I’m going to skip through the obvious ones: cars flying into helicopters, your protagonist jumping out of a skyscraper window, shutting down Times Square, and insuring Tom Cruise. Instead, let’s take a look at some of the not-so-obvious elements that quickly add up in costs. I realized, budgeting these things over and over again, that while these have become obvious to a producer, they might not be so obvious to a writer/director.

Here are the top elements that consistently come up when discussing how we’re going to trim down the script to fit the budget (or rather, the financing.) If you’re writing with a low budget in mind, then it’s worth considering these carefully from the start:

1) Background Actors / Extras

You’d be surprised how quickly background mandays add up (a manday is basically manpower x days, so 2 extras for 3 days = 6 mandays.) To illustrate, if you have 3 party scenes that take place over 5 shooting days, with about 40 people at each party, you’re already at 200 background mandays! And we haven’t even started counting the miscellaneous scenes here and there that have 3-5 background actors each.

Background Actors are expensive on a number of fronts. First of all, if they’re paid Background Actors, then you have to pay them at least minimum wage. If you’re employing 200 background mandays for 8 hours per day at $10.50/hour (current CA Min. Wage), then you’re already at $16,800. And that’s assuming you don’t incur any overtime or meal penalties, and it’s not even including the fringes yet. It’s not out of the norm to spend $18,000 – $30,000 on extras on a low budget film.

Assuming you get all 200 background mandays for free, you still have to consider the crafty they consume on set (which you can budget at $3-$5/head); the lunch you’ll have to provide (around $7-$16/head); the parking you have to account for (your parking might be free, or you might be at a location which will charge you $5-$12/car); and finally your location site fees might go up as well just because you’re suddenly bringing a lot more people to the location, which will cause more wear and tear.

Questions to consider when trying to lower the cost:

• Does the script have any parties, bars, or events that require a large amount of background actors?
• Will your scenes with lots of background require a lot of shooting days to cover?
• If you had to cut a considerable amount of your background, could you cheat the scenes using less background and still have a powerful scene?

2) Day Players

Like extras, Day Players tend to add up very quickly as well. Since you’re likely going to be a SAG-AFTRA signatory, that means you’re looking at a minimums of $125, $335 or $630 per performer per day, for an 8-hour day. Again, this doesn’t even include +10%, which is customary to pay when paying SAG Scale, the fringes, and any overtime and meal penalties you may accrue.

It’s very easy to underestimate how many day players you’re writing into the script. That’s why films with only 3-4 actors are so easy to shoot at a low budget. There are no Day Players!

Questions to consider when trying to lower the cost:

• First of all, how many speaking roles does your script have? If it’s more than 30-35, that’s a lot.
• How many of your speaking roles only have one or two lines?
• Can some of your Day Players be combined or eliminated altogether without jeopardizing the scene?

3) Locations

Locations are an interesting one. All else being equal, 10 locations at 1 day per location, shouldn’t cost you any more money than 1 location at 10 days. So more locations doesn’t (directly) cost you more money. More locations costs you more time. Every load in, load out, or company move, costs you time. Load ins and load outs can cost you anywhere between 1-3 hours. Same for company moves.

If you’re at one location over the course of a few days, you can do a walk-away (which means you can leave your equipment standing on location, and avoid having to load out, and load back in the next day). Let’s assume that saves you an average of 2 hours each day. That means that over the course of 6 days, you’ll save 12 hours. That’s equivalent to an entire day of shooting. In this scenario, 6 days at one location gives you the same amount of shooting time as 7 days at different locations. That means you saved on one day of shooting, and shooting days are the most expensive element in production.

En fin, more locations doesn’t directly cost you more money. More locations directly costs you more time, which indirectly costs you a LOT more money.

Questions to consider when trying to lower the cost:

• How many shooting locations do you have in your script?
• Are there any locations in which only one scene takes place? Are they necessary?
• Are there any locations that can be combined into one location?

