Short Film: Worth All of my Savings?

[pete]

ah man.  well, good to know that your decision was thoughtful and wasn't based on ego or unfocused restlessness - which was the result of my first short film that took too long and resulted in too little.
I think the way to go is to just shoot a bunch of really short little things for now.  get comfortable and more importantly, form a crew.

[md]

My two cents, make your film but shoot it on the 5d/7d....LIE and tell everyone you shot it on the RED with the new chip...no one will know the difference especially since it will most likely be seen online.  PAY your actors...they are worth it, if they are worth it.  The Red will always be there...your money might not be.  Produce, direct and edit on your own.  Don't bring on anyone you don't need.  This is already going to be one hell of an experience, just don't pay to play.  My two cents.  (I'm in brooklyn btw if you need some resources)

Put up the script...that might be the real test.

[polkablues]

Keep working on the script. Keep getting feedback, and just whittle away at it until either that script is rock-solid or you get struck by an even better idea and write that one instead. Then, whatever you decide the budget needs to be to shoot it, figure out how to do it for half. I guarantee you'll gain more useful experience from figuring out how to halve your budget than you will from actually shooting the thing. But regardless, don't put a dime into anything until you have a script that's so good it shits rainbows.