Get Ripped Got Misreported: NTV Station Today
The 60 Frames series Get Ripped got a fair amount of attention this week when the LA Times reported that the professional-scale production cost $20,000 an episode to make. These days, you can make a feature film for $20,000 — how can a web series shot on one location with one actor cost $20,000 an episode? The answer, in this case, is that it doesn’t.
According to Get Ripped director Fred Schroeder, who we spoke with via email:
Get Ripped was budgeted at around $3,000 an episode. I’m not sure who told LA Times reporter John Horn that our budget was $20,000 an episode but that number is way off. Our set looked perhaps more professional than other web series he visited but that is more a testament to the skills of our producer Lara Wickes (who called in a lot of favors) than our budget. Our crew was around 14 people [not 28, as Horn reported].
Horn says he got his information straight from 60Frames and even double checked that it was $20,000 per episode. 60Frames is saying they never gave him that number and asked for a retraction but he’s refused to do so. All I know is that we had $3,000 dollars.
This is not a big budget show. We didn’t blow anything up or take huge salaries. It’s a cast of one person in one location that we shot in under ten hours. Hopefully it’s funny and will make people laugh a couple times.
But did it make us laugh? Check out Jill Weinberger’s review on NewTeeVee Station to find out.
And because it wouldn’t be a Station piece without an awesome video, this upload from Random Good Stuff illustrates a novel idea: repurposing your old touchtone phones into an ad-hoc piano. No guarantees you’ll be able to play Mozart’s Sonata in A Major right away, though.
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[...] NewTeeVee (Something with MTV) [...]
Weird Jesus Link Friday | Random Good Stuff
— 9:17 AM on August 8, 2008
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[...] Budget: $3,000 per episode More details » Get Ripped, the latest series from Carpet Bros. homebase 60Frames, debuted today with much fanfare two weeks after teasing us with a well-received trailer. Get Ripped has been hotly anticipated for a couple of reasons: a) with an impressive comic pedigree thanks to its writer, How I Met Your Mother scribe Gloria Calderon Kellet, the series had a good chance of being funny, and b) the LA Times reported that each episode cost $20,000 to shoot, and frankly, we all wanted to see what $20,000 of episode looks like. (However, the LA Times got the facts wrong — according to director Fred Schroeder, each episode had a $3,000 budget and 14-person crew. See our story on NewTeeVee for more information.) [...]
Get Ripped Gets Going, Needs Pumping - NewTeeVee…
— 10:34 AM on August 8, 2008
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Hello, I see “video no longer available” message when I try to play the embedded video. But this happens only with IE, it just work perfectly fine with other browsers. Anyone knows what’s going on?
I believe that “This video is no longer available” is YouTube’s current “this video isn’t working at this exact second” error message. It’s a little annoying. But try reloading — that usually seems to help.
Reloading the page didn’t help. The funny thing is I am able to hear the audio clearly, but the video is overlayed with another screen that has the message “Video is no longer available” and the video is essentially masked. Must be a bug from Youtube! This embed video works just fine in other browsers, not working only in IE
I love Get Ripped…no matter how much it cost. What does everyone think of it…worth the hype?
You’ve got to be kidding me if you think you can make a “feature film” for 20K. You can always cut corners and make do with what you have, but there’s no currency like money to help produce a good product.
I agree with you, Sean — I didn’t say it’d be a GOOD feature. :)
El Mariachi was damn good.
@ Liz:
El Mariachi cost a lot more than you think to make it viewable to the public. If you saw it on a crappy 3/4″ inch tape (if you know what that is), then you can say you saw a movie made for $7,000. If you saw it on a DVD or in a theater, you was a film make for WAY over twenty times that.
We’ll have to see other episodes to judge the value returned for the $3k spent. For the first episode; rather easy money. The lack of extended takes really steals momentum and leaves the actor unimpressive.
“Favors” –what a great business strategy!
LC
wrote:
“you was a film make for WAY over twenty times that.”
should be:
you ‘SAW’ a film made for WAY over twenty times that.
DANM, I must be dyslexic