I don't know crap about local funding for film in Vermont at this point. I would check the Vermont Film Commission office though for any leads on that. But be careful, you might get on their radar for needing "permits" for any outside shooting. Unless you need to block off traffic you can easily get away with guerilla style film making in Vermont. (Think "Clerks"). Another thing for money for a film is trading a role for something you need. Also the most important thing in your film isn't your video - it's your sound. You can do anything with crappy video but if your sound sucks there's just no fixing it. If there's one thing you want it's a person who really knows how to operate a boom microphone... you absolutely 100% do not want to use a microphone that is ON a camera. Speaking of cameras... anything standard def will work for local public broadcast. And they're affordable cameras for anyone. But if you want to target a movie screen you'll need an HD camera. The minimal one is probably 2000$ now to buy. You want actual focus ability this is important... right now a great camera you can use a Sony EX1 - they're 6 grand though but they're rentable for about 250$ a day from some places (out here in California anyway - not sure if anyone rents them in Vermont). Lighting - camera related - if you have a lot of daytime outdoor scenes - you can get away with absolutely no lights. Your basic grip package can cost a pretty penny... and at that point your talking about renting generators and stuff because you will most likely not be allowed to use local power. If you can get away with using handheld battery powered pack lights, and be inventive in your shots and light sources (cheat the shot to get great light on close ups - remember it's about the shot on the screen matching what you need - not the exact location in the room). I did a night shoot once and we used nothing but the headlights of the cars and those little round plastic battery powered lights that you push the top on to turn on. We used gels on those lights to get the effect and someone held them just off camera to get it to work.Song rights. Not cheap. You'll need a lot of money to use any commercial song even if it's a cover by another band. Using Disney as an example of this - even THEY use covers of popular songs by their "groomed" mucical group/units/kids.Local bands doing original music is your best bet for free music or low cost music. Any commercial song that you don't obtain legal rights to is going to make your movie just a fancy home video that you will only be able to give copies to your friends. The rights to Zeppelin would be a minimum (guesstimate) of $30000. And that's for another band to cover it probably - not even using the original recording. To give you an example - I know a local band back in Vermont that wrote and contributed a single song to the Shrek Soundtrack (the song itself wasn't in the movie just the CD release) and they were paid 20000$ for the initial rights and use and then received royalties/residuals for all the sales of each unit. I suppose it might be possible to get the rights for a popular song but you might have to work one hell of a back-end deal (assuming you want to make money off this after you make it) to make that fly.Filming at the High School might be possible. Especially if your tight with anyone who might be in a position to approve it. I once filmed a period scene at the Ethan Allen homestead - it looked very cool that I got footage that seemed to actually take place in the 1800s. In return for the ability to film there I was traded them the right to call on me to shoot a PSA for them. They never called. But you might have to pay for your on-site rep at a minimum. Cause they have to have someone on site supervising your whole production. If you need a LOT of people in the school then the odds are you'll need to spend a bunch of money on extra security and school reps.If at anytime you get large and have a lot of crew helping you'll also need radios. It will save TONS of time.Not to mention feeding all your people every day you shoot (if you do really long days - you need to feed your peeps... and I don't mean little marshmallow bunnies and birds).I have no idea if you have my email anymore... but feel free to hit me up at gngjohnwoo@yahoo.com and I'll give you my real email... that one is my spam catcher at this point.