Our Services - ON-LINE COURSES  The Film Production Management Series

ON-LINE COURSES (Click on your choice to see more info):

1. ON-LINE Managing the Film Budget Course Examples, charts and practice drills are all based on real situations derived from my 2 1/2 decades in film production. This course is not designed to teach you to use sophisticated budgeting software – that comes later. By the end of this course you will be ready for any professional film budgeting software application. To enroll in the On-Line Film Budgeting Course, CLICK HERE.

2. ON-LINE Managing the Weekly Cost Report Course The very confidential Weekly Cost Report measures how the department, the location, the production, etc. is doing as compared to the Approved Budget. Knowing how to read, influence, defend or challenge the film production’s Weekly Cost Report is key to surviving and expanding in today’s very budget conscious Film Industry. Many examples are drilled with Excel spreadsheets to give the attendees a working knowledge. To enroll in the On-Line Managing the Weekly Cost Report CLICK HERE.

On-Line Courses:

1.ON-LINE COURSE: Managing the Film Budget (Cost $74.99)

This course will show you practical applications to Directing-Managing Film Budgets.

Examples, charts and practice drills are all based on real situations derived from my 2 1/2 decades in film production. This course is not designed to teach you to use sophisticated budgeting software – that comes later. A hundred page film budget can be a daunting complication of numbers if you aren’t familiar with the basics of managing film budgets. By the end of this course you will be ready for any professional film budgeting software application.

Film Budgeting is a specialized process of translating creative ideas (for example,a script) into costs. This is true for any film project of any size – commercials, feature films, TV episodes, industrial training, etc. Just as any good translator would do, you need to ensure the concept of the script does not get lost due to budget restraints. Conversely, you don’t want to start putting more money into the budget than the investor can accept. There are creative ways to pad your budget that is acceptable to investors. That is covered in the Above The Line Budgeting Section. Such a balancing act is what professionals are intuitive about. The creative side of film budgeting is not to be confused with the detailed grunt work.

There are three practical stages to a film budget. The first is to raise financing, the second to make the budget more precise given the additional information at hand as the project is ‘Green Lit’, and the final stage is to provide a fixed standard (called The Final Approved Budget) from which all actual costs can be measured. The first stage requires that a professional looking budget be prepared from scratch; not the purpose of this course.

The next two stages require a knowledge of budgets and an ability (the purpose of this course) to manage-direct the budgets.  This is absolutely essential to good filmmaking.

1. Raise Financing - The Developmental Stage: In this stage the purpose for film budgeting is to raise the financing for your project.  This is often referred to as a “Bottom Line Budget”. The film budget must be a relatively accurate translation of the script into projected costs of shooting the various elements (stars and entourages, # of days shooting, # of hours of shooting per day, essential delivery requirements such as music/picture quality/etc.).  In addition to the budget you must make clear what Quality of product the investor can expect for that budget (e.g. no car crashes, straight to DVD, Mega Stars, etc.).   It is a budget that will make your target investors (a Hollywood Studio, a group of businessmen, a commercial house, your friends & relatives, etc.) willing to spend their money to create your film. They must be given the opportunity to assess your script and business plan and have enough confidence in you to say, “Yes, it’s worth $X to me and I hope like hell I’ll make more than I’m investing.” You simply need to make it clear what Quality of product the investor can expect for that budget.kies.

2. To Fine-Tune the Film Budget in the Prep Stage: The Prep Stage is the time period before the production starts and the project is ‘green lit’ by the financiers. Generally speaking the infamous “Bottom Line” has been established during the Developmental Stage. The budget that had been prepared by the producers during that stage may not have been entirely realistic. Very often it is in the Prep stage when the Line Producer, or Production Manager, see the budget for the first time. It is up to them to balance the very practical demands of the Director, Producers, individual departmental budgets and the Financiers to make the film budget workable but still stay within the “Bottom Line” of the budget. Managing the film budget in Prep is what separates the pros from the rookies.

3. Provide A Fixed Standard to Manage From - The Final Approved Budget: Just before starting to shoot the film a “Final Approved Budget” is agreed on and approved by all parties. This is the budget which is actually referenced into all financial deals, bank loans, tax credits, etc. It is also signed-off by all pertinent parties (Producers, Director, Production Manager, Accountant, etc.) as an attestation that all elements of the film can be completed for the Bottom Line.

To an investor your performance as a Filmmaker is measured by how well  you ‘Direct’ the costs as compared to the Final Approved Budget. This is true for any position on the film project, be it a Director, Producer or Department Head.  Once the Final Approved Budget is fixed any “over-budget”costs can be offset by other categories, which can be made “Under-Budget”. This provides the Line Producer with management options to offset unexpected costs by making adjustments to any one of the departmental budgets, overall shooting hours for crew, reviewing the ‘on camera’ stunts and cast with the Director, etc. Again, managing this stage of the budget is daunting without some exposure and experience.

What If I Make a Mistake in the Budget? What Are Accountants For? Why My Fault?

No matter your skill in budgeting, you will always find that some costs will be greater than the Approved Budget. For example, construction costs may have gone up, creating an over-budget variance. In those cases it is up to you to find another area of the budget that will spend less than the Approved Budget. And, that is what this course is all about ~Learn or Improve your skills in How To Manage Film Budgets.

END RESULT OF THE COURSE:

A course graduate who can manage (read, influence, defend or challenge) the Above-the-Line and Below-the-Line elements of a Film Budget.

To enroll in the On-Line Film Budgeting Course, CLICK HERE.

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2.ON-LINE COURSE: Managing the Weekly Cost Report (Cost $74.99)

General Summary:The very confidential Weekly Cost Report measures how the department, the location, the production, etc. is doing as compared to the Approved Budget. Knowing how to read, influence, defend or challenge the film production’s Weekly Cost Report is key to surviving and expanding in today’s very budget conscious Film Industry. It is safe to say that for a Producer, Line Producer or Production Manager, the Weekly Cost Report is a career maker or breaker. In most cases, only the Studios, Financiers, veteran Producers and experienced Unit Production Managers ever get to see this report.

NOTE: all schedules in this course are fictitious examples created for your use and practice; they not taken from actual film productions.

Purpose:

a)The primary purpose of this on-line course is to train a novice Film Producer, Line Producer, Unit Production Manager or Department Head how to manage the film production by means of the Weekly Cost Report. The practical applications to real-life cost reporting situations are not available in Film Schools, nor even to most crew working in the business.

b)      The secondary purpose of this on-line course is to help a Director, Assistant Director, or any film crew member, have more control over their artistic creativity through participation in the Weekly Cost Report process. By knowing the rules of reporting actual costs to the Studio/Financiers, the course graduate can defend challenges to his/her creative decisions, as well as make intelligent proposals for cost trade-off’s (that is, utilize a cost-savings for an interesting shot previously not budgeted for).

      Note: this course is applicable to any budget above a ‘shoestring’ budget.

End Result of the Course:

A course graduate who can read, influence, defend or challenge actual cost variances to the Approved Budget, as presented by the Weekly Cost Report (sent to all Executives, producers, Financiers associated with the film production).

How It Works:

The on-line course follows a sequential list of reading and practical assignments. The assignments have “right answers” supplied in the body of the course to allow you to check yourself. The reading assignments are Adobe Reader-PDF pages downloaded simply by clicking the blue page numbers. All of the examples are in Excel format and can be saved to your computer. If you have any troubles, you can reach me at any time by emailing me at budgets@talkfilm.biz

To enroll in the On-Line Managing the Weekly Cost Report CLICK HERE.

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