Thank you so much. This article was great to read.

I’m currently a film student and very interested into following the route of producing.

I was just wondering how you managed to get to where you are in the industry and how you began your career? Also, if there was any extra advice you would give to apsiring producers like myself?

Many thanks,

Lionelle

You probably saw this “possible new camera” already. In case you didn’t, the link is below:
http://www.dslrnewsshooter.com/2011/08/27/birtv-2011-chinas-answer-to-red-the-kinefinity-kineraw-s35-digital-cinema-camera-for-us8000/

Cheers,

Ron

We also put on the Canon Boot Camps in Burtbank (www.canonbootcamp) and we ran the numbers of the cost of a 35mm film camera package versus a Canon 5D. Our numbers show it to be 85% cheaper to go with the 5D. Happy to send the spreadsheet over to you.

All the best,

Fletch
818 841-9660

Good stuff, both from you and the question asked.

As you note, the client/production company always has a budget figure in the back of their head but it’s difficult to get them to tell you what that figure is. I’ve had some success by (truthfully) telling them I’m always on their side and if they let me know what that figure is, I’ll work my tail off to deliver the best possible final product within their budget. It’s like everything else in life, our best work is done when trust is a given.

Each project is so different that it might seem like a no-brainer to say that one project might come in around the same as another and in the corporate world, it might be realistic to assume such things. But in the narrative world — being film, commercials, music videos or whatnot — it all depends on the story the director wants to tell. Something as simple as a director saying they want the camera to be floating throughout will cost more money than them saying they only want harsh static shots.

Never quote a project until you know what you are dealing with because it will usually be more than you first think.

~AV

Now… with others, this situation comes up often. Planning ahead is key. Being a good producer means knowing what each department needs to get their work done and balancing that with the time and money alloted. All the variables of set up time, shoot time, rehearsal time, location and actor availability are all things that go into making the schedule. The longer the shoot, the more likely that schedule will change.

Once the schedule is planned and you’re rolling along shooting, then yes, it is the Producers job to make sure the project comes in on or under the budget and within the time alloted. So, if the director is dilly-dallying, or any other department for that matter, then it is the producers job, with the help from the Assistant Directors, to keep the company moving along.

The second part of this is the “wiggle-room” question. All budgets are made with about a 10% contingency. This is, essentially, a Producer’s financial “wiggle-room” because even the best laid plans can come undone.

~AV

The standard variables of Time vs. Quality vs. Cost applies to VFX as well as most things in life — you only get to pick two.

Say you want the VFX of high quality and quickly… well, that will cost you. Say you want low cost and high quality… well, that will take some time. Keeping these three variables in mind is the ONLY way to go about figuring which angle to take for each particular project.

Thank you for your comments and insight!
~AV

Very interesting post – thanks. My big question would be what you factor in for wiggle room…and who makes that call.

Does the producer say, “We’ll have two days at this location for this scene,” and is it your job to say, “But Shane likes to over shoot these types of scenes. Should I go three days?” Or is that out of line for you to say, and it’s the producer’s and director’s fault if they dilly-dally?

Thanks,
-Christopher

As the saying goes, you get what you pay for. You can get someone for free on craigs list but that applies to every other postion on your crew (DP, actors, grips, etc). Remember that while you may ask a favor of someone to help for a day of shooting, a vfx person may have to put in 3 weeks of time to do the work. You’re essentially asking for a bigger favor of the vfx people.

Saying you can just buy some programs to do it is the same as saying anyone can buy a cheap HDSLR and be your DP. Buy a tape recorder and record the sound. IT’S NOT THE EQUIPMENT OR SOFTWARE THAT DOES THE WORK. You can buy a scalpel but that doesn’t make you a brain surgeon. It takes real skill, knowledge and experience to do vfx well. You should hold the level of the vfx and vfx personel to the same level as the DP and the rest of the project.