4) Animals

Animals are expensive. Both in time and money. Time because animals rarely do exactly what you want them to do on the first take. It takes time to get the animals on set, it takes time to get them to perform what you want, and it takes time to get them off set. Animals cost money, because if it’s a trained animal, you’ll have to pay for the Animal Trainer/Wrangler; you’ll have to pay for the Animal Rental itself; and finally you’ll have to pay for Transportation and/or Food Costs. And these are pretty hefty costs. It’s not unheard of to spend $2,500 on one animal for one day of filming.

Additionally, if you’d like to have the “No Animals Were Harmed” logo in your film, then you’ll have to pay the American Humane Association $500/day for a Site Rep to monitor your shooting activity.

Questions to consider when trying to lower the cost:

• Do you have any animals in the script? Can they be cut without jeopardizing the scene?
• Do the animals need to be trained? If so, training days will be added, which will bring up the cost.

5) Minors

Minors are expensive for similar reasons that animals are expensive. They cost time and money. Sometimes it costs more time, because depending on the age, minors might not be as quick to perform as adults. But the bigger cost in time is that you’re limited in the time that minors are allowed to work. Depending on the age, the time they are allowed to work is more or less limited. This means that if, for example, you have 12 hours of work that needs to be performed by a minor, you won’t be able to shoot that all in one day. You’ll have to break it up into 2 or 3 days of filming, which means you might have to add a day of shooting, which you otherwise might not have needed.

Obviously a wise 1st AD will schedule the day so that you are using the most out of the time with the minor, and any time before or after is being spent efficiently shooting other coverage. But in some cases, you have no alternative but to just add a shoot day to complete the work.

Minors also cost money because in some states, like California, you’ll have to hire a Studio Teacher for every day that a minor is on set, which means additional costs in wages, crafty and catering.

Questions to consider when trying to lower the cost:

• Do you have any minors, explicitly or implied, in the script?
• Can those minors be performed by someone 18+ playing younger?
• Can any of the minors be cut, without jeopardizing the scene?

6) Closing Down Roads / Driving Sequences

You’re probably not considering closing down Times Square or doing a high speed chase on the 101. But there might be some other scenes which you might not realize would either require closing down the road, or at a minimum require police assistance, which is expensive.

Any time an actor is driving, and you’d like to cover the scene from the front or side of the vehicle, you’ll likely need a Camera Car with a Process Trailer. You won’t necessarily need to shut down the road for this, but this will require that you have a number of police officers on motorcycles assist you. This entire orchestration could easily cost $10,000, when you add up the costs of the Camera Car and Process Trailer Rental, the Camera Car Driver, the Police Officers, the Police Motorcycle Fees and Permitting Fees.

Another thing to consider is that if you’re having your actors cross an active street, or if you’re having your cast or crew drive on a street in any way other than ‘with the flow of traffic’, you’ll have to either shut down the street or have police officers control the traffic for you. Again, the Police Fees add up very quickly, so be very considerate of any time you’ll need to control or shut down traffic in order to be able to safely shoot the scene.

Questions to consider when trying to lower the cost:

• Are the characters ever driving a vehicle? If so, how do you plan on covering the driving sequence?
• Can the scene in a moving vehicle be shot while the vehicle is parked or in another location altogether?
• Are the characters ever crossing a street, or performing a scene that would be dangerous without complete control of the traffic around them?

7) Music

People would be surprised quickly music costs add up. Music Rights are always the most expensive. Whenever we hear a piece of music, whether it’s non-diagetic music over the main titles, diagetic music coming out of a radio, or being hummed by a performer, that piece of music needs to be cleared. That often means expenses to hire a Music Supervisor (or an attorney) and of course the expenses for the Music Rights itself.

The best guard against this is to try as much as possible to have a composer create all the music in your film, and avoid music rights as much as you can.

Questions to consider when trying to lower the cost:

• Are there any known songs that are integral to the scene or script?
• Do the characters ever listen to music on camera?
• Can any music described in the script be originals created by a composer?

The post Writing for Low Budget: 7 Expensive Elements to look out for appeared first on The Filmmaker's Production Bible.

The Good News

I want to start this off with the good news – the importance of which should not be underestimated. The good news is this: if you know how to make a great short film, you can make a great feature film! That is something to look forward to. That’s exciting! The endeavor of making a feature is going to come with a lot of overwhelming challenges at times.

