The Budget Book for Film and Television

Robert Koster

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2013
• Print ISBN:
  9780240806204
• eBook ISBN:
  9781136045851
• Topic: Media & Performing Arts
• Subtopic: Film & Video

This guidebook is intended to help both the novice and the experienced producer to create and fine-tune their budgets. Based on the top budgeting software packages, Movie Magic and EP Budgeting, this book takes the reader through each line item in the budgeting software and describes the background for that item, how it fits into the overall production, and any issues or pitfalls that may arise from it. This book is a useful reference for independent filmmakers who depend on accurate, easy-to-understand budgeting methods to seek funding for their projects.

1100 Development

Development: is what happens before funding. It can consist of story, options, research, even location scouting. But whatever it is, it usually is paid for by the Producer, who will expect to be reimbursed when the project is given a “green light” by a studio or is funded by backers.

Let's enter the category by highlighting the line on the top sheet and tapping “Ctrl + Down arrow.” Or we can double-click the line number to the left of “Development.”

This brings us to the account level, from which we can drill down to the detail level where we enter information.

We double-click once more on the line number of the “Story and Screenplay” detail account to get into the details:

Obviously we have several detail lines and most are self-explanatory. However, just for clarity, we have a line for “Rights.” We cannot produce a movie unless we have the right to do so. If we take the material from another medium, such as a novel or short story, we must purchase the screen rights from the Author before we can even think of producing the film from his or her work. In fact, we are not purchasing the rights, we are merely purchasing a license to re-create the work in another medium. The copyright remains with the Author of the book.

This transfer of rights involves an elaborate contract in which not only the rights are spelled out but also all the subsidiary rights, such as the ability to make the movie into videocassettes or DVDs, the merchandising rights, the rights to make TV shows, and so forth. All these must be negotiated beforehand with the Author before a foot of film rolls through the camera or the Author can sue the Producer for copyright infringement, and most likely the movie will then belong to the book's Author.

Most book rights are expensive. There is a way to delay spending the money on the movie rights to a book, and that is by purchasing an Option.

Option: When we can't afford to buy the rights to a property but we know that we will be able to get the picture funded, we can buy an option to buy those rights within a certain period of time, say, six months or a year. The option will cost a small fraction of what the rights will cost. We are gambling that we will be able to get the project funded and in production before the option expires. The option agreement will give us the right to try to fund the project for x number of months. If, at the end of the option period, we have succeeded, we will then owe the writer the full price of the rights to the property. If we fail, we can buy an option extension for more money or let the property's rights revert to the writer, who then can sell it to someone else. We will have lost the option money.

Now we click on “Options,” because we have to enter the money we paid for the option on the script. We haven't bought the rights to it yet; just an option to buy the rights.

We are ready to add figures. Press the “Tab” key to hop to the “Amount” field, and type “1.” Tab again to the “Units” field, and press “A” for “Allow.” We use the “Allow” unit whenever we are applying a figure over the entire length of the film, as opposed to “Weeks” or “Reels,” and so on. Now press “Tab” again, twice, to get to the “Rate” field. Here, let's assume that we are paying $1,000 for our option. Enter that figure. If we make a mistake we can always backtab by pressing “Shift + Tab” at the same time to tab backward to the preceding fields. When we have entered the 1000 (we don't need to use the “$” or a comma), click outside of the chart area to stop the editing process. Our screen will now look like this:

Good. We have increased the budget by $1,000 for the option. That is reflected in the session area at the bottom of the screen, where it shows any change, so we can track all our monetary changes to the budget as we go.

We may continue filling out the “Development” category in the same fashion, entering all the expenses we have incurred before funding.

Let's move on to the rest of the budget. First, let's go to the next account by clicking on the “Topsheet” button.

From the Topsheet we can double-click on the next category, 1200, Story and Other Rights.

Which opens the category to us.

We have already highlighted 1204, Secretaries' Account. We want to give the Writer a Secretary for a few weeks. We will change the figure here to “4 weeks.” We double-click on the line number to get into the Secretary account. Now we double-click in the “Amount” column of the “Prep” line, where we substitute “4” for the entry. This will give the Writer's Secretary four weeks of prep.

Now let's discuss the account.

1200 Story and Other Rights

Every motion picture, no matter how primitive, must start with an idea. The idea might come from a book, a play, an original screenplay, a magazine article, a news story, or even a story told over dinner. At some point the Producer will have to pay someone for the rights to film the story. Even if it is our own story, there must still be provision in the budget for the production to legally reimburse the originator for the rights. The legal minimum payment is one dollar.

1201 Story Rights Purchase

This area covers the rights to the story, not the screenplay. It can be for the purchase of book rights, a short story from a magazine, or a payoff for our sister-inlaw who just heard the cutest thing down at the hairstylist's.

1203 Story Consultant/Editor

This item is normally used during the “development” of a project. A Writer might be an excellent novelist, perfectly capable of fashioning a marvelously readable book that became a best seller, yet still fall short as a Screenwriter. Writing a piece to be read and writing a piece to be seen and heard require two entirely different sets of writing skills.

1205 Research

This area of research is for the original story, and covers such items as travel and living arrangements for writers who have journeyed to the deserts of Outer Mongolia in search of a good screenplay. This can also cover dinners for our Police Informant.

1206–07 Typing and Duplication

These items serve to reimburse the writer for his or her out-of-pocket expenses.

Fringe Benefits

Chapter 6600 explains fringe benefits in detail.

1300 Continuity and Treatment

After we have purchased the rights to make a movie out of the original story, a workable screenplay must be fashioned. In theatrical ventures this will consist of scene descriptions and dialogue. If our project is a TV commercial the script often will consist of a storyboard.

Dialogue: Written manifestation of the spoken word.

1301 Writer

“Writers” in this account are the people who write the actual screenplay, not the original story (see Accounts 1200–02). Where the same person writes both, two figures usually are negotiated, one for story and the other for screenplay.

1302 Research

If a screenplay needs more research than was done for the book, for instance, to provide further details for the art department, the Screenwriter must be paid (or reimbursed) for accomplishing this.

1305 Travel and Living Expenses

If we have paid for the Screenwriter to stay in a bungalow at the Beverly Hills Hotel while our script is being written, this is where that expense goes. It also can cover research trips to observe the herding rituals of the nomads in Uzbekistan, when necessary.

1306 Story Editor

The “Story Editor” heads up the story department. In the case of episodic TV it refers to the very busy person who repairs all the weird scripts that come in ...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Full Title
• Copyright
• TABLE OF CONTENTS
• USING THE SOFTWARE
• BUDGETING: AN ACCOUNT-BY-ACCOUNT ANALYSIS
• INDEX