The process is risky, there are stops and starts, and almost inevitably a filmmaker ends up self-funding various parts of the process and underpaying (or just not paying) her/himself. This makes the budgeting process (and everything else!) much easier.īut for most independent filmmakers, funds come in phase by phase-if they come at all! A little bit of development funding supports the creation of a fundraising trailer, the trailer unlocks production funding, an early rough cut garners post-production funding, etc.
#Movie magic template full#
In the case of commissioned films, the full budget might be guaranteed upfront. Either way, you need to keep the whole life of the film in mind as you budget and fundraise.įundraising: “Upfront” or “Phase by Phase”?Ī good budget reflects, and must serve, the fundraising process. Some funders don’t allow these items on the production budget, so they may need to be budgeted for separately. What if those “prospective buyers” don’t bite? Or if hybrid distribution, based on deep connections you have developed with your audience, turns out to be a better choice for your film anyway? What about a website, publicity, social media or impact campaign? But if you are producing independently, you will likely want to include all of the costs required to premiere a film at a major film festival, promote it there, and-hopefully-deliver to prospective buyers.īut even that may not be enough. If you have been commissioned to make a film for a studio or client, the finish line may be clearly established in a contract. If you know that you’re making a nights-and-weekends project and plan to self-finance $10,000 of hard costs, or that you’re working with a contractually fixed $350k, or that you’re aiming for a $1 million+ budget with studio partners, those are important assumptions for budgeting!īefore you start budgeting, you need to establish “the finish line,” or how much of the life of the film to include in the production budget. It’s worth noting that many projects start with an assumption about the budget itself. This serves as a warning: if these assumptions change, the schedule and budget will too! More complex films might even have a page or two of assumptions attached to the budget. How long will the film be? What format will you shoot and deliver on? Where will you shoot? How much archival material will you use? Most budgets list these basic assumptions at the top of the budget. How long will you research, shoot and edit? Are there any special constraints, such as a tight shooting window or an immovable delivery deadline? No budget can exist without a schedule, and every (inevitable) schedule change will affect the budget.Īs a final preparatory step, list the key assumptions that define the budget.
Are you making a longitudinal vérité film over many years? An urgent investigation? An archival essay? A docu-fiction hybrid?Īs your concept crystallizes, sketch out a schedule. Thus, before you can think about your budget or schedule, you must think about your concept. Changes to one of the three “corners” of this triangle will always affect the other two. In film production, I’d make the corners of this triangle the story itself, the schedule and the budget. If you want something fast and good, it’s not going to be cheap. There’s an adage that I love called the “Triangle of Quality”: “Fast, cheap or good-pick two!” This means that if you want something cheap and fast, it’s probably not going to be very good. Ideally, it is also a living document that can help get a film to completion. This is show business and our work is half “show” and half “business,” whether on a huge doc financed by a studio, or on a passion project made by a lone filmmaker in a small town, who must wear all hats herself.Īt the center of much of this “business” is the budget, which offers a map of the filmmaking process, expressing both the film you’re planning to make and how you plan to make it. Yet after embarking even timidly on a first project, it quickly becomes clear that there are also crews to be hired, workflows to suss out, schedules to draft, and money to be raised and spent. And we spend years in the field and the edit room, working through the labyrinthine, wonderful, frustrating process that documentary-making can be. We strive for cinematic ways to bring those stories to the screen. We pursue people, stories, issues and ideas that fascinate us. Editor's Note: This is a fully revised look at documentary budgeting, and updates the 2006 Documentary article “ Don’t Fudge on Your Budget: Toeing the Line Items.” It was recently presented as a workshop at Getting Real ’18.Īs filmmakers, we yearn to immerse ourselves in the creative process.
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