Even experienced professionals will tell you, there's never enough money no matter how large the budget appears for a film. Therefore, while starting a project you as a creative must decide the important factors that best tells your story or adds to the production value. This helps with choosing where you want to spend your money; whether you are working with a no-budget, low-budget, micro-budget or higher.
Things to consider when budgeting:
Do you have an estimated budget scale for the type of film, genre and audience that you're aiming for?
What is important to the story, and for what reasons?
Production Schedule is a major factor, lengthy schedules tend to attract higher costs.
Crew Status, who you have on your team also affects your budget. This includes the size of the crew, and whether they are specialists in their fields or persons finding their footing. All of these factors may also impact the pace of the production schedule and, in turn, budget.
Location, Location, Location. How many will you need, and are there easily accessible or attract charges for use?
What approach to filming are you taking - Multiple cameras filming at once, Long one-shot scenes, an abundance of coverage and B-Roll? These variants also impact your budget.
Equipment choices - Will you buy equipment as an investment, rent, borrow or use what is at your disposal? What equipment does the film style and story call for, jib, drone, Steadicam or just a tripod?
It's not entirely impossible to create a memorable and entertaining film with little to no budget, especially if you can pool together resources and find a team of likeminded driven individuals.
To help you along your planning journey, here's an example of a simple short form Budget* created taking some of the advice outlined above.
Scenario
You've decided to make a short fiction film with a crew made of up friends who are looking to build their portfolio. They will use the majority of equipment they already have while renting a few additional light and sound equipment. After brief auditions, two student actors are casted for the story with the understanding that a stipend and lunch will be provided. To cut costs, you've decided to film at your house and rent an office space for the day. Your production schedule includes 2 days for prep, 3 days of shooting and you will complete the editing and post-production work yourself.
Category | Description | Amount | Cost | Total | Running Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Cast | Actor 1 | 3 Days | $100 | $300 | |
| Actor 2 | 2 Days | $100 | $200 | |
| | | SubTotal | $500 | $500 |
Locations | Office Rental | 1 Day | $300 | $300 | |
| | | Subtotal | $300 | $300 |
Travel | Petrol and Equipment Delivery | 3 Days | $150 | $450 | |
| | | Subtotal | $450 | $450 |
Make-Up | Make-Up Artist | 3 Days | $125 | $375 | |
| | | Subtotal | $375 | $375 |
Catering | Crew | 5 Days | $15 | $75 | |
| Cast | 4 Days | $15 | $60 | |
| | | Subtotal | $135 | $135 |
Equipment | Lights | 3 Days | $65 | $195 | |
| | | Subtotal | $195 | $195 |
| | | | Total | $1955.00 |
**The budget above only serves as an example and not a declaration or indication of local rates for services.
Of course, there are ways to further cut to this budget based on your network and available resources. But remember, prioritizing your spending and plan ahead is important since it is rarely possible to accomplish all three, Fast, Good, Cheap, in a production .
On the flip side, there are more in-depth and larger movie budgets which lists everything Above-the-line and Below-the-line. If you're interested in seeing a sample, check out the documents over in our share file location. Remember, you have to be a member to access that portal!
Comments