Spending Budget Money Wisely

I've mentioned our micro-budget for this film in passing. We have about $20,000 pulled together, and with the free use of equipment, it probably kicks it up to $50,000.

That kind of budget leaves little room for extras like paying actors (we're offerring deferred pay, meaning we'll pay them if the film turns a profit); and much in the way of production design (you'll notice a lot of indie films are shot in apartments; these are usually the apartments of the filmmaker and his/her friends).

So now I'm up against one of those difficult choices. We need to get a script clearance report. The short version: a company checks out every possible legal issue in your script (like use of first/last names, company/brand names, etc.) to make sure you won't be sued. You use this report to get something called E&O Insurance on your film (errors and ommissions -- basically, the insurance a distributor needs so they know, when they buy your film, that they're not buying into any legal problems).

The cheapest scritp clearance service I've found thus far is $1000. That's certainly reasonable, but given our actual cash budget, it's a LOT of money. I have raised an extra $350 from other sources, so now I've got a deficit of $650 to pay for the report.

I discussed this with the producer, and he basically said: we don't have any extra anywhere, so it's up to you to tell me if we need to pull money from another place to use on this.

So -- $650 needed, but where do I pull it from? Not sure what I should do... but times 'a wastin'. I have to get the report done soon if it is to be of any use.