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".