Making up a number for the vfx doesn’t cut it. The studios learned that long ago and now have vfx producers on staff. Producers do not know vfx well enough to determine the methodology and the related costs. Get an expert.

The worst thing (and most expensive thing) you can do is shoot it and then bring in a vfx person. That’s like shooting it with no sound recordist and then bringing in a sound mixer in post. Contact a vfx person in pre-production so they can plan it and make sure it’s shot correctly.

The software is all about making the process easier, but they don’t do the leg work for you. It adds a nice, professional look to your budgets and has the categories set up for you but it’s not at all necessary. You still need to know what numbers to input into the software in order to create the budget.

If you have a program you are using and are getting a little lost somewhere, let me know how I can help. If you are looking to purchase something and don’t know which is better, my advice would be to play around with making budgets using one of the many free templates available online. If you do a google search for “free film budget template” so great options pop up. Otherwise, Movie Magic is the film industry standard — you can download a free week trial online, if you’d like to play around with it — and Point Zero is the commercial industry standard.

Thanks!
~AV

From my experience, the actual items of the craft service is something that should be figured out by the craft service individual. Yeah, I could say I want bagels in the morning, chocholate and snacks all day, water and diet coke (oh man, don’t forget the diet coke!) but want makes a good craft service person is their ability to keep the crew interested in the food items for the cost alloted.

The surefire easiest way to keep a crew happy — even a crew working for free — is to feed them well.

My advice is to separate your crafty budget from your catering budget and keep it to two different people. Even if you are on a ultra low budget shoot and your lunch consists of Panda Express family meals (ugh), you still want to have one person dealing with getting that and one person making sure there is always coffee, waters and snacks available to the shooting crew. The craft service person has a full time job fulfilling those needs and has to be responsible for it. They need to know that if you’re outside shooting a long scene, your camera peeps are thirsty — take them some water and maybe some snacks.

Now, how to figure the cost. They are standard industry expectations for the food budgets per person — about $7-$10 per head for crafty and about $10-$14 per head for catering. That’s the easy answer but how to come up with this is simple logic. Say you are throwing a party for 25 of your friends… you know about how many beverages to get, about how much chips and burgers and whatnot to get. I’m sure most people have either thrown a party or have been to a party. The concept is the same — feeding people with enough variety for a limited cost. Spending $200 on a bbq is fairly normal. Spending $200 a day of crafty for 25 crew members is fairly normal.

My advice — NEVER NEVER NEVER skimp out on the food. You can get people to work for food. If you have limited funds, lower their rates but feed them well and your crew will not complain. Strange, but it’s true.
~AV

~AV

Thank you so much for your comments!

In the pre-production stage, it becomes a little bit of the responsibility of both.

Early on in prep or even development, the Line Producer breaks down the script and budgets accordingly. It is helpful to know who the DP is early on so that speciality equipment needs can be discussed during the budget stages. Usually, however, that is not the case.

So what you end up with is a budget done by a bean-counter with little forethought to creative concepts.

If the script is a basic comedy or drama and the director wants basic two shots and whatnot on a dolly, no problem. But if the script is magical and you, as the DP, want to do some crazy-awesome shots with movement and height and sweeping angles that follow the character from three flights up, through the window and down a tree trunk, well, that’s going to cost some money.

How the responsibility is usually broken down is like this: A DP tends to know what s/he wants to use equipment-wise. Work long enough with the same companies and they just know that So-and-So usually orders this kind of lens package and that kind of camera and this particular dolly, etc etc. Same with crew. After awhile you’ll have your people — Key Grip, Gaffer and Assistant Camera people. That’s all the crew that you’ll need, no WANT, to worry about. They’re your right and left hand… you should get to pick them.

It becomes the responsibility of the Production Supervisor to get you what you need to do your shots for what the company has to pay for it. You tell them what you want and they will negotiate with the equipment houses and even your crew to pay what is in the budget already. Sometimes, they have to wrangle you back in with equipment needs but they should do everything possible to balance the difference between what you need and what they have to spend.

