Budget for SW:LA

I was thinking about the article where Lucas mentioned he is going to try and do a $30M live action show for $1M to $2M. Assuming he can get $20M to $30M quality out of $1M, I think we will be enjoying a very high quality show, that is everybit as of the same quality as the prequels. Here is what I am basing it on.

Average runtime per episode should be about 46 minutes. This is about the average runtime of ST:TNG episodes when you cut out the commericials and credits.

The runtime listed for ROTS on www.movies.com is 142 minutes. If you divide 142 by 46 it equals out to almost exactly 3. Thus meaning for the runtime of ROTS, you could play or make 3 episodes, assuming the time per episode is 46 minutes.

The budget for ROTS was $115M. Divide that by 3 and you get $38.3M, the cost to make 46 minutes of ROTS or 1 episode of SW:LA. If we look at this optimistically and assume he is going to make $30M of quality out $1M, then he is only $8.3M off of his goal. Looking at the "dark side", and assuming he is only going to make $20M of quality out of $1M, then he is $18.3M off of his goal.

Hopefully we will get the $30M quality level, and only have to trim off $8.3M.

There are several things that can help reduce this as they only have to made once, and more screen time will be had out of these items than in the movies, since they will be used over and over. Some of the things I can think of are:

Costumes, props, CGI models can be fully rendered all at one time, even the parts that arn't used in every screen. With a fully rendered model, the object can be rotated and lighted in different ways and used over and over again multiple times.
Conceptual work has more payoff. Initially there shouldn't have to be as much backstory to things, they can be developed over time.

I think the list of above items is just a drop in the bucket of things that can be used multiple times, and I am sure others can think of more things, and I welcome you to add to this thread.

Finally, digital and computer technology is droping in cost all of the time, so this to will help Lucas make up the $8.3M he needs to maintain the quality level of ROTS.

Mazz

 

As I've suggested else where - Lucas is likely to use a lot of the pre-production material, sets, props etc from ROTS in his new TV show - that will keep costs down, and make it impossible to estimate a budget.

He's also likely to be getting budget from FOX-TV rather than FOX-cinema

 

I agree it will be imposible to predict a 100% accurate budget for the series. The reason I posted was to illustrate that there isn't going to be a significant drop in quality, based on SW budgets in the past, running times of those projects, what he said about the budget so far, and the running time of a 1 hour scifi show minus commercials and credits (46 minutes).

 

Also, keep in mind that the show's cast will likely be made up of "unknowns." Thus leading to a lower budget, because a movie's budget includes the Actors/Actresses budgets.

 

Well the run time matters what channel it's on if the upcoming Star Wars Live Action TV Series is put on HBO even though I doubt it the show would be close to 60 minutes if not a full 60 minutes. You are probably going to be right about the run time because I think the upcoming Star Wars Live Action TV Series is going to be on FOX or another channel that has commercials.

 

Yes you might be right.

 

Not to mention, if they film them all at the same time, like a film, instead of over a season, they could save millions. LOTR did it and they could have made The Hobbit with all they saved.

 

Wouldn't be funny to see this big Mustafarian drilling thing sitting in the streets of Alderann.

 

I would of thought that they'd be getting the budget from Lucasfilm since that is where the movies came from. Still he may stay with his distribution nostalgia and stick it on Fox.

 

Well jeese, you'd think since Lucas owns ILM he'd cut himself a deal in the CGI department. But seriously, I think if he relies on his skill with practical FX that he utilized in the OT such as utilizing detailed modelwork, puppets, etc. he can keep the cost down and use CGI only if it's neccesary. Plus I'm hoping he hires a team of exceptional writers to flesh out characters and write well constructed dialogue. I mean you can have all the fancy FX on display you want, but if the audience can't connect with the thoughts, feelings, motivations of the core characters of a series, ratings will plumet.

 

Or maybe the show will be puppets on sticks....