You will find challenges in the legal & business aspects. You will find challenges in the corporate aspects. You will find challenges in the budgeting & payroll aspects. Especially your first feature film will be tough. But don’t let these challenges keep you from making your film. Keep going back to this: if you’ve made a great short, you can make a great feature. In the end, it will be worth it!

The heart and soul of this endeavor is the ability to tell great visual story through the medium of film. Everything around it is just procedure. If you’ve mastered the ability to tell great story, then you’ve already overcome the hard part!

The #1 Difference between the Short Film and the Feature Film

When you make a short film, its end destination is (usually) film festivals. You hope to garner Official Selections and Awards, to build prestige and reputation, and ultimately help you get your feature film made, or get you hired. A short film is seldom made with distribution in mind.

When making a feature film, the end goal is to get it sold and distributed. Festivals are only stepping stones to help the feature get to the end goal. That might sound obvious, but the implications have a bigger impact than most people realize. Since your end goal is now distribution and sale, you’re entering into the world of doing business. You’re in the business of selling a product (your film) to consumers (your audience).

As with any business, when you do this, you need to be legally set up to do business; you need to be able to prove that you have the right to sell your product; you need to comply with State and Federal Laws; you need to pay taxes; the list goes on. I know this might all sound a bit daunting at first, but remember that:

• Many others have done this before – if they can do it, you can too.
• You don’t have to learn or do this alone. This is where a team (especially a producing team) really comes in handy.
• It’s a step-by-step process, and when you learn this in steps, it’s way, way easier.

Creating a feature film is not much different than any start-up business, so let’s take a look at it through that lens.

The Limited Liability Company

You might have been renting equipment, making purchases and paying vendors under your personal name when making a short. You might have personally owned the copyright of your short. Maybe you didn’t even give much thought to the ownership of the copyright. That changes when you make your feature. In fact, you won’t be the one “producing” the feature, some other “US Person” will…: a Limited Liability Company. The LLC is the company that will open a bank account specifically for the film, make agreements with all Cast, Crew and Vendors (including you!), make payments, own the copyright to the film, and ultimately sell the film.

So the first thing you’re going to do when you’re ready to make your feature is open up a company, which solely exists to produce the feature film. The biggest reason you do this is to limit your liability when doing business. Remember, you’re going to be engaging in business with a LOT of people and vendors, a lot of money will be exchanging hands, and liabilities are of concern. So you create an LLC to protect yourself if something should go wrong.

Employees & Payroll

When you’re making a short, you often have your friends help you out. The dynamics change, however, when you’re making a feature film. Even if your crew consists of the very same friends that helped you make your short film, and even if they’re all volunteering to help you on your feature, you still have keep in mind the fundamental difference that this time they are helping you create a commercial product. As such, they should be compensated fairly (even if just on the backend).

Another important thing to consider is that if you are conducting business, which you are when you’re producing a feature film, you have to abide by State and Federal Laws. Your friends who are now working on your film are suddenly considered “Employees” and you are suddenly considered an “Employer” and you find yourself subject to Labor Laws. I highly recommend picking up the book The Pocket Lawyer for Filmmakers. It does a really great job of introducing filmmakers to the legalities of the film business.

You also have to keep in mind that as your Cast & Crew are considered Employees, you technically have to pay them through payroll, and pay payroll taxes. Many filmmakers don’t do this, and they never get in trouble for it – but you should know that doing so breaks State and Federal Labor Laws.

Delivering to a Distributor

Finally, once you’ve set up your business, hired employees, done your accounting properly, and completed your film, now you need to sell it and deliver it to a distributor.

The first thing a distributor is going to want to know is that you have the right to sell this product. In other words, you have the right to exploit all of the copyrights within the film that you created – you own the copyright to the script, you have the right to the music in the film, every piece of artwork or artistic expression in the film has been cleared or created/owned by you. If you don’t have every right underlying your product, then you don’t have the right to sell it, and in that case a distributor won’t buy it.

