You can ensure you’re able to film what your team has in mind.But because budgeting it’s so critical to the filmmaking process, we’ll expand. If you’re reading this, you probably understand the importance of developing and keeping track of a film budget throughout.

Next, you’ll need to develop a firm and trackable budget. When you’re putting together a preliminary budget to pitch investors, keep in mind you’ll need comps to your project’s genre.įor example, if you’re shooting a small budget documentary, you’ll need to share similar projects’ budgets and their results.Įntertainment lawyers and sales agents can be great resources here for discovering a comparable sample film budget. The Other category of a preliminary film budget format can contain everything from marketing and distribution expenses to production insurance. Other - If this were a category on Jeopardy, it would be Potent Potables.Below the Line Post - This encompasses post-production costs including visual effects, editing, and post facilities.Below the Line - This covers expenses from pre-production to filming such as equipment, crew, locations, permits, and vehicles.Above the line can also cover any development-related expenses such as producer fees and acquiring the rights to film a project. Above the Line - This includes costs associated with your director, producers, writer(s), and principal actors.While you can slice and dice a film budget format in a hundred ways, a preliminary budget can include these categories: Yes, there are a ton of things that make up a film budget. Any quotes from cast, crew, vendors, and other expenses are firmer so the budget contains clearer projections. Second film budget - Put this together once financing is in place.Though, if you’re filming a short and don’t need any outside funding, a one-phase approach where you put together a two-page film budget breakdown may suffice. This is often a one to two page summary of major line items like development.

The preliminary budget - This is a more generalized version of a proposed budget for a production used to get financing for the film.

Typically, film budgets break down into two phases: How to create a film budget becomes clearer with our free film production budget template! First things first, what makes up a film budget?

Free budget software film