Scheduling and Budgeting Your Film

Factors Impacting the Budget

Every factor pertaining to a film, aside from dialogue, impacts the budget. Talk is the only thing cheap in filmmaking. Many questions will have been answered during scheduling, but if not, it’s time to make decisions before you can move forward:

•  Type of project;

•  Existing plans regarding locations;

•  Pay, no pay, union or not;

•  Length and format of the project;

•  Has the Director signed off on the schedule;

•  What specific resources, if any, have already been identified?

•  Scale / scope (two characters talking in a room is cheaper than shooting Gone With The Wind meets Star Wars at sea).

The length of principal photography has the biggest impact on a budget. During production, the biggest quantity, and ...