Cost of Doing a Webseries: Infographic from VGHS and our own Season 2 Budget.

The guys from over at Video Game High School posted up exactly what it cost to do their 1st season of their hit web series.

Now, their $636,000+ cost was for a special effects intense series with tons of locations and shots and all sorts of stuff we don’t have to worry about. They raised their initial money from Kickstarter, and are doing another campaign for Season 2. Their Season 1 ended up at about 200 minutes of video.

$636k. I’d take 10% of that. We did about 103 minutes of video for $3,600.

In reality, to really do what we need to do for the next season of the show, we need to raise about $11,500 for 7 more episodes. That allows me to pay some people a little bit, and covers the cost of some things I didn’t factor into the original budget.

Here’s how it breaks down.

Gear: $1000
Food: $250
Props $250
Closed Captioning (For past a future episodes): $3000
Cast and Crew: $7000

Total: $11,500

The closed captioning cost hurts. If we don’t caption the first episodes, we limit the broadcast possibilities for the show. Unless a station/network is exempt, like The Walk, they cannot play the show unless it is captioned.

Would the cast and crew do everything again for nothing? Maybe, but I don’t want to ask that of them. At $1000 per episode for the total personnel budget, I’m not giving anyone very much.

We could maybe scrimp on gear, again. The food and prop budgets are already small. $11,500 is what we should shoot for.

I’d love to have about $5000 per episode to use. Then we could get more of what we need, and pay everyone a more fair wage. Based on what we raised last time, $11,500 is already a God-sized goal. $35,000 is of course, within His power.

So, right now the minimum goal is $11,500 for the next 7 episodes of Peculiar.

Season 1 Production By the Numbers

6– The number of episodes we will have when it’s over.
1– the number of episodes we had done when we started.
5– The number of episodes we shot in about 4 weeks.
19– The number of shooting days. We shot multiple scenes on most days.
29– The number of days for the whole production process.
56– The number of background actors in the first 6 episodes.
27– The number of speaking or featured roles in the first season.
46 million– The number of homes that The Walk TV, the network that is broadcasting the show, can be seen in.
17– The number of backers on the Kickstarter campaign.
3600– The number of dollars in the budget for the first 6 episodes. (That’s for all of them together, not $3600 each)
Infinity– The number of times it would take to properly thank the people involved who gave up tons of hours and time with family, and took off work, and generally helped me make my dream happen.

That’s a Wrap!

Finished taping the last pick up scene for the pilot today.

All the files have been transcoded, loaded into the editor. Now to line up the video with the audio. Then edit, audio mix, color… and stuff like that. I’m still on track for a mid May release.

Thank You!

I know the pilot isn’t done yet, but I wanted to take some time to thank the people who helped get me this far. No money. No food. Long hours. They all worked together to help me with the vision God has given me. I will never forget them. I don’t think I can convey my gratitude enough.

George Livings who encouraged me, and helped me with the script. Torry Martin, who took time to help me make a better story. Jaye Gragg and Dawn West who were great with advice and helped behind the scenes (or as extras if necessary.)

The crew: Stephen Brandt was at every shoot, and willing to do what ever was needed behind or in front of the camera. Jeff Atkisson was also at every shoot, bringing his own gear to make the shots better. And Bobby Falconnier who helped with one of the bigger shoots.

The cast, each of which gave up long hours and delivered great performances. Josh Kessler, Kaleia Giancini, Steve Bleiler, Melanie Turner, Becky Abu Rahmeh, Joel Coffey, Tony Dietterick, Joan Peterson and Gordon Hooper. And my son, Jeff Link.

Background actors who helped make the scenes more real. Lamar Washington, Susan Lawson, Xiomara Seliga, Danielle Manna, Sharon Coffey, and Mario Giancini.

When I stop to think about what has already been accomplished with these guys,I am overwhelmed.

Thank you.

The Pilot Interest Meeting Info

Last night we had a great meeting about the pilot. For some reason everyone sat on one side of the room, which was kind of odd, but a good group nonetheless. I know some folks couldn’t come, so I wanted to post the information here:

We started the evening with an explanation of why I’m developing the project. You can read all about that process in great detail here on the blog, so I won’t go into it again.

Budget:

We have no money.

This is a personal project that the church is partnering with us on. I do not want to impact the church budget.

Luckily we have access to most of the gear we need. But this will be a 100% volunteer effort.

Now, if you happen to run into someone who is looking to invest in ministry…

Cast & Crew:

The Pilot has a small cast. Only 4 speaking roles are available. We do need quite a few extras. we are primarily looking for people who can play college aged adults.

We need a lot of help with behind the scenes crew and preproduction.

Schedule:

We shot the Preview Project in 2 days. The Pilot has 9 Scenes and 7 locations. It will probably take 7-9 days to shoot.

We are working around the production schedule for First Orlando. We could do a little the 3rd week of March, the rest will be after Easter. I expect the Pilot to be done by the beginning of May. Much of the shooting schedule depends on the people involved.

There is a lot of preproduction work to be done.

I want to have the cast finalized by the end of February. There won’t be a general audition, but I will have people come in for a reading based on the interest they showed on the forms.

How you can help:

Pray.

Talk about the show. Tell your friends.

“Like” the Facebook page, subscribe to the Youtube channel and the blog. Encourage your friends to do that too.

Have I Told You About the Pilot Interest Meeting on Feb. 8th?

We are getting together to talk about the Pilot of peculiar in just a couple of weeks.

I am super-stoked about it. (Does anyone say “super-stoked”?). We are looking for people interested in being in the cast, or a part of the crew. There is tons of behind the scenes stuff to be done.

So, 7:30 PM Feb 8th at First Orlando, room WC 132-134.

I’ve gotten a few emails about it already. Some of the questions are about what kind of castI need. it is primarily people who can play 18-24 year olds. This is room for a few non traditional students, and the coffee shop/cafe’ scenes can have some families, but mainly the on camera people we need are that young adult age. There are a few adult characters like teachers and parents. I will post up a part list for the pilot in a couple of days.

As far as technical crew goes, we have several people who can run camera. We need some audio folks. We needs grips and gaffers.

Other crew will range from props and costumes to someone that can help coordinate food. Administrative help, Production Assistants, and more.

So if you are in the central Florida area and are interested, I’d love to see you at the meeting.