Thank You SAG

QuickFilmBudget.com would like to thank SAG and its over 100 members that attended our class last night "Getting Your Script Into Production". We discussed creating a budget, getting financing, and casting your film. We were very grateful for the support and impressed with the participation and questions from the audience. We look forward to having another class in the near future.

Sincerely,
Adam Lebovitz
Quick Film Budget, Inc.

SAG Foundation Event Today!

"Getting Your Script into Production"
Event Type: LifeRaft
Title: Getting Your Script into Production
Learn how to get your project into production and how to save time and money.
Date: Thursday, July 29, 2010
Time: 7-9pm (Check-in 6:00-6:45pm)
Location: SAG Foundation Actors Center
5757 Wilshire Blvd-MEZZANINE LEVEL
(Parking Validation Available)

Join filmmakers Nolan Lebovitz and Adam Lebovitz as they speak about the pre-production process and their experience in the film industry. Through this seminar you will learn how to get your project into production and how to save TIME and MONEY – the two most valuable ingredients to bringing your creative vision to fruition.

Nolan and Adam will help you with:
• Creating a film budget
• Getting your film financed
• The Casting process
• How to Sell your film

About the speakers:
In 2008, Sony released "Tortured", a film that Nolan wrote and directed and Adam produced. "Tortured" starred Laurence Fishburne, Cole Hauser and James Cromwell. Before that, Adam produced "Unrest" for Lionsgate in 2006. Most recently, Nolan and Adam sold a webseries to Fox TV Studios in 2009. After the presentation, Nolan and Adam will make themselves available for a Questions and Answers session.
***Nolan and Adam have launched a revolutionary budgeting tool QuickFilmBudget.com which they will also demonstrate by creating a budget for a member of the audience, free of charge

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 $$$.

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

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