Budgeting & Scheduling Package – $1500
The (literally) multi-million dollar question: How much will it cost to make my film?
There are a lot of producers who will read your screenplay and throw a number out immediately – “I can shoot this for $7MM.” I’m sure they can shoot it for $7MM but at what quality and schedule? I know some veteran producers who can really get in the ballpark after an initial read. However, this is a very rare skill.
The Budgeting Process
The budgeting process necessarily follows the scheduling process. Don’t take a shortcut and think you can budget with realistic schedule. Shoot days have a dramatic impact on your budget and must be realistically laid according to day/night, location, set, actor availability, SFX and many other mercurial properties. I cannot stress this enough – Budgeting starts with Scheduling.
After you have a realistic schedule, the budgeting process begins. The basic budget outline looks something like this:
There are several variations with the major studios wanting to break out certain items into different categories. However, all budgets should follow this industry standard layout.
Above the Line (ATL) Cost
The ATL costs are usually the glamorous items including producer, director and actor salaries as well as transportation, housing and star costs. These can be a very significant part of the budget when you are using recognizable names.
Below the Line (BTL) Costs
The BTL costs are the less glamorous but extremely important expenses that include all crew and equipment to actually film your movie. These cover everything from DPs, grips, make-up, gaffers, SFX, drivers, location and sound stage rentals.
Don’t skimp on the BTL costs just to afford that “Star” that is just beyond your budget range. Your film will suffer and/or you may run out of money before you finish.
Post Production
Post production is exactly what it sounds like. These are all of the costs associated with editing, color correcting, VFX, sound mastering, titling, and print mastering.
Other Costs
These costs are additional line items that are generally not optional (with the exception of Publicity & Research). They are normally outside of the bond cost calculation as they are static and easily identifiable costs.
Contingency
Another great budgeting tip: Don’t plan on dipping into your contingency. You almost ALWAYS will, but you shouldn’t plan on it from the beginning. If you need more money for your film, either get more investors and do it right, or cut out expensive (and non-needed) shots or SFX/VFX. Dipping into your contingency early on is a good way to get your film taken over by the Bond Company.
Fringes
I didn’t call out the fringes in each section as they are all related to federal and state taxes as well as union pension & health obligations. These are most often a percentage of the pay to each ATL/BTL and can be upwards of 44% additional cost to the hourly (or daily) wage.
Grand Total
A very large number, but one that should reflect the actual cost of shooting your film barring any Force Majeur – assuming you realistically schedule your film and honestly assess your line item costs.
