Why Do You Need A Detailed Film Budget?
Great script—check! Drive and determination to be a successful filmmaker—check! Now what?
If you’re planning on making a movie, then the first thing you will need is an investor or many investors to fund your production. It’s no secret that it is tough to get investments without presenting a budget that is detailed, accurate, and complete. Sophisticated investors will want to see a well-thought-out budget before they will be willing to risk capital on your movie.
Needless to say, developing a quality and accurate budget for your movie is not easy to do.
Typical movie budgets consist of thousands of individual line items, and expenses have to be balanced across many different competing priorities. Unfortunately, having the knowledge and foresight of understanding budgeting priorities to plan for every little cost is something that is only gained through years of experience.
FILM BUDGET PRO ANECDOTE: We once had a potential client who asked us to review a detailed budget they had drafted by someone without industry experience at the budget level they were endeavoring to shoot. The budget had a multitude of errors beginning with incorrect Union crew rates and overtime calculations, overly ambitious estimates for equipment rentals, and very unrealistic location costs. Not to mention, they hadn’t budgeted properly for transportation expenses either. We advised them to have a proper budget created. Unfortunately they decided to go into production with this existing budget only to find themselves running out of money before completing the shoot.
That story illustrates how critical it is to enlist the help of an experienced Line Producer when planning for your project. This is because developing a budget for your movie not only takes skill and experience; it also requires creative problem solving skills that those who have “been there and done that” will use to prepare your budget realistically. The budget is one of the most critical documents of your presentation that an investor will want to review; cutting corners on this essential element could mean the difference between your project receiving funding or not.
With so much at stake, a highly qualified movie budgeting service could be of great assistance to you. When considering this option you should choose a movie budgeting service with an experienced Line Producer that works closely with you to assess the particular vision for your script and creates the financial blueprint for shooting your film. This way you will end up with a Detailed Budget and Budget Top Sheet with a high degree of accuracy for expenses that will hold up amongst the myriad of complex real-world filmmaking variables.
At Film Budget Pro, we are extremely passionate about helping filmmakers achieve their goals by creating a Detailed Budget that matches the vision of their script, while taking into account all the current Guild and Union rates, modern technologies, and post production work flows all the way through to final delivery.
When we work with you to create a Detailed Budget, you can trust that you are receiving the experience of seasoned film industry professionals. We have over 30 years of combined experience producing movies and creating accurate, proven, and reliable budgets.
In other words, we’re the real pros, not a company using a budget algorithm to approximate what your genre of movie might cost. We are actively producing films with industry professionals, not someone who hasn’t made a movie in years.
We will read your script, discuss the critical assumptions with you, and help you develop a shooting paradigm in alignment with your vision. This will include Above-the-Line fees (actors, director, producers) rates for union or non-union crew, equipment rentals/purchases, art department and stage rentals, locations, transportation vehicles, legal, publicity, and post-production through deliverables, just to name a few of the essential sections of our Detailed Budget.
We begin by breaking down your script into a Detailed Schedule and list out each critical element, line by line. Your final budget consists of thousands of line items, which are summarized in your Budget Top Sheet.
Don’t struggle trying to create a movie budget on your own, only to find you are unsure of your research, estimates and post production work flow.
Complete our Script Questionnaire and Contact Us today. We can help you check-off one more task from your to-do list on your way to making your best movie possible! We take pride in helping filmmakers succeed.
