Major Project - Research into Budget

Research into Budget

The budget for this film was discussed well in advance of this term as it was something that we were all looking to contributing to. It's important to factor in that this budget will be supplied by ourselves and not the course so discussing how much we were willing to put in was absolutely essential that we knew how much we were each willing to pay. In order to secure some of the locations, the fee had to be paid last term. We all agreed on a rough number of £500 each as a starting point and worked from there.

Now that I had a rough figure to work from (£1500 total thus far), I decided to look into how much we would need to spend as well as what we would need to spend it on. There are a number of ways to go about working out a budget, these are the ways in which I went about it:

Reading the script - Reading through the script and taking notes is one way I went about gathering items and locations. Having written the script myself, I knew where to look and what to look for, but even still, it helps to look through again and again to make sure I have everything I need. Josh and Troy also read through the script and made their own notes as to what we may need. We collaborated our lists and looked into how much everything will cost. This covers the costs of all the listed costumes, props and locations.

Cost of contributors - Payment of actors had already been agreed at £60 per actor per day as well as a small percentage of their travel costs. Having arranged how much I will pay each of them for travel, I could get a solid grasp of how much we will have spent over the course of the shoot. Any other contributors, such as production assistants, will be paid in travel costs alone. Again, the locations have already been covered.

Feedback - One thing we greatly overlooked when discussing our spendings and budget with Simon, our course leader, was food. In order to keep our contributors and actors happy, we must supply them with good quality, hot food. Snacks such as crisps and sandwiches will not be sufficient over the span of a day, let alone a week if we want to keep everyone happy. Fast food will not be sufficient either. While we could get away with doing it on one occasion, it is best to avoid it entirely and stick to home cooked or well prepared dishes. To ensure that neither of us are distracted from our responsibilities, the food must be prepared either by someone externally or a production assistant/runner. THIS SHOULD NOT BE OVERLOOKED!!!

While set design had been considered (see reading the script for details), it had been advised that we do not underproduce our set design. Simple things that are not listed in the script, such as a newspaper, or a pot of tea bags, are easy to overlook but can make the biggest difference in the appearance of our film.

Prior experience - Having worked on two third year projects beforehand (Grit in my first year, Double Exposure in my second), I had an idea on what to expect. The food, while simple, was to a good standard and there was plenty of thought as to what the actors might like/not like to eat. Everyone was considered. Weeks in advance of the shoot, I was asked by Wesley, the producer for Double Exposure, what food I like, if I have any allergies, etc.

One very costly, yet unexpected expense was the cost of batteries. Wesley had explained that he had some money put by in case something went wrong or required more thought on the day of shooting. This was clever as there was no way we could have predicted how many batteries the sound would use alone. So many packs were bought over the course of the week. This was something I wanted to look out for.