Tue Apr 09, 2013 1:54 pm
Just read the article, may be a bit more info than you need. Here's the short of it for a small crew on a smaller budget. Just fill in your own info for what you think you need.
Insurance (sometimes avoided, but a good idea to have. You usually can't rent gear without it, and it would suck for something to go wrong and not have it. Weigh this dearly, you can sometimes rent someone else's production insurance instead of bonding a new short term policy.
Equipment ( what do you have, what do you need to rent) Dept's included: Camera, G&E, Sound - Also, Production equipment, ie, tables, chairs, tents, printers, paper, once again, what can you do without.
Expendables - things like tape, gels, batteries, compressed air...
Crew - Try and come up with decent rates, but who of your buddies owe you favors, or will help you for the hell of it. Extra hands are great but experience will make a difference. How much can you "realistically" do yourself. ( this should just be prod not post )
HMU/W - this is part of crew but there will be other expenses, like kit rentals. Keep kit rentals in mind, it's one of those costs people forget about, that goes for all your crew, but usually negotiable. If you decide you don't need this at least have someone powder noses and go over wardrobe with client before the day of.
Art Dept: Do you need special sets or props? Extra labor to build or fabricate those? Do you need to rent a studio? I've seen a garage do just as well if your building a set and shooting MOS.
Craft Service & Lunch - sometimes the most important part of the day. Everyone will appreciate this.
Basics Food times
Typical shooting day is 12 hours
Start with breakfast and feed them lunch 6 hours after call. Lunch can usually be 45 mins. 2nd meal comes 6 hours after that. Budget for all these even if you don't need it.
Transportation - Don't forget about gas. A lot of people budget the trucks and forget the gas and tolls. It's usually more than you think.
Production Help - everyone wants to do it all themselves but a good production manager can make a big difference. Especially when you're trying to focus on shooting, not, who's picking up lunch. If you know someone who produces or is good with logistics, maybe not even in the industry, team up. They will become invaluable. If you're creative, find your match in someone who is business minded. And some of those crew members w no experience can be PA's. Treat them well and you'll build loyalty and hopefully a team that will make your work easy.
Client - they usually change their minds, make sure to charge them for it.
Post Production - this can be tricky, especially for those wizards who do it all themselves. Give yourself a decent hourly or day rate. Always make it worth your time. But also, keep in mind what you'll get out of it. Might be worth it to put some extra time in since in the end, it's what your showing to that next client. Don't forget about things like hard drives. Figure out how you want to charge for that. Usually worth it just to buy drives for their project and bill it.
Pre Production - Should have been up top, but don't forget to charge them to plan the whole thing. Especially if you end up doing any pitch work, synopsis, story boards, scripts or what have you. And charge for the paper and ink.
This is all pretty simplified but I hope it gives you the gist.
Best of luck and happy shooting.
Joseph Ciccarella
www.quietallaround.com