A black Ford pickup truck headed west, passing through the pleasant Château d'If, and gradually approached Marseille, the largest seaport in France.

Although we have just entered the second millennium, we can already see the very prosperous market scene of Marseille.

The city is surrounded by limestone hills on three sides, borders the Mediterranean Sea in the southeast, has deep water and a wide harbor, allowing cargo ships of 10,000 tons to pass through unimpeded, and is connected to Northern Europe in the west.

This unique geographical location also makes Marseille the largest gateway for French foreign trade.

When the car entered the city, Thomas slowed down slightly and turned left and right near a community.

"That's it, let's get out." Thomas sat in the driver's seat and opened the door as he spoke.

"Wow, we're finally here." Ryan said and opened the right door.

Lyman got out of the car and saw the store on the street with a lot of photographic equipment.

The three of them walked forward, and when they came nearby, a middle-aged man heard a noise and came out, "Uncle Angus, long time no see." Thomas took a step forward and hugged the middle-aged man in front of him.

"Haha, Thomas, why do you have time to come to my place? Where is your father?" The middle-aged man looked a little happy when he saw Thomas.

"He is still in Paris and has not come over. This time I brought a friend here to rent some photography equipment." Thomas replied.

"Oh, that's it. Then come in quickly." With that, Angus greeted Lyman and others in and brought out three cups of coffee.

"Come on, try it. These are our home-ground coffee beans."

"Thank you, uncle." Leman took the coffee and thanked him politely.

"You can try to choose. Don't worry, since you are Thomas's friends, I will definitely give you the best price."

With the assurance of these words, Lyman felt a little relaxed.

He took out a list from his body, which recorded the photographic equipment and film shares they would use to shoot the movie.

In addition to three 35mm special cameras, there are also color films produced by Kodak that need to be purchased.

This kind of 35mm color film that is matched with the camera has a length of 122 meters per reel. According to the current film shooting and screening specifications, under normal circumstances, it takes about 27 meters of film to shoot a one-minute shot. One reel of film is only 122 meters long.

It can take about 4.5 minutes to shoot.

Calculating it this way, logically speaking, it seems that just purchasing about 20 reels of Kodachrome film is enough. After all, according to Lehman's scheduled filming situation, there will only be about 90 minutes of footage.

But in the end, Lehmann purchased 300 reels, and this was still a conservative number. If there was not enough film to shoot, he would pre-order it at any time.

When making a movie, almost all directors shoot materials that are more than ten times or even dozens of times the length of the film. For a famous extravagant monster like James Cameron, the material images are even hundreds of times longer.

The money spent by a film crew on film alone is often a huge expense, which is why Lehmann knew Thomas' acquaintances with photographic equipment and hurried from Cannes to Marseille.

If you save a little on each plate, you can save a lot on 300 plates.

Fortunately, Thomas' reputation was good enough. When Lehmann said he wanted 300 reels of Kodak 35mm cinema color film in advance, Angus only charged 80 euros per reel.

It is generally sold for 140 euros per plate on the market. Even if the order quantity is large and a small discount is given, it will never be close to the cost price of 80 euros.

"The total is 24,000 euros." Lehmann silently noted the price in his mind.

His purchasing trip is not yet complete.

Once you choose a camera, you also have to choose a lens that matches it.

Wide angle lens, telephoto lens, soft light photography lens...

Because the movie "Buried Alive" mainly shoots close-up and medium-range photography, we selected the lenses needed for these two parts. In addition to the three 35mm cameras, the expenditure was 8,000 euros and the rental period was 2

For months, out of trust in Thomas, Angus did not even let Lyman advance the prepaid breach of contract or compensation.

This can be regarded as another huge savings.

The rental cost of the filming equipment spent today is 32,000 euros. Since the preparation of the film, personnel salaries, production of props, purchase of cosmetics and cheap special plasma and many other items that need to be prepared have totaled more than 50,000 euros.

The shooting funds were Euros. This was only achieved through the special cost-saving techniques of someone providing the crew with costumes and recruiting two interns.

Lehmann even doubted whether the 450,000 euros he had cheated would last until the end of the film's production.

The preliminary preparation work is too expensive. Although the subsequent shooting seems to be less expensive, the rental of the venue and the recruitment of actors have not yet been carried out. This will also cost a lot of money, as well as the post-production of the film. Lehmann also plans to

To hire a professional and experienced editor, you need to pay the licensing fee for the soundtrack, and you also need to rent a post-production room...