As far as the location needs are concerned — I assume you mean they expect you to know what you need to do when you walk into a location for the first day of shooting there? That is correct and the entire purpose of having a tech scout with ALL the department heads — including your Key Grip and Gaffer. As with anything PLANNING ahead is the key to success.

Thanks again! Please let me know if you have any follow up questions!
~AV

For using companies, you would simply call up several companies, tell them what you need and get some quotes for that type of work. Use your instincts on this, for as you might know, most people will SAY they can do anything but you want to make sure they can provide sample footage.

The VFF/CGI realm is very popular and full of independent individuals that do this on their own — a simple craig’s list or mandy.com ad will help you find those up and coming folks with talent and skill but who are willing to work for little to nothing.

Who you use all depends on the how detailed the effect needs to be vs. what you have to spend. VFX is time consuming and therefor costly. How much you will spend depends largely on how much work they have to do.

However, all the programs used for this type of work are available to the general public and there are slews of online toutorials on how to use the programs. Again, the biggest factors about doing it yourself is time and skill. If you consider your time vaulable, you might just want to cough up the funds to pay someone to do it. If you have nothing but time, then go ahead and do it yourself. Factoring in the costs for doing it yourself is really just a matter of figuring our how much the programs you want to use cost, if you don’t already have them. Other than that, it’s mostly a matter of time on the post side and if you are doing it yourself, you’re probably not paying yourself for your time.

Now when it comes to the production portion of VFX, there are some things to keep in mind, for example:

* Do you need a green screen? — Having to use a green screen will take up time in your shooting schedule and you can either find a stage to shoot on or bring in a rig to the location as a backdrop. Traditional green screen work is time consuming both in Production and in Post. In production, the green screen needs to be lit evenly. If you bring one to the location, it will take a good amount of time to get the lighting right. And if there’s any daylight, forget it. There are new technologies out there that allows for easy green screen work out in the field. Learn more here: http://www.reflecmedia.com/video/

Now, there are some small stages available (especially in L.A.) that are fairly inexpensive to rent and usually these mom and pop shops can be negotiated down to what you have in the budget. Normal rates are about $300-$1000 per day, depending on the size of the stage. Either way you do it, plan for extra time, which does mean extra money — crew payments, equipment rentals and feeding your people for the additional time needed cost money.

*Perhaps you don’t need a green screen. I once produced a low budget Doritos Commercial for that Superbowl contest thing they do. We had a VFX shot that involved a Dorito growing into a Doritos tree. Besides a small amount of additional art department purchaes, it didn’t end up cost us anything more for the effect. How? Easy — I didn’t need a green screen, so therefore the cost was saved there. I found a VFX guy early on — someone who wasn’t involved with a company but rather spent most of his off time learning how to do these things on his own. He didn’t charge me as he already owned the programs and was looking to build his reel. We provided him with a still plate of the location for about the same time, angle, camera lens and set up that the final shot would be in. He then spent three weeks prior to the shoot working out the details of the tree growth. After production , we gave him the footage so he could combine that with his effect and BOOM! A Dorito Tree was born! (to see the final effect, go here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gcSqngSuPmU) So maybe not Terminator worthy effects but for a total cost of $2000, I say the commercial came out pretty decent. Didn’t win that year… mostly because I think we made a Coke-style commercial and not a Dorito-style commercial. Story IS everything.

My main point of all this — unless you want to become a VFX person, find someone to do it for you for whatever you have to pay them, if anything. The quality of the work will get better the more you spend but having simple VFX portions of your script does not automatically mean you have to spend a lot of cash. In this industry, finding up and coming talent that is willing to work for practically nothing is fairly easy. Why do something yourself when there are loads of talented people that specialize in these areas, just trying to get their name out there?

Long-winded but I hope this helps. Best of luck on your projects!
~AV