Summer Coda cost $680,000
Director Richard Gray has revealed that his debut feature Summer Coda cost $680,000 to make.
“Do you want to know a big secret? My fabulous team and I made Summer Coda for $680,000. Total. That’s all in. Not a cent more. Finished with print. We didn’t want anyone to know because we didn’t want to be seen as just another low budget Aussie film. I’m so bored with that stigma. But now that we’ve been reviewed and judged and seen, I can let you know. Because we believe we’ve made something really beautiful, with an amazing cast that looks and sounds like FIVE TIMES more than we spent. And we’re really proud of it. We can do MORE for LESS,” he said.
So, did Summer Coda avoid that stigma?
“The audiences that we’ve spoken to really enjoyed the film,” Gray told Encore. “They thought it was something different and beautiful, which is lovely. But I’m probably the wrong person to speak too, because rarely will a director be told to his/her face that our work wasn’t liked!
translation: “But now that the film was a disaster theatrically, i need to try and circumvent perception SUMMER CODA is a dud like THE LOVED ONES.”
Oh Charles, how boring. We need to support our fragile local industry. If you’re not part of the solution? I hope you went out and paid to see THE LOVED ONES and SUMMER CODA. Both great local films, trying their hardest.
Charles, you are most likely one of the unfortunate majority who bash local films rather than make an effort to see them.
“Looks and sounds like five times more than we spent.”
Translation – everyone worked their arses off for not much money to make this film look and sound the way it does. Now by telling everyone how much it “cost” I am devaluing their work by setting up an unrealistic expectation that this is how much it “really costs” to make a film to this standard.
Why do we need to know the budget? Who is this helping?(Apart from a director/producer who can happily promote what they can do for very little money by screwing those that work in the industry)
Charles, people like you are the reason that the perception of Aussie films is poor. What have you done lately??? oh that’s right, you just write stupid comments bagging out Aussie films!!
Will, you might want to consult the crew of Summer Coda before you start talking for us. You have no idea mate, was a great shoot! Mildura’s an amazing place and we were well looked after. Your attitude helps no one.
Dear Will, you should do some research before you begin slandering. Summer Coda wasn’t able to get production funding through the govt, so they raised private funds. Do you know how hard that is to do? The film provided invaluable experience for a film starved crew, many of who were first timers. How do you think they got such a big cast onboard? Profit share. No one got screwed, Will. If you want to help our industry, maybe go out and buy a ticket.
$680K for a feature film? – that’s amazing.
Then it got a theatrical release – even more amazing
Well done Summer Coda people, a shame you didn’t get any support from the Government agencies…I guess because you’re budget is below $1Mil you’re not eligible for the Producer Rebate either.
Another reason why Screen Oz should drop the qualifying level to $500K
Enjoyable times and invaluable experience aside the point I was trying to make is why the obsession with declaring your low budget like a badge of honor?
This I would find especially true if the film was made as a result of profit share. Why can’t the big secret be “we only spent $680000 because the amazing crew believed in the project and took a profit share agreement.” That at least give some true indication of the real effort, cost and credit to those that worked on the film. (Although personally I don’t believe this to be the way to have a sustainable industry)
Yellng “we can do more for less” in my experience only results in “less” for those who work on these films.
Bought my ticket – nice film.
Oh, please. I saw Summer Coda at a free screening and I still wanted my money back.
Snore.
Still, kudos to Gray for getting the film made and released. Here’s to a better one next time.
Congrats to Gray for getting the thing made, but I am with both Will and Tara on this one.
Will is right- it cost the reported amount in CASH, but that doesn’t really account for the free and heavily discounted favours. You always do the favours for the first film to help someone out, build a relationship. When it’s then claimed to be repeatable, something the producer/ director can do again and again (“We can do MORE for LESS,” he said.), it becomes a bit much. I’m sure this claim lifts only the standing of the producer and director. And knowing just how little they were able to make it for doesn’t make it any more watchable.
More Aussie actors looking worthily out toward the horizon with blubbery eyes. Are we over it yet? It was her from South Solitary talking to the sheep all over again.
And did anyone see this corker?
“I’d love to make another film in regional Australia, it was so much less stressful than shooting in the city, having people around you that aren’t just wanting to be paid, that just want to help and support, because they can see the benefit. It was a really positive experience,” he said.
Shame about those people killing the mood, wanting to be paid. I wonder who is actually seeing the benefit, to be honest.
