Music and Composers

One of the last touches to your film is the music and film score. You must understand both the long and short term ramifications of how you approach this decision. Sales agents will often tell you to score the film with the most popular songs to make the film sound as similar to a studio and the most commercial possible. However, your film budget will probably not be large enough to buy the rights to the songs so you are putting them in your film with the hope that whoever buys your film will pay for the song rights. This is often a major mistake by filmmakers because buyers will often deduct such a cost from your purchase price. The even worse outcome is that no big studio wants to buy the film and the offers for video assume you own the music rights and then you have to rescore the film with songs your movie budget can afford and hope that the distributors / buyers still want to buy your movie.

My advice is to hire a music composer within your movie budget who can create music that sounds creatively right for your film. It's also a good idea to create a package deal with a music composer that includes all the music and songs in the film. The composer best understands how much everything will cost and will probably be able to get the best deals due to his/her relationships in the music industry. Also, their creative and financial interests are alligned with yours assuming that they care about their career.

You can get a sample film budget at www.quickfilmbudget.com

Costume Designers

The costume designer must always have doubles, triples and quadruples of every clothing item no matter what genre of film but especially if it's a horror movie. Imagine shooting the gory slasher scene. You have the blood, the film, the actors everything except you only have one of the costumes and no replacements! This limits your shoot to just one take. Rarely can filmmakers get away with capturing everything they need in just one take. So if your costume designer (maybe you're wearing that hat too) must choose between two costume- always pick the one with doubles and triples for multiple takes. Remember this advice and hopefully you can return the unused costumes to stay under your film budget.

Trailers

Of course, the quality of the feature film itself is extremely important when selling it to distributors. But an important tool used to sell it is the trailer which is about 60-90 seconds in length and conveys the genre, tone and scope while featuring the stars in the film. Most sales agents will demand a trailer before they agree to sell the film. As a result, make sure that your film budget includes a line item for either "Sales Materials" or "Trailer".

Here are some helpful tips in creating the trailer.
1) Hire a professional trailer editor. There is a difference between a feature editor and the trailer editor in that a trailer editor only has about 100 seconds to convey the entire message and they generally know what kind of shots to look for to create the trailer.
2)Look for an editor who has access to editing equipment so you don't have to pay for an avid.
3)The trailer editor should have a resume of other trailers in the same genre.
4)Most importantly, make sure the trailer rocks!

Domestic and Foreign Sales Teams

We all wish film financing was like having a wealthy uncle who could write a check so we could make a movie for however much we want. In reality, filmmaking is based on a reasonable business model where the goal is to make a profit. As everyone know, profit is defined as revenue minus expenses. After you have assembled your film package, foreign sales agents will evaluate it off of the three most important elements: 1) What is the genre? 2) Who is the director? 3) Who are the actors? Based on these answers, the sales agent will estimate the value of the revenue on the film. Unfortunately, most filmmakers never learn this simple concept which is used to value every film sold before completion. I used to work for a film finance company and I was amazed that they never read the script!

Now that you have a professional estimate of your film's sales revenue, you know that your film must cost less than that to make a profit. It is at this point, that you create your film budget by taking the total desired budget amount and back into each of the accounts.

If you would have first estimated your budget based on the script without any consideration to sales, your rich uncle could stand to lose a lot of $$$.

Film Budget Process

Recently, a line producer wrote a Tweet about www.QuickFilmBudget.com: "Need detailed script breakdown b4 budget. If you back into a number, you change the script to fit the budget. Not ideal."

