Welcome 2011!
In an effort to constantly maintain the quality of our numbers, Quick Film Budget has updated the film budget wage rates to reflect the 2011 rates for SAG, DGA, WGA, IATSE and Teamsters.
2010 was a fantastic first calender year for QFB. Please keep an eye open for new products and functions on the website in 2011. We intend to continue listening to all of your feedback in order to serve our customers in the best way we can.
Check QuickFilmBudget.com for a sample film budget!
Showing posts with label sag. Show all posts
Showing posts with label sag. Show all posts
Tuesday, January 4, 2011
Friday, July 30, 2010
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.
Sincerely,
Adam Lebovitz
Quick Film Budget, Inc.
Thursday, July 29, 2010
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
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
Wednesday, February 24, 2010
Production Food
Craft service refers to the catering done for the cast, crew, and extras working for film and television production companies. A craft service table is a table of snacks set up either on set or on location. Cast, crew, and extras choose snacks and beverages from the table buffet-style.
Full meals are not usually provided on set as there are often many restaurants in the area and studios have at least a coffee shop. The lunch break is typically an hour, unlike the half hour usually given for on location shoots. Situation comedies, or sitcoms, do typically provide catered hot meals once a week, on live taping days. The cast, crew, and extras eat a few hours before the show starts taping.
Craft service items vary widely depending on the production firm's film budget. Most craft service tables include a mixture of 'junk' food such as chips and doughnuts as well as sandwiches, fruit or vegetable platters, cheeses, muffins, and pretzels or microwave popcorn. Usually hot water is available to prepare instant soup and hot chocolate mixes as well as tea. Most craft service areas include urns of coffee as well as sodas and juices. Breakfast craft service offerings usually include fare such as bagels, toast, muffins, cereal, peanut butter and jelly, juices, and coffee.
Sometimes catering trucks are used for bigger productions with a lot of extras. The extras may or may not get sandwiches from a craft service table while the cast and crew receive hot meals. Screen Actors Guild (SAG) members wait in line before other extras, and cast and crew wait ahead of all extras. This is not purely a matter of ranking order, but also scene scheduling. Extras, unlike the cast, and especially the crew, are not needed on set all of the time.
Check QuickFilmBudget.com for a sample film budget.
Full meals are not usually provided on set as there are often many restaurants in the area and studios have at least a coffee shop. The lunch break is typically an hour, unlike the half hour usually given for on location shoots. Situation comedies, or sitcoms, do typically provide catered hot meals once a week, on live taping days. The cast, crew, and extras eat a few hours before the show starts taping.
Craft service items vary widely depending on the production firm's film budget. Most craft service tables include a mixture of 'junk' food such as chips and doughnuts as well as sandwiches, fruit or vegetable platters, cheeses, muffins, and pretzels or microwave popcorn. Usually hot water is available to prepare instant soup and hot chocolate mixes as well as tea. Most craft service areas include urns of coffee as well as sodas and juices. Breakfast craft service offerings usually include fare such as bagels, toast, muffins, cereal, peanut butter and jelly, juices, and coffee.
Sometimes catering trucks are used for bigger productions with a lot of extras. The extras may or may not get sandwiches from a craft service table while the cast and crew receive hot meals. Screen Actors Guild (SAG) members wait in line before other extras, and cast and crew wait ahead of all extras. This is not purely a matter of ranking order, but also scene scheduling. Extras, unlike the cast, and especially the crew, are not needed on set all of the time.
Check QuickFilmBudget.com for a sample film budget.
Thursday, February 11, 2010
SAG Info
TELEVISION AND THEATRICAL 6/10/09 6/10/10
Day Performers:
Performer .........................................................................................................$ 782 $ 809
Stuntperformer .................................................................................................$ 782 $ 809
Stunt Coordinator (employed at less than "flat deal") .........................................$ 782 $ 809
Weekly Performers:
Performer .........................................................................................................$ 2,713 $ 2,808
Stuntperformer ..................................................................................................$ 2,913 $ 3,015
Stunt Coordinator (employed at less than "flat deal") ..........................................$ 2,913 $ 3,015
These rates are taken directly from the SAG website. You can use this information for your film budget.
Check QuickFilmBudget.com for a sample film budget.
Day Performers:
Performer .........................................................................................................$ 782 $ 809
Stuntperformer .................................................................................................$ 782 $ 809
Stunt Coordinator (employed at less than "flat deal") .........................................$ 782 $ 809
Weekly Performers:
Performer .........................................................................................................$ 2,713 $ 2,808
Stuntperformer ..................................................................................................$ 2,913 $ 3,015
Stunt Coordinator (employed at less than "flat deal") ..........................................$ 2,913 $ 3,015
These rates are taken directly from the SAG website. You can use this information for your film budget.
Check QuickFilmBudget.com for a sample film budget.
Thursday, November 19, 2009
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
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
Monday, November 9, 2009
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
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
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