This changes how you might go about making your film. While you might not have been paying attention to the mural in the background of the short film, it now poses a significant threat to the distribution of your feature (if you don’t have the right to display that artwork in your film.) Think of it this way: you can’t shoot a Broadway show on your iPhone and then sell it on iTunes. That same concept applies to any and all work, whether visual or audible, in your film.

As you’re moving through pre-production, production and post, you’re constantly collecting all the proper paperwork to later prove to distributors that you indeed own every piece of the movie, or you have the right to exploit every element within the film. You have the right to sell your film in all media throughout the world in perpetuity.

Going into the Film Business

If Business Management and Entrepreneurship excites you, then learning more about these aspects will be no problem. But if the idea of creating an LLC, dealing with labor laws and copyright law seem daunting or uninspiring, then this is a great time to team up with someone who will be excited to take on this part!

You don’t need to be good at all of this. It helps if you have a basic understanding of it all. In any event, if it’s not going to be you, you should have a partner or company who will take on the business & legal aspects of producing your feature. Let’s go back to the good news: if you know how to make a great short, you can make a great feature! Be excited at the opportunity of creating a business out of your feature film!

Learn the basics about setting up an LLC. Learn the basics of labor laws and how to employ your cast & crew the right way. Learn the basics about copyright & entertainment law. More importantly, find people to help you! Filmmaking is a Team Sport. Build your team. Build your business. Build your Feature Film!

The post Making the Jump from Short Film to Feature appeared first on The Filmmaker's Production Bible.

Whether it’s a Student Short or a Union Feature, having a template that you can use time and again just makes life easier!

Click here to get our 5x Master Templates:

• Crew List Template
• Cast List Template
• Credits Template (Main & End Titles)
• Vendors List Template
• Locations List Template

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About the production templates

While I have multiple working lists in my Production Bible, by the end of every production, someone on my team always prepares these reports in a more neat and uniform fashion for the final deliverables. These are important for a number of reasons:

• These are used as deliverable items for Distributors & Festivals
• These are kept on file by the Production Company for their records
• These are used as reference for potential reshoots
• These are used as reference for future projects
• The Credits List are used to create the final credits of the film

If you’d also like our 10 Free Accounting Templates to keep track of all your production expenses, you can get those here.

The post Get 5x Free Production Templates appeared first on The Filmmaker's Production Bible.

You can’t have a budget without a schedule

At least not one you can trust. You can have a generic budget to get a general idea. But you can’t have a real budget, unless it’s based on a schedule, which is based on a breakdown. For example, how many extras should you budget for? The only way to figure that out is by breaking down the script scene by scene, adding the appropriate amount of background performers in each scene, then scheduling all of your scenes, and summing up how many “background mandays” that totals up to. Your budget needs to be based on something.

Step 1: Beginning with the Script

Everything begins with the script. The first thing I always do when I’m hired to budget a film, is ask for the script in fdx (Final Draft) format. While I’m not writer, I use Final Draft constantly. It’s an expensive investment, but one very much worth making, and I highly recommend it if you can afford it.

First thing I do is review the sluglines. Sometimes you’ll find things in the script like “20 MINUTES LATER…”, or in some cases the writer will cut back and forth between two people in different locations on a phone conversation without adding all of the necessary sluglines. In that case, I’ll make sure the script details at least one slugline for each location. The more you catch these details in the script, the better prepared you’ll be when scheduling, and ultimately when budgeting.

Once all the sluglines look good, I make sure to number the script. This is one of the most important first steps. Keep in mind that after this, your schedule and all of your breakdowns will be based on this script numbering, so make sure it’s properly done! Now just save a new fdx file!

Next Stop: Final Draft Tagger

It’s important to note that in the old days, people broke down scripts using pens, highlighters and a lot of paper, so you can really use whatever technology you have available. However, there is an infinitely easier and faster way (and in my opinion, more efficient way as well). If you own Final Draft, it also comes with a free software called Final Draft Tagger. Final Draft Tagger basically lets you prepare an fdx file to import into Movie Magic Scheduling.

You can, of course, build the breakdown sheets from scratch, but Final Draft Tagger imports all of the information already available (such as sluglines, INT/EXT, Day/Night, Page Counts, etc) directly into scheduling. That’s a WHOLE LOT LESS information that you now need to add in manually. Final Draft Tagger is not perfect, however, so you definitely want to go in and double check all the work. Still, double checking the work will be far less time-consuming than manually inputting everything from zero.

