Aged tomb stone?

[Stephen Pruitt]

Hi guys. . .

Undoubtedly, this is the wrong place to post this, but I'm looking for a place that might be able to make a tombstone from a 1940 graveyard. This is only a $50,000 feature (and, yes, that's the total budget!), so anything that is really expensive simply won't work.

Thanks much.

Stephen

 

[Matt Hall]

Some rental tombstones here: http://www.dappercadaver.com/categories/headstones/

If it was my project, I'd cast it in resin myself...unless you intend to break it or something.

 

[Stephen Pruitt]

I just found those guys and sent them an email.

This will have to be custom-made as we have a specific name and date. It needs to be able to appear totally real, as a close-up of said stone is pretty much the last shot in the film.

It won't be broken. I wouldn't have the slightest idea how to cast anything in resin!

Thanks.

Stephen

 

[Matt Hall]

If you want to do it for really cheap, and if the design isn't too complicated, consider making it from wood. Use a router and dremel to cut the letters, use washes for an aged appearance. When do you need it by? I could lend a hand. I love that kind of stuff.

 

[Stephen Pruitt]

We won't need it until June, but I don't want to be surprised when we get there and we don't have it.

Whatever it is, it needs to look like stone or concrete and planted in the ground in 1940.

Thanks.

Stephen

 

[Marc Wielage]

You should go to Kickstarter, IndieGogo, or Slated and raise more money. $50K is not going to be enough to do a legitimate feature, especially one with SAG actors and insurance. It might work with 2 people in a room for 90 minutes, but that's also not going to be a very interesting movie. There are rare exceptions; Star Trek: Horizon would be one example of a $50,000 film that was pulled off relatively well.

I've seen some movies that got an enormous amount of support on Kickstarter and Indiegogo. Comedian Adam Carolla was able to put together $2 million for a feature of his a couple of years ago, and filmmaker Colin Hanks got a similar amount for his excellent Tower Records documentary All Things Must Pass. The guy who did the documentary The Death of Superman Lives was able to raise about $110,000 for that film.

Because everything is on the net, there is actually a discussion group for people to discuss building props, and that's the Replica Props Forum (http://www.therpf.com/). In that case, they're trying to build duplicates of famous props from classic movies, but I'd bet there are fans there who know what it takes to mold stone-like materials and have them look like aged gravestones on screen.

 

[Björn Benckert]

My advice, shoot an exsisting tombstone that is to your liking (but wrong name etc). Then have somebody altering it in post. I done such for two films. Simple retouch / photoshop work and flat surface 3D tracking. Should not cost more than a 1/50 of your total budget for a couple of shots.

 

[Eric M Hurt]

My advice, shoot an exsisting tombstone that is to your liking (but wrong name etc). Then have somebody altering it in post. I done such for two films. Simple retouch / photoshop work and flat surface 3D tracking. Should not cost more than a 1/50 of your total budget for a couple of shots.

This is what I would do as well.

 

[Marc Wielage]

My advice, shoot an exsisting tombstone that is to your liking (but wrong name etc). Then have somebody altering it in post.

That's actually a pretty good idea.

There's also a dozen prop houses in LA that would probably rent you a realistic-looking tombstone at an affordable price, certainly far cheaper than you could build one. The LA 411 directory would most likely list them under Prop Rental.