biggest mistake: Paying premium for colour grader that wasn't much better than what I could do.

Would change: Planning for paper deliverables like E&O insurance and clearances ahead of time better

Smartest spend: Paying our PR agent.

Biggest mistake: None.

Would change: I'll have to think about it.

Smartest spend: Super efficient workflows

Biggest mistake: A few wasted shoot days

Would change: Avoid slowdown in pacing

Smartest spend: Having one location and a name attached

Biggest mistake: None

Would change: Diff contract with investors

Smartest spend: Timing of the release

Biggest mistake: Paying for ads

Would change: Try to keep the filming schedule tighter

Smartest spend: Completion and follow thru in face of danger

Biggest mistake: Maybe flying in talent instead of casting from locals or some lodging hiccups

Would change: I did already. I followed this up with another similar sorta styled film which is in post right now.

Smartest spend: Belief

Biggest mistake: Nothing

Would change: More distribution methods

Smartest spend: Getting my new job that paid more so I could recoup and be able to do more post-production (marketing) money spending.

Biggest mistake: All the money spent to make the film came out of my personal paychecks, the campaign for part 1 raised around $500 which was just recovering part of the cost of the Scarecrow Monster where the first campaign for part 2 raised $25 only and the whole feature I paid for and the post-production campaign try #2 only came back with $1550

Would change: Not much difference, I try to write what I can afford or can try to spend out of my own pocket before writing something crazy.

Smartest spend: Spending the absolute minimum to get a feature made meant it was almost impossible to NOT recoup

Biggest mistake: No waste financially - this was the aim of the project, the spend the absolute minimum

Would change: This film was made entirely without a crew (doing every job myself) and this is something I can't do anymore having lost the skills after working with a full crew for so many years, so I would never do this again.

Smartest spend: Deferred payments for cast and crew

Biggest mistake: Just not allocating budget for marketing

Would change: Start with more resource for marketing

Smartest spend: Investors and crowdfunding (this was first time for both)

Biggest mistake: Lemme think about that one.

Would change: We honestly did the same thing for the next movie (Badass Monster Killer)

Smartest spend: Keeping the budget low

Biggest mistake: Paying for festival submissions to festivals that didn't cater to our target audience

Would change: be more strategic with our festival selection

Smartest spend: Writing a screenplay designed to be made on an ultra-low-budget

Biggest mistake: Can't think of anything

Would change: Aim for something more marketable

Smartest spend: Acting

Biggest mistake: I don’t think we had one.

Would change: Spread out the shoot, which I did with our follow up film we shot December 2025; Casually Cool made for about $10k less

Smartest spend: Using misfit toys instead of trained crew

Biggest mistake: Begging local businesses for sponsorships

Would change: Nothing

Smartest spend: Distribution

Biggest mistake: Lack of name cast.

Would change: Better planning.

Smartest spend: Self funding

Biggest mistake: Signing a deal without reading the fine print

Would change: Not sign through my current distribution company

Smartest spend: Paying to get footage filmed with our cast in Texas for the concept trailer

Biggest mistake: Originally filming the first concept trailer in Canada with mostly poor actors

Would change: Try to simplify in advance

Smartest spend: Still learning

Biggest mistake: Having no money!

Would change: Pay my actors!

Smartest spend: Minimum locations

Biggest mistake: Using a friend Recommended hire

Would change: Shoot in a more secluded location, have a 1st AD, and give myself more shoot days.