Summer Coda….poor script…can’t get past that…boring, read it when a mate was going to work on it. nothing happens, cautious writing. Well done for making it, well done again for making it for nothing, but really come on…its a total and utter bore of a film, that’s the general public feeling I’m hearing…and DAZ as for some blogger killing the reputation of Ozzie films, that’s bollocks, Oz Producers with little market grasp, audience respect, suckled with years of pushing their collective snouts in the public trough and only coming up for air to hear the omnipresent audiences groan of boredom before they shovel their snouts back in for more public helpings whilst blocking out any understanding of genre and then fluffing the sycophantic pillows of cheesy film school grad Directors who should stay away from the keyboard and get behind a camera…all these glowing figures circling the Oz film industry are doing a brilliant job of wrecking the Oz film brand themselves
More unaccountable public funding anybody?
I’m glad Summer Coda only cost $680,000….pity they didn’t throw any of it at the script
I hear Monsters was made for $100,000…I found it very entertaining, smart filmmaking
Why SA aren’t giving out 5 x $500,000 blocks to Writer/Director teams with intelligent scripts that have a global appeal and partnering them with CGI talent…is utterly beyond me….and them I suppose
There’s this strange thing that’s really wrong about our industry, its part of our culture as well, we’ve become a nation that finds it hard to take advice, even when its obvious that the map we’ve been following is obviously a wrong one. Human perception is wide and varied, whats funny or gripping to some is boring to others, but I feel there is this growing sense of arrogance especially amongst our creative types, a kind of personal mantra that says “I’m special, my ideas are valid, exceptional even” the problem with this inner mantra, is that some times your ideas simply aren’t valid, exceptional, some times they are just bad from day one and they need to evolve and change. Something is happening with the individual creative psyche of this nation, I feel its becoming infantile and regressive. Everybody seems to be a writer, a director a filmmaker..a talent..technology is helping more and more of us realize this potential. But at the end of the day everything is a craft and to be exceptional at a craft you must live it with mature passion and believe that YOUR FIRST IDEA IS GOING TO BE AS GOOD AS YOU TENTH, that you can trust the process of being highly critical. This mature passion seems dead…and artists more and more seem to be answering to people with backgrounds in Marketing, HR and Accounting…and this is just a dumb dialogue..that never gives quality feedback or ideas.
I totally agree with Will’s comments. Of course the crew were well looked after, they usually are, as the money hasn’t been spent yet and there are unions to control the rates. However, in post production it’s a different ball game. We’re constantly being asked to do more for less and less and less. It’s infuriating to hear any director bragging about how little their film cost and to then use it as a business statement for future productions. Profit share on the majority of Aus. films? Give me a break! No one I know would be working in this industry if they didn’t do it for the love of it – but we’re getting really close to exploitation with the way things are going.
Mark my words- in the next twelve months there will be a glut of post production studios crashing and closing. They’ve kicked the can down the road for this long, having to do boring, thankless rubbish for favors, hoping that an international production will come along and keep the doors open. Now that the international angle is dying before our very eyes, many will find it hard to stay open.
There’s almost an attitude in this country that post production activity for profit is somehow immoral, or at least doesn’t need to be considered for local shows. It has little value to filmmakers, and this guy congratulating himself for getting his movie out on print for so little money, and saying he’ll do it again is evidence of that.
Screen Australia is complicit- any look at the budgets that they work with shows this attitude is rife.
Another example of heavy melodrama masquerading as realism.
Why do we keep making this stuff?
Maybe if Richard Gray had made a film that was remotely interesting and appealed to more than a few hundred people he could boast about doing more for less. Maybe swing that rationale around and do more script development for potentially less boredom inflicted on the audience.
@ Jim “This mature passion seems dead…and artists more and more seem to be answering to people with backgrounds in Marketing, HR and Accounting…and this is just a dumb dialogue..that never gives quality feedback or ideas”
Brilliant!
Please take out the corporate elements that are polluting our industry.
What do you expect If you make a slow boring movie, “The Loved Ones”, “Summer Coda” and “South Solitary”…add them to the pile of other continuous flops that we keep regurgitating.
What is all the fuss about?
There is a lot of crap out there that has been made with 20 times the budget Summer Coda had; it’s not about how much a film costs to make, nor should a films budget be used as an excuse for it entertainment value.
Taking into account what the dollar buys you today, I would think that ‘Redball’ directed by Jon Hewit would have cost as much to make as Summer Coda. The similarity ends there.
Redball; is well written, brilliantly acted, and evenly paced. The same can’t be said about S.C
i heard that the music teachers didn’t get payed for teaching the actors to play their instruments.