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Movie Budgets for Dummies!
iView Author:
Srinivas N
(Bangalore, India)
EMAIL:
Withheld
We have recently seen some posts on PFC about how typical film budgets are. As everyone knows, there is nothing “typical” in any film budget and it all depends on how much you want to spend. Of course, there are some fixed costs as in the equipment rental, lab charges, negative prices etc but again, they are all dependent on how the director decides to execute the project.
Well, I guess I don’t have to say that more the days of your shoot, the more your expenses will be. Even a dummy is aware of this fact. When you are budgeting your project, the director decides on in how many days he intends to complete his project. Once he decides on the number of days, then the approximate budget on equipment hire and daily expenses can be decided. Then comes the locations, depending on the script, whether a studio, real locations etc will be calculated and accordingly budget it based on the approximate studio rentals and location permission charges.
Pre-production and Post production expenses apart, there are many minute things as in costumes, art department, catering etc etc. Each and every detail has to be covered when budgeting a project. Needless to say, even Remuneration for artistes and technicians is a part of the budget.
I am giving you the most effective format used the world over for working on a film budget. You can download the file here (Oz, please provide the link here)
And before finalizing your budget, the best way to arrive at a near perfect budget is to call all the equipment suppliers and get a best quote for their products and services. And for the daily wages, you can get the fixed amount rates from the producers association, or just ask an experienced production manager.
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19 Responses to “Movie Budgets for Dummies!”
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Srinivas, This is indeed an invaluable stuff for many beginning and aspiring cine fanatics who are planning to make a movie. Thanks!
Srinivas, The best thing about your format is
a) it can be tailored (scaled up or down), and
b) it is itemized by teams/tasks and therefore can be used as a check list!
BTW, excluding Amitabh is a nice touch!
Oz, Thank you for the post. As you know, today many youngsters are pitching their projects to their investors. It helps if they have a proper budget and even the investors will be impressed with the homework done by the film makers and the confidence levels increase.
There is a lot of difference between going to them with one single paper with an approx budget and a budget which is thorough.
WB: Thanks, yes..that’s the beauty of that format. BTW, I must have missed the Amitabh part, should have deleted it too. Needless to say, It was for a project I tried to get Amitabh for but things did not work out.
Srinivas, invaluable information, thanx thanx thanx:((
You are welcome Ms.Bhhatia. I hope the information will be of some use to you.
But tell me…Why a crying smiley? :((
I hope so too.. and the smiley is not crying…. on reinterpretation it is screaming out thanx..:)
how do you know my sir name? oh i forgot the authors have a special decoding email technique which i am wanting to decipher
I am not an author here…It’s an Iview project remember. I just know you from another website. That’s all. No decoding or NSA stuff here. :)
oh oh.. thats scary.. which one is that??
Ryze…
you on ryz!!!! amazing.sign my GB or send me a PM.. lets connect.. will take more formats from you.. ha h a
Well, looks like my membership does not allow to send private messages to people or even sign their GB…Why don’t you try to send me a pvt message with your gtalk ID? I am at http://www.ryze.com/go/srinivasnaidu
what sort of membership have you taken… even I can’t sign your GB.. or send a PM… :(
well, my membership is called the zero rupee account! haha! Anyway, my ID is srinivasn77@gmail.com
even i have a zero account membership…..will mail you
to arrive at a budget, you have to break down the script allocating the work accordingly - is it a pilot, a TV Movie or a feature. This breakdown of the script is vital to arrive at a line item budget and should be done by an experienced line producer after determining the NO OF DAYS OF SHOOTING. The below the line costs on a project is usually a constant. It’s the above-the-line costs that is the big variable and would depend on who is in your project. that’s my two cents….babu subramaniam
babu evryone knows i guess that to arrive at abudget one has to breakdown teh script …but thats not practical ..considering you have the total sum that you may get to spedn first and then breadown that sum to arrive at the budget and you may have to compromise on your script.
even below the line costs vary with ‘whos in your movie’?