Marketing & PR Firms - How to Make a Production Budget
Saturday, November 23, 2013
For people who dream of seeing their stories come alive on the big screen, producing their own movie independently is a way to ensure control over the process as well as the intent of the story. With the number of independent professionals willing to work on film crews and the abundance of talent looking for their big break, the independent film industry has grown tremendously over the past few decades. In order to understand the costs associated with producing your film, creating a product budget is an essential activity that should be done before the cameras start rolling.
1
Create a summary page for your production budget. At the top of the page, list the information about your film, including the title, name of director, dates of production, format and length of the movie. Underneath that, create a table with five columns, and rows to fill the page. At the top of the first column, write "No." to refer to the section number. In the next column, write "Description." Leave the third column blank and write "Total" in both the fourth and fifth columns. The fourth column will be used to total the section, and the fifth will tally the project total.
2
Add the budget categories and number them under "No." and "Description." The first category will be numbered "1" and under "Description" write "Story and Script." Then add categories and number them for "Producer and Director," "Performers," "Production Staff," "Locations and Studio," "Production Equipment," "Raw Stock," "Laboratory" and "Miscellaneous." Add a line for sub-total, then add the following categories: "Sound and Music" and "Editing and Finishing." Add a sub-total line for those two items, then a line for the Total of the two sub-amounts.
3
Create separate pages for each of the categories and add together all the costs associated with them. For instance, under "Story and Script" you'll want to add the costs together for buying the rights to the story (if it's not your own work), and anyone hired to edit the script for production. For "Producer and Director" you'll want to list the salaries for the Executive Producer, Producer and Director as well as their expenses. "Performers" should include all cast members, extras, stunt crew and union fees that need to be paid. Each sheet will give you a total cost for the category.
4
Transfer the total costs from each of the category page to your main budget page in the fourth column. In the fifth column, tally the costs as you add each of the categories together. Once you have included all the individual costs for each category, create the sub-totals and add them for the grand total. This is the formal budget that you will work from to produce your movie.
Tags:
Marketing, Marketing amp; PR Firms
1
Create a summary page for your production budget. At the top of the page, list the information about your film, including the title, name of director, dates of production, format and length of the movie. Underneath that, create a table with five columns, and rows to fill the page. At the top of the first column, write "No." to refer to the section number. In the next column, write "Description." Leave the third column blank and write "Total" in both the fourth and fifth columns. The fourth column will be used to total the section, and the fifth will tally the project total.
2
Add the budget categories and number them under "No." and "Description." The first category will be numbered "1" and under "Description" write "Story and Script." Then add categories and number them for "Producer and Director," "Performers," "Production Staff," "Locations and Studio," "Production Equipment," "Raw Stock," "Laboratory" and "Miscellaneous." Add a line for sub-total, then add the following categories: "Sound and Music" and "Editing and Finishing." Add a sub-total line for those two items, then a line for the Total of the two sub-amounts.
3
Create separate pages for each of the categories and add together all the costs associated with them. For instance, under "Story and Script" you'll want to add the costs together for buying the rights to the story (if it's not your own work), and anyone hired to edit the script for production. For "Producer and Director" you'll want to list the salaries for the Executive Producer, Producer and Director as well as their expenses. "Performers" should include all cast members, extras, stunt crew and union fees that need to be paid. Each sheet will give you a total cost for the category.
4
Transfer the total costs from each of the category page to your main budget page in the fourth column. In the fifth column, tally the costs as you add each of the categories together. Once you have included all the individual costs for each category, create the sub-totals and add them for the grand total. This is the formal budget that you will work from to produce your movie.
