The Indie Film Budget Kit

The FilmBurst method for a budget that holds: every line in a phase, payroll costs and quotes counted, a contingency on the whole of it, post paid for before the first shoot day, and a festival slate you can afford

FilmBurst's free Film Budget Calculator adds up your lines, puts a contingency on top and shows where the money goes. Its own FAQ says what it leaves out: a real budget also carries payroll costs, insurance and fees. The Festival Strategy Planner totals your submission fees, and that total never reaches the budget at all. The kit starts from the calculator's own figures and adds what it leaves out, line by line. On the worked example, a 20-minute short shot over four days, the calculator says $21,120. Payroll costs on the three wage lines, at an example rate of 18%, come to $1,854: 96.5% of the calculator's $1,920 contingency, gone before a single day runs over. With insurance, permits, clearances and twelve festivals at their early tier, the kit's budget is $25,279.40, and after the same four shoot days the calculator's plan runs $3,091 short, all of it falling on post and the festival run. The kit puts the contingency on everything, fences half of it for post before the first shoot day, budgets festivals at the early tier, and reads a cost report at every wrap with a cut order that never cuts post or safety. Every figure is computed by our calculators, the example figures are tagged as examples, and the 10% contingency and half-for-post split are called rules of thumb. It gives no legal, tax, payroll or financing advice: insurance, permits, payroll costs and union rules are checked where you shoot. Included: 24 printable pages with seven steps, a top sheet, a quote and clearance tracker, a cost report, a festival slate, reference tables and a quickstart, plus a personalised sheet worked from the numbers you enter in our calculators.

Look inside

Two full pages from the kit, exactly as printed. Click either to read it at full size before you decide.

What is in it

• The Four Phases Rule: every line in prep, the shoot, post or the festival run
• The Rate Is Not the Cost Rule: payroll costs on every wage line, at the rate your payroll service gives you
• The Blank Is Not Zero Rule: insurance, permits, deliverables and clearances as lines with a status
• The Contingency Covers the Unknown Rule: the contingency on the whole budget, shown as its own line
• The Post Is Paid For Rule: post and half the contingency set aside before the first shoot day
• The Early Tier Rule: the festival slate at its early-tier fees, closed windows moved to next season
• The Shoot Draws Half Rule: a cost report at every wrap and a cut order that never cuts post or safety
• Printable working pages: a top sheet, a quote and clearance tracker, a cost report and a festival slate
• Reference tables: contingency by subtotal, payroll costs by rate, and a festival slate by size and tier, plus a quickstart
• A personalised sheet worked from the numbers you enter in our calculators

The kit picks up where the free Film Budget Calculator leaves off. The calculator adds your lines and a contingency; its own FAQ notes that a real budget also carries payroll costs, insurance and fees. The kit gives each of those a line, puts the contingency on the whole of it, fences half for post before the first shoot day, budgets the festival run at its early tier with the Festival Strategy Planner, and reads a cost report at every wrap with a cut order that never cuts post or safety. It gives no legal, tax, payroll or financing advice: insurance, permits, payroll costs and union or guild rules vary by place, so check them locally. The payroll rate, quotes and festival fees in it are examples, and the 10% contingency and the half for post are rules of thumb.