Whenever he thinks about the many hardships in his filming journey, he feels as if his head is going to explode.

After loading all the rented and purchased photographic equipment into a Ford pickup truck with a one-day rent of 80 euros and a full fuel tank, Thomas exchanged a few words with Angus, and then set off again amidst the thanks of the three of them.

Return to Cannes.

"Thomas, it's all thanks to you this time. I'll give you a big red envelope when the movie comes out." Lyman started promising pie with unknown prospects again, but this was the only way he could think of to repay.

"Hehe." Thomas smiled a few times, remained silent, and continued to control the vehicle smoothly.

"If you ask me, why not introduce him to a beautiful girl? Thomas, don't you have a girlfriend yet?" Ryan asked, tilting his head.

"Well... I had one when I was in college, but I broke up with her, and now I'm single."

"Very good, I will introduce you to a girl from the Cannes area."

Lyman couldn't stand it and quickly broke the story, "Ryan, you don't have a girlfriend yourself? You still want to help Thomas find one."

Ryan responded with disdain: "That's because I didn't want to look for it. There are so many girls I've played with, but it's not like you. I haven't tasted it yet. Ignore him, Thomas. We'll have time when we have time."

Let's go to Martinez Beach together, there are many beautiful girls there."

"Okay." Thomas agreed casually.

After the car drove back to Cannes, they did not immediately return the Ford truck. Instead, they drove towards the Martinez Beach where they had just chatted. The suitable filming location Thomas found was nearby.

Turning left at a highway intersection and entering a small road, the car continued to drive. Thomas also introduced the information about the house, "The real estate agent said that it was a large warehouse that was used to store wood. Later, the owner

Because the business transformation no longer required this aspect, we rented and sold the warehouse. That place is not far from Martinez Beach, and it is very remote nearby with not many residents, so it is very suitable for our movie shooting."

Lyman nodded, very satisfied with Thomas's work. Such a location for shooting must not be chosen in a downtown area. Not to mention disturbing people, there will also be a lot of trouble for onlookers, so a more remote location is naturally more suitable for shooting needs.

"Ryan, are you done with the family photos you collected?" Lyman turned to Ryan and asked.

"It's done." Ryan said carelessly: "I used the one from my cousin's family. When she was young, she fit the image of a cute girl. I made an agreement with my aunt, and she agreed to put the photo in the movie.

Go inside."

"Well done." Lyman agreed.

In this case, you don't even have to pay for the licensing agreement for the photos. In France, if you don't communicate well with others when using your portrait rights, you will be compensated heavily.

The crew doesn't have a lot of funds, so I can save whatever I can. If I don't plan carefully, I might be able to put in all the 450,000 euros in the early preparations.

Big projects have big project planning, and small projects also have small project survival rules. Lehmann is very open-minded.

If he had sufficient budget, he wouldn't have to do this, but it's a pity that he doesn't.

There were fewer and fewer trees on both sides of the road, and the path became more and more rugged. Except for the sound of the motor of the Ford pickup truck, there was no longer the noise of the city. After driving for about 5 minutes, a large park was located in the grass.

The warehouse came into view.

"Can we go in and take a look?" Lyman suddenly asked after getting out of the car and walking a few steps.

"I paid the deposit, and the real estate agent gave me the key to the warehouse. We can go in and visit." Thomas was very meticulous in his work and considered a lot of things.

"Then let's go." Ryan also said at this time.

The three of them walked forward, first walking around the warehouse, and then Thomas used the key to unlock the door and entered.

"It looks so shabby and dirty." As soon as Ryan entered and saw this scene, he couldn't help but said.

"It's estimated that no one has used this warehouse for a year or two." Lyman also responded.

"That may be true, but this warehouse does have enough space for us to shoot." Thomas said a good word.

"But we still need to clean the warehouse. How can we take pictures with so much dust?"

"Then let's clean it up." Lyman answered Ryan's question, and then asked: "How much is the rent for a two-month lease?"

"I asked, it's 600 euros."

At 300 euros a month, it was still a big deal for such a large warehouse. Although it needed to be cleaned, it was still a good deal. Lehmann quickly calculated the gains and losses in his mind.

"Thomas, when you get back, take the time to sign a lease contract with the real estate agent. We want this warehouse, and I will allocate the required fees to you later."

"Yeah." Thomas nodded without any objection.
Chapter completed!