Open Final Draft Tagger, then go to File / Open File… and select the numbered fdx that you just saved. This will upload the script in a slightly different format, AND it will already start “tagging” CAST names. Now all you do is go scene by scene and “tag” the elements in the script like “Cast”, “Vehicle”, “Props”, etc. Once you’re done, you’re going to want to save the fdx file again, so that the next time you open it with Final Draft Tagger, all your work will still be there. Finally, you want to “Export to Schedule”. That’s going to create a .sex file (don’t ask me why they couldn’t think of a better file extension).

Import into Scheduling

Now that you have your .sex file, you can open a new file in Movie Magic Scheduling, and import your work. For a more comprehensive tutorial on this workflow you can check out this video. I consider the work in Final Draft Tagger to be the first pass, where you tag all of the elements that are explicitly in the script. Once you open up your breakdown sheets in Movie Magic Scheduling, this becomes your second, more comprehensive pass. Here you’ll add elements that are implicitly in the script. For example if the location is a train station during rush hour, but there is no mention of background performers, you can safely assume you’ll need a lot.

After your second pass, you’ll have a very comprehensive breakdown of your script. You’ll be able to print quick reports that will come in handy later on when budgeting (for example Extras by Day Report, or a Vehicles DOOD, Additional Labor DOOD, etc.) You’ll notice when going line by line in your budget that you’re going to encounter a lot of questions that can only be answered by the work you’ve done here!

The post Budgeting the Indie Feature: Step 1 – Breaking it Down appeared first on The Filmmaker's Production Bible.

• How should I budget for music on a $150,000 movie?
• How should I budget for music on a $1,000,000 movie?
• How much do music rights actually cost per song?
• What do “famous” songs go for?
• What about if I want to put a Beatles song in my end credits?
• What can I reasonably expect if I have $3,000 for Music versus $30,000?
• How much does it cost to hire a Music Supervisor?

These are just some of the questions we dive into in our interview with Dan Wilcox.

Dan Wilcox started in music supervision in 2004, working freelance on national ad campaigns for Mitsubishi. From 2004 to 2008 he was the Music Director of Ten Music, an advertising music house, where he supervised campaigns for brands such as Apple, Toyota, Nike, Mastercard, VW, Toyota Prius, Nokia and many others. Since 2008, he’s been working freelance as a Music Supervisor for film & TV projects as well as advertising & branding. He also served as Music Director at Music Interactive, a company that connects consumers and brands through music promotions, working with artists ranging from Rihanna, Florence + the Machine, Phoenix, John Legend, Mos Def and more for brands such as Coca Cola, Nissan, HP, Toyota, Adult Swim, Disney and others. Dan also hosts a radio program every Sunday night 10p-12m on 89.9FM KCRW in Los Angeles.

Dan Wilcox
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm3449677/
https://www.kcrw.com/danwilcox
Email: dan.wilcox@kcrw.org

Other websites mentioned:
ASCAP, BMI, AllMusic, Discogs

The post Talking Numbers with a Music Supervisor appeared first on The Filmmaker's Production Bible.

Click here to get 10 Accounting Templates most commonly used on any production:

Included are the following templates:

• Petty Cash Envelope
• Petty Cash Receipt
• Petty Cash Log
• Purchase Order Form
• Purchase Order Log
• Check Request Form
• Check Request Log
• Credit Card Log
• Blank Invoice
• Mileage Log

You can read more about how to best use these templates here.

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The post 10 Free Accounting Templates for Indie Filmmakers appeared first on The Filmmaker's Production Bible.

Part 1: From Pre-Production to Test Screening

From Short Films to Low Budget Features to Big Budget Features, the process is the same. The difference just comes down to more time and more people. The bigger the budget, the longer you can afford to really fine tune each part of the process. The more people you can hire to work on the film. Instead of using sound effects libraries, you can hire Foley Artists to foley your entire film. Instead of using digital instruments (as amazing as they may sound nowadays), you can hire live instruments — maybe even an entire orchestra! But again, the process is the same. You still need to cut the film,  color the film, sound design the film, score the film, possibly add some VFX to the film, and finally deliver the film. Be it in 10 weeks or 10 months.

