I just watched the "Between Two Ferns" episode…

[Dien Rice]

Originally Posted by Dien Rice

Then she made me an offer. She said I could be the executive producer!

Just to clarify... This was a small, independent, partly self-financed movie (she also previously had some government arts-related funding, too, I think)... Not talking about Hollywood here.

It was a low-budget movie... Something like half a million, if I remember right, which is small by feature-length movie standards... (Keep in mind, out of that you have to pay all the actors and others who work on the movie, as well as other costs, etc.) I remember I couldn't believe how low her budget was when I heard it. (Yet, with some creativity, she got a good film made with the money she had!)

So, I wasn't being offered a paid salary position. Any money I made would have had to come out of the profits. (It was a business proposition, in other words.) No movie profits, no pay!

Just to clarify...

Best wishes,

Dien

(Some examples of successful low-budget movies are: Clerks, budget of $230k (total), gross $3 million; The Blair Witch Project, budget of $60k, gross $140 million in US, $240 million worldwide; Paranormal Activity, budget of $15k, gross $107 million in US, $193 million worldwide... So, it can be done!)