We are accepting for consideration indie films in post production or in the film festival circuit. 5600PRODUCTION FILM & LAB 1,150 5610Field Drives - LaCie Rugged Drives 42 TB Drives 250 1,000 (Assume max 4 hrs/~64 GB per day, 140 hrs total, need 2.5 TB total, x2 for mirror) 5620Tape Stock 0 … [2] Even though Sony's out of pocket for the film was reduced because of the incentive, it does not negate the fact that the actual cost (amount spent during production to make the film) was still $129.6 million. If the budget calls for Godzilla to be played by a ten-dollar hand puppet, the director better not come whining later to the completion guarantor requesting funding for a life-size model. Sooner or later, the budget will be handed to the lender with a request to fund the budget. Film Distribution & Marketing; Self-Distribution on a Micro-Budget: Releasing Your Film Worldwide Without Spending a Dime by Josh Folan. As you can guess, the buck stops with the completion guarantor, who is usually the first to seriously question the budget. It is not ideal, but few things are in the micro-to-low budget filmmaking process and the film … Without a properly prepared budget… All Rights Reserved. The above-the-line costs include the costs for the rights, producer, and talent. Film financing can be acquired from a private investor, sponsor, product placement, film studio, entertainment company, and out-of-pocket funds. Since … THE FILMMAKER’S ULTIMATE GUIDE TO VIDEO & FILM DISTRIBUTION Short film distribution. I was an adjunct professor at both the UCLA Law School and the UCLA Anderson School of Management, teaching Entertainment Law and Finance for many years. Unless the person preparing the initial budget has a firm grip on the director’s psychological predilections, the budget will be no more than a wild guess. A budget is typically divided into four sections: above the line (creative talent), below the line (direct production costs), post-production (editing, visual effects, etc. But suppose that in the domestic territory, … As you create a distribution strategy for your horror film, remember that the key to success is good marketing. The budget almost always includes an artificial mark-up referred to as “overhead,” usually approximately 10%-15% of the budget. There are no guarantees, but you should always give it your best shot. These film … A film’s budget plays a dominant role throughout the film’s life cycle—with implications going far beyond the mere cost of the film. These include all financing costs, including interest and fees, all legal fees relating to the film through completion, and the cost of the completion guarantee. Presented by Tim Morell of Morell Media. This, in turn, will have the completely crazy impact of reducing the amount that the film can be sold for because of the budget/sales corollary. I am a partner in the corporate entertainment department of Greenberg Glusker, practicing entertainment, corporate, and tax law. You have to do the research and hard work, even when you have a deal with a great distribution company. The conventional wisdom is that there just isn’t much short film distribution out there. Though movie studios are reluctant to release the precise details of their movies' budgets, it has occasionally been possible to obtain (clandestinely) details of the cost of films' breakdowns. When all else fails, one irresistible tendency is to greatly exaggerate the true budget in order to jack up prices. Good luck. If it was successful selling enough territories based on the poster, Cannon would contact the named talent and begin the process of producing the film. Thus, the budget includes, for example, costs of acquiring the script, payments to talent, and production costs. [1] One of the consequences of the Sony hack was the release of budget information of many films or TV shows, including the 2015 Adam Sandler film Pixels. Perhaps the most tangible aspect of a film’s budget is that the amount that distributors will pay for a film is almost always calculated as a percentage of the budget (the “budget/sales corollary”), regardless of the script, the cast or anything else. The budget excludes film promotion and marketing, which is the responsibility of the film distributor. The good news was that because of the budget/sales corollary, the pre-sales increased by more than enough to cover the increased budget. There was a time when companies such as Cannon Films would create one-sheets (theatrical advertising posters) that the company would exhibit at the international film markets. Distribution companies take care of this work, and they usually have a contract that charges a specific fee and a percentage of box office receipts. The remaining $700,000 is the filmmaker's share of revenue. For example, the completion guarantor may request a reduction or deferment of fees to the producer or an increase to the contingency. Creating a film budget is an important beginning step in transferring the written words on a script to visually arresting images on the big screen. Every budget includes a contingency for potential excess costs, always expressed as a percentage of the budget—usually 10%. This was a presentation done for the Fairfax Filmmakers Club. The Los Angeles Times presented an extensive special report, dissecting the budget of the 2005 film Sahara. A Film Budget Breakdown (also called a Detailed Budget) is the financial blueprint for your project. Which distribution model is best for low budget films? There are also several interesting inclusions and exclusions, discussed below. For example, above-the-line costs include the costs of acquiring the underlying rights, script costs, producer fees, and payments to key talent (director and main actors). The budget does include self-charged “producer fees” paid to the producer. However, the cost of delivery of the film print to distributors is typically treated as a distribution cost, and is generally not included in the budget. Securing traditional film distribution for your film is doable. No kidding. While the US system is profitable and can afford to go over budget, some other countries' film industries tend to be financed through government subsidies. Note: Figures for 2020 are at an annualized rate. Thus, as a film’s budget increases, so do the prices distributors will pay for the film. In the leasing model, the distributor agrees to pay a fixed amount for the rights to distribute the film. Even the contingency itself may exclude certain above-the-line costs. Once the upfront costs are paid and the film is released, … The below-the-line costs are basically all costs of production and post-production. Another impact of the budget is that many related costs rise and fall with the amount of the budget. If the distributor and the studio have a profit-sharing relationship, on the other … Don’t let your low-budget … As with producer fees, this is just a disguised way of making a profit on the film. A lot of comedies fall in this range (most of Adam Sandler’s latest), as well as your average action movies (around half of the Fast & the Furious franchise), and some animation (lots of DreamWorks films). Movie budgeting contains the key information that you must have for your production. Advertisement Marketing makes up a huge chunk of modern movie budgets -- $35.9 million on … Insiders are always using this lingo, so you need to know it. Make your film the best it can be. Multiple drafts of the budget may be required to whittle down costs. The average production budget of a major studio film in 2007 was $106 million [source: MPAA]. I have been named (a) one of the top 100 entertainment lawyers by the Hollywood Reporter, (b) one of the top 25 entertainment lawyers by Variety, (c) one of the top 100 lawyers in California by the Daily Journal and (d) one of top 3 "Most Influential Lawyers" in media by the National Law Journal. Step 3. I soon learned that the budget was really $12 million, and the producer had received a “producer fee” of $2 million, which was included in the budget. I graduated from UCLA (Phi Beta Kappa, Summa Cum Laude) and UCLA Law School (first in class). I am a partner in the corporate entertainment department of Greenberg Glusker, practicing entertainment, corporate, and tax law. Address. Only in the rarest of situations or with the lowest of budgets will a filmmaker will be able to fund the production with a cash advance on a guaranteed distribution. The completion guarantor will then make everyone sign in blood that they can live with the budget. A few taps on my trusty calculator reveal that A$1.1 million is to be the average feature-film budget (including distribution and advertising) – if our film industry is to break even. But there are also some memo… Once I got my brain around this, the rest was easy. However, the cost of delivery of the film print to distributors is typically treated as a distribution cost, and is generally not included in the budget. The distributor is entitled to retain 20% of gross revenues, or $200,000, as a distribution fee. By. For example, talent will charge far more on a big-budget film than they will for their identical services on a low-budget film. 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