How to Budget for a Film Production
Very few people enjoy the concept of budgeting. And through its spreadsheets, number crunching and many, many searches it certainly isn’t for everyone. But, for better or for worse, budgeting is fundamental to each and every film production as it is stage which ensures the project will be able to be finished (hopefully) within the given budget.
Usually, this task is handed to the reams of crew dedicated to it—all of those with the dedicated producer tag within their role name. But in a world of indies and smaller productions, the role is usually taken on by the project leads—whether they also wear the cap as a director, writer or anything else.
Fortunately, the budgeting process is not the mysterious beast it appears as, and is certainly a process able to be completed by any passionate filmmaker. And, yes, that means you too!
In this article we’ll break down the key stages to consider when budgeting your film to ensure you can forecast all the foreseeable costs as to make the most of your budget—so get your scripts and spreadsheets ready.
But before we begin, the number one rule with budgeting is that you always want your film to end under budget. Whether that’s by $1 or a few thousand, it is the job of those budgeting to ensure that the budget is set out wisely, while also ensuring there is always enough money in reserve to account for any hiccups or unexpected costs that may occur down the road.
Pre-production
Of course, pre-production is where this process starts. The most logical way to approach budgeting is working sequentially. That is, beginning by breaking down the projected costs for each part off the process in turn. Do note, that while this guide may be broken down into the stages of pre-production, production and post-production, it is essential that you budget for all these stages in the pre-production stage. As any stray, unforeseen and essential costs further down the line can break a production.
Step 1: Break Down the Script
In order to get started you need to have a bunch of information—where is the film to be shot? How many shooting days are necessary? What props are required? And how many people are in the cast? All this and more will be revealed in the all-important early stage of breaking down the script.
Here, you want to read through the script thoroughly while taking note of every single thing required for production. One of the most effective ways of starting this is first breaking down the script into a list of scenes grouped by their locations—this is, of course, due to the fact that you’ll want to shoot every scene at a particular location during one discrete part of the shoot. Then, with the scenes arranged, you can dive into the necessary costs for each scene—cast, crew, props, locations, special effects etc. While doing this throughout the script I would recommend using a tool to highlight the script, colour coding each cost into categories like those just mentioned—this will help ensure that (A) you haven’t missed anything and (B) that you, or another crew member, will be able to easily interpret the document in the future.
With all the foreseeable costs laid out in front of you, now it’s time to figure out how much each will cost.
Step 2: Solidify Shooting Schedule
In order to determine many of the fees, you’ll need to know roughly how long each sequence will need to be shot. Whether that’s a simple one-day shoot in a studio or a three-week adventure into the Amazon rainforest, understanding time scale is essential.
For this, simply take the scenes previously listed and begin allocating time to shooting each. And, while you want to be as frugal as possible with your time, do provide some leeway for setting up, packing down, rehearsing, lunch and any other factors unique to your project.
In all, ensure you’re giving everything enough time in your schedule.
But once the schedule is defined, you’ll have an all-important blueprint to measure cast/crew fees along with the money needed to secure locations.
Step 3: Pre-production costs
Next, consider any and all pre-production costs. These can range from rehearsals to location scouting to hiring an office and printing out scripts or call sheets. It will also include the procurement or creation of any particular props, costumes, production design or previsualisations necessary for your project.
As this is different for each and every production, it is hard to provide an extensive list. But, fortunately for us, you won’t need one because at this stage you will have your own list in the form of your script breakdown!
Step 4: The Cast and Crew
Paying cast and crew is non-negotiable. The days of working for free or delivering favours are limited to film schools and buddy productions. Out in the real world you must pay individuals at least the recommended union rates. These rates will vary depending on the individual and their role but ensure that you factor in each and every member of the cast and crew. That said, we can split the key crew into two types.
Above the line crew are the essential crew members you need to progress through pre-production. These are your writers, producers, director of photography, production designer and director. Different productions may include different crew members as above the line—such as VFX supervisor—so simply ensure that your core team have heads for each department necessary for your production.
Below the line crew make up the rest of the crew. These will fill out your departments and help production progress quickly and smoothly. Your budget will always determine how big a crew you can procure, but you will want to ensure that each department has a sufficient number of crew members in order to allow swift efficiency when on set.
When hiring cast and crew, ensure you are transparent with your shooting hours, rates and overtime pay—so that they know what they are getting into.
Furthermore, for peace of mind it can be worth accounting for a few extra days/hours (depending on the size of your production) than your initial calculations to ensure your budget has enough reserve for pickups, reshoots or any hiccups in the overall process.
Production
Production costs are, of course, where the majority of your budget will go, so ensure you spend enough time to not only find what’s right for your project but also what will allow you to stay in budget. You don’t want to end up blowing 50% of your budget on a location if you could have got a similar one for free.
Step 5: Equipment, Props and other Rentals
Beyond the cast and crew, which are already long-secured, rentals will make up the vast majority of costs here. And these come in two flavours.
Referring back to your script breakdown, you’ll easily be able to determine the film’s on-screen necessities. From buying props and providing supplies for your makeup artists to paying for location/studio rentals your on-screen necessities should be immediately apparent.
Turning to behind the camera, there are a bunch of large production costs to account for. The most obvious of which being the rental of camera, sound, lighting equipment, storage, and other equipment. However, on top of this you will also need to facto in travel costs, potential car/van rentals and the all-important catering to keep your team’s spirits high.
While you can set preliminary numbers for things like technical equipment, do be sure to have close discussions with the heads of department to ensure you can provide the required equipment (of course, within reason) without forking out to acquire items that will remain in the truck.
Post-Production
After the raw material has all been gathered, there need to be sufficient funds in the budget to see the production through to completion—so never forget about you post-production budget! The costs can vary wildly depending on a production, with a standard edit being a fraction of the costs of production while a VFX heavy production can quickly rival the production costs.
Step 6: Costs for finishing the project
You’ll want to ensure you have secured your key post-production staff early on. These include an editor, colourist, and sound engineer—although these can often all be done by the same person.
Costs will go into hiring these individuals but can also come in the form of hiring editing suites, procuring pricey hard-drives to store and back up data [always have at least 1 backup].
While these may be quite straight forward, chances are you’ll need to think about music as well. This could be completed by hiring a composer or securing the rights to use pre-existing music. Whichever route you take, ensure you have the budget to secure all the necessary permissions for music. If you are planning to use well-known songs, this means factoring the exact cost of specific songs into the budget from day one.
Step 7: Distribution and sharing the work.
Depending on the function of your film—be it an art film, a commercial or anything in between—distrubtion is a feature that can often be left until last by the key crew. Ensuring you have enough budget to pay for festival fees, secure a PR team or promote the film yourself is paramount for getting your work seen.
Of course, if you are completing work on commission chances are that this will be taken care for you. But, either way, it’s worth considering any and all distributional costs early on to equip your project with the best chances of getting an audience.
With all these costs considered and calculated, your production should be in a good place to approach investors, allocate funds or get started. As mentioned throughout this article, your breakdown is likely to look very unique—so if you don’t require a bunch of these steps or need to add in your own for specific production needs go ahead. Always remember the key to understanding your budget is your script (or project breakdown for music videos and commercials). There you’ll be able to forsee the majority of the production’s costs, so make sure you absolutely nail the script breakdown!