I would say that this person is approaching budgeting in the traditional way taught in film school where you first read a script, break it down by schedule and then determine the film budget. However, today's market forces filmmakers to rely on their own salesmanship. For instance, if a recent film school grad wants to make a horror film, the current market determines that it should be made for a $1-2 million with no known actors or about $10 million dollars with known stars. This all assumes that the film is intended for domestic and foreign sales. ("Paranormal Activity" is a one in a million lottery winner.) Most indie films work backwards from an amount that investors are willing to give. To start the budget process by scheduling and breakdown is a dreamer's approach in today's indie world. Also, Quick Film Budget is a tool for getting started for the cost of $149 and not intended to be the actual shooting budget. The difference is that we admit that up front whereas UPM's (like the one who wrote his criticism on Twitter) sell their budgets to filmmakers in need of a budget for a typical price of at least $1000 without clarifying that their budget is also a road map and a true shooting budget will have to be created-- When? After the total budget number is raised and the budget will have to "backed into that number".

Cinematographer

Choosing a cinematographer is a complex decision that is based on artistic taste and budgetary constraints. For example, it would make sense that if you are producing a slapstic comedy, that you would hire a DP who had worked on other comedies as opposed to a DP who had only worked on sad dramas. The lighting of a scene contributes tremendously to the emotional response of the audience.

The other consideration is your budget. DPs who have only worked on big studio budget films, may not know how to effectively a light a shot on a short schedule and smaller lighting budget. Studio films generally film 1-3 pages of a script per day as opposed to an independent film which usually needs to film 3-6 pages per day. Sometimes, you may find a DP with experience in both worlds and the ability to light on any size film budget (Keep those DPs as close friends!)

For a guideline on how much to budget for a cinematographer and his lighting equipment, check out www.QuickFilmBudget.com

Film Budgets and Creative Results...

Can any movie be made on a smaller film budget with the same creative results? False! The budget of a film determines how much a film spends on every category. "Titanic" could not have been made for $10 million and "Paranormal" could not have been made for $20 million. If James Cameron made "Titanic" on a significantly smaller budget, it would have looked like a bathtub video and audiences would not have become engrossed in the love story that was the heart of the film. Similarly, audiences would have never believed that an expensive Hollywood version of "Paranormal Activity" could possibly be true. Sometimes money is wasted, but every movie has an appropriate budget level.

Check out www.QuickFilmBudget.com for a guideline on film budgeting.

Film vs. Video

Will it be cheaper if I shoot digitally vs. film? Not always. The key factors for deciding whether to shoot on film or video is 1) how much film are you going to shoot? 2) What will you output to? Creatively, what is the best look? Does your movie have many exterior day scenes? If you are shooting a documentary, you will probably shoot a ton of film or maybe you have a director that shoots a lot of takes. If these are true, then the cost of developing film to your movie budget will be much greater than video which has no cost to develop. But if you plan to shoot a short film or have a director who shoots with great efficiency than the cost to develop the film will be the same as the DI and all of the other treatments to make video look like film. Creatively, if your film is all about beautiful sunsets or the water, then shooting video will not look real as video has a tough time dealing with the brilliant colors and texture of sunlight and water.

For a film glossary check www.quickfilmbudget.com

The importance of editors

In the past two weeks, I have heard two separate stories where films have fired editors because the director wanted to edit the film. One of these films is a high level documentary (which may be killing its chance for a theatrical release) and the second is a low film budget comedy (which probably never had a chance for a theatrical release). I was shocked in both instances because editors play an invaluable role on a film. In fact, about 75 years ago, studio heads were editors because they knew how to salvage a film or piece a story together from what the director shot.

True, nowadays many people have bought Final Cut and learned to cut together a digital video. But there is an art and an importance to having a separate person edit a film. The significance is that editors offer an impartial view that directors lose as they fall in love with specific shots or an actors performance. However, a single beautiful shot may confuse the story and an actor's performance may distract the audience from the plot. The art of editing takes years to hone because it takes a true understanding of story and determining how the specific film needs to be shaped to create a great story.

For more information on how much to pay an editor and how long an editor should work on a film, check www.QuickFilmBudget.com

Extras Extras Read all about it!

As a young producer I thought I could always trims a budget by cutting a few extras in some scenes. True, I saved money by not hiring those extras because extras have daily wages, require being fed and require extra attention by the 1st AD or even require hiring an additional AD to direct them.

What I quickly learned was that yes I saved money but the film's sales value was less because the production value dropped. Extras are supposed to simulate real life because when was the last time that you walked into a coffee shop in a decent sized city during normal business hours and it was empty? Audiences know that there are going to be people in the coffee shop or something is wrong or it looks not real.

It's a tough lesson to learn but sometimes extras are a cheap way to add production value. A win-win solution to this issue is filming in a smaller location that requires less on-screen actors to fill it.

For guidelines on how much to budget for extras in your film budget, check out www.quickfilmbudget.com

Child Actors and Movie Budgets

Some of my favorite movies are about kids ("The Goonies" and "E.T."). Looking at these films from a production perspective gives an entirely different way of filmmaking that are dominated by child labor laws. For example, a teacher liaison must be on set at all times when children are present not only to protect them but also to spend a certain number of hours teaching them what they miss in school. Also, children cannot work as many hours as adults. All of these elements affect the film budget so they must be taken into consideration when making a movie with child actors.

For more information on how child actors affect film budgets check out www.quickfilmbudget.com

Film Budget and Box Office Mathematics

Understanding what your film make at the box office will help shape how large or small your film budget should be. Of course, there was no way to predict how much "Napoleon Dynamite" or "Paranormal Activity" or how small "The Island" would gross at the box office. But, if you have a reasonable expectation for the average box office numbers on theatrical films or what certain actors and/or directors command in foreign sales, then you can back into how much to make your film for. The rule of thumb for box office gross is that every dollar the theater earns in gross revenue, half goes to the studio and half goes to the theater (the longer the film plays in theaters the more the split favors the studio). So if your movie makes $100 million dollars at the box office, then $50 million goes to the studio and $50 million goes to theater. P&A costs are usually either $20 million for a normal wide release and closer to $50 million and possibly higher for a tentpole film (ex: "Troy", "Avatar"). So if you expect your horror film to gross $100 million at the box office, with a $20 million P&A spend, then the breakeven cost of the film budget shout be $30 million. Now that you understand the mathematics, you can understand why most horror films are made on a movie budge of $20 - $40 million.

Look at www.quickfilmbudget.com for more information on how to make a film budget for $30 million.

Low Budget Films and Locations

Film locations have a multiplying effect on a film's budget. Even if you can get all of your film locations for free, the more film locations you have the more time will be wasted on company moves, transportation costs (ex: gas), set-up time, construction and set design costs. Movies like Paranormal Activity and Saw not only saved money on using fewer locations but made their film better by focusing all of their time and money on a couple locations which gave them high production value and gave the director more time for the actors as opposed to waiting for the crew to constantly build sets and make company moves. Too often do I see low budget movies trying to act like studio films by picking stories that require many locations which all end up looking cheaply done.

Check out www.quickfilmbudget.com for a guide on budgeting for locations on low budget films.

A-List vs. Ensemble Casting

Whether you are producing your low budget indie film or high budget hollywood blockbuster, one of the major first steps in putting together your movie is casting. Of course you want to cast the best most talented biggest actors but that is easier said than done. A tough decision in casting is whether to spread your money to create a cool ensemble cast of B+ or A- actors (I wont list them but you can find examples by going to Blockbuster or Netflix and looking at films that had big actors but didn't get theatrical releases) OR you can put all of your money into an A-list actor/actress (think Brad Pitt or Leonardo DiCaprio). I cannot advise you on the creative choice as to who is right for the role or who has the most talent but if you put that aside and look at it from a movie budget and film sales perspective I recommend that you always put all of your money towards one A-list actor instead of a few B-list actors.

In the current climate of foreign sales and film studios/domestic distributors buying films, a spreading your money across a bunch of B-list actors will deem your film a direct to dvd film whereas giving nearly all of your casting money to one A-list star will give it consideration for a theatrical release and bigger film sale prices ($$$).

In past years, ensemble casting was a great trick that would get you the same sales numbers as one A-list star. Even David O. Selznick wrote about using this trick in his memos. But times have changed and casting has changed with it. The gap between an A-list star and a B-list star has grown which is reflective of theater audiences and their taste in ticket purchases.

Look at www.quickfilmbudget.com for a guideline on how much to budget for actors and actresses given your film budget and genre.

-Adam

Film Scheduling and Actors

Bringing your film under budget or on budget begins before day one of production and even pre production. The biggest cost to your film is probably the lead actor if you are dealing with movie stars. If your film production schedule is 25 days or 5 weeks of 5 day shoots, but you only need your star for 10 days, schedule your film around making the top priority of having those 10 days be consecutive. That way, when you make your offer Joe Smith, aka The Biggest Movie Star on the planet, and your film budget only allows you to offer a fraction of his quote, it will be easier to sell it to his agent and his agent will have any easier time selling it to his client if he only has to work a short amount of time. Make sure the actor's contracts allow you to use his name and appearance in all marketing and material so you can benefit from his starpower. If you use this strategy effectively, you can save money on your star costs to spend on other film production needs, like special effects. Understanding scheduling is an important tool that has a direct impact on your movie budget. Check here for guidelines on how much you should budget for actors.

-Adam

SAG DGA IATSE WGA PGA

Film unions are good and bad for films. SAG, DGA, IATSE, WGA and PGA all are good for films because they create a clear set of rules and payment so everyone knows the rules. They are also good for films because they signal an expected level of quality of worksmanship (although this doesn't always ring true). The downside to union films is that they increase the cost of wages and the clearly stated union work rules can work against a film producer when they are trying to save money. Producing is all about making choices- shoot on a soundstage or on location? hire another production assistant or spend more on set design?

If the choice is which guild for your film to become a signatory, here is a guide. Keep in mind that all of these unions and guilds have different wage scales depending on the budget of your film (micro level, low budget level, medium budget, high budget). If you still must choose, I suggest the following rational:

Ask yourself what kind of film you are making. If it is a special effect heavy horror film or action film, it is probably wiser to make sure that you have a strong director and strong crew so the special effects and stunts look as real as possible.

If you are making a drama or musical, you want to hire the best actors and director because audiences and film critics will evaluate your film first and foremost based on the actors' performances.

Thrillers are tricky because they usually require great performances (remember Keiser Soseh in "The Usual Suspect") and some action. Overall, thrillers require great directors, actors, writing, and crew to pull off the film. The challenge is to keep it under budget. Try limiting your shooting locations while avoiding a direct-to-dvd "always inside" feel.

Visit here for a For more information, see movie budget guidelines on how much to budget for film producers, writers, directors, crew, and actors.

-Adam

"Night Filming"

The term "Night Shooting" is a film scheduling term that means that the film production takes place at night. Related terms are "Night for Day" which means that you shoot a daytime scene at night. These shooting practices are common in plots of horror films. Both of these practices should be avoided if at all possible and these are the reasons why:

1)One or two days of night shooting may not have a harmful effect but anything more will dramatically reduce the productivity of the crew and actors by almost 50%!!
2) Scheduling nightmares! When you go from shooting night time shoots to day time shoots you need to give the crew and actors the required turnover time between calltimes (even if you wrap night time shoots on Friday night and begin Monday morning).

You might be asking why I am blogging about a scheduling issue for my first blog in "Film Budget"? Because, these scheduling issues have a detrimental effect on your bottom line and they are the easiest to solve!

When the crew is less productive, it is more probable to run into overtime ($$$) and possibly accidents happen ($$$). The best way to deal with night time shooting is to shoot all of the interior night scenes during the daytime but light the scenes for a night time look. All exterior night scenes should be grouped together and saved for the last days of shooting (to avoid the scheduling turnover issue). This strategy minimizes the harmful effects on your film budget.

For more information, see film budget guidelines on how to budget a horror film filled with night time shoots.

-Adam