Let’s take a look at the Indie Post Production process that I’ve seen over and over again on films ranging from $150K to $2M.

The Indie Post Production Schedule

In a nutshell the schedule breaks down as follows:

• Editor’s Assembly: 1-2 weeks after Principal Photography
• 1st Director’s Cut: 3-4 weeks
• First Preview Screening (optional): 1 Day
• 2nd Director’s Cut: 2-3 weeks
• Second Preview Screening: 1 Day
• Reshoots/Additional Photography: 2-3 weeks
• Reshoots/Additional Photography Cut: 1 week
• Fine Cut: 1 week
• Turnover to Color/Sound/Music: 1-3 Days
• Color: 2-3 weeks
• VFX: 1-??* weeks
• Music Score: 6-8 weeks
• Music Rights: 6-8 weeks
• Sound Edit: 3-5 weeks
• Sound Mix: 1-2 weeks
• Main & End Titles: 1-??* weeks
• Delivery: 2-3 days
     *VFX and Main/End Titles will be completely dependent on how complex they are

Pre-Production & Principal Photography

To set up the most efficient process, Post Production has to start in Pre-Production. Before you even shoot a single frame, the first thing you need to do is get your Editor, DP and DIT in a room together to discuss the media workflow. Make sure everyone understands what format you’re shooting on, and what the workflow will be when it comes to getting the footage from the camera to the editor. This means figuring out what cameras you’re shooting on, what format you’ll shoot in, what software you’ll be cutting on, and what files you’ll be using. If you’re the Producer or Director, you don’t necessarily need to know the answers to these, as long as your camera and editorial department know! Figuring this out before you shoot can possibly save you a lot of headaches, time and money.

Then the actual editorial process should start on Day 2 of Principal Photography. The footage from Day 1 should be delivered on a shuttle drive to the Assistant Editor, so that he/she can start synching & transcoding the footage. The AE will prep the footage and the project so that the editor can start the assembly. Sometimes, when you can’t afford to have an AE, the editor will act as both the editor and AE. If this is the case, just factor into your post schedule that the editor can only go so fast. Every day shuttle drives go back and forth between Set and the Editorial Facilities. Each day the AE preps the footage from the day before, and in the meanwhile, the editor starts chipping away at the assembly.

This process gives you some big benefits:

1. The editor can tell you while you’re still in production if he/she encounters any issues or if you’re missing any shots. If you’re still shooting at the location, you might be able to get the shot your editor needs!
2. If, as the filmmaker, you’re not sure if something is working, you’re editor can send you bits of the sequences, which will be much more informative than looking at dailies.
3. By  following this process, you’ll have an assembly just a week or 2 after you complete principal photography!

The Editorial Phase

The Assembly/Editor’s Cut: principal photography + 1-2 weeks
If you’re editorial department has been working while you shoot, then you should have your first assembly about 1-2 weeks after you complete principal photography. The assembly has to stick to the script, and the editor should be the only one working on the assembly (hence “Editor’s Cut). In other words, the director or producer should not be involved with the assembly. The benefits are that:

1. The director (and producer) gets a much needed time off from the film, and comes back with (somewhat) fresh eyes after a week or two.
2. The editor will cut the assembly with a different perspective, and without any influence from the set. This more “objective” cut, tends to form a much better base for the director to come in and work off of.

1st Director’s Cut: 3-4 weeks
After the Editor’s Cut, the director gets to come in. You’ll give 3-4 weeks for this process, and now the script goes out the window and the film starts to take a new shape. It’s probably best that the producers stay away from the process of the director’s cut, so that when it’s ready to view, they can watch it with fresh eyes. Producer notes will be much more valuable after the director has had the chance to implement all of his/her notes. When the first director’s cut is complete, set a date to watch it altogether, and everyone should make notes. Put it up on a secure link, and watch it again over the weekend. Thoughtful notes here are very important to get into the next phase.

Preview Screening (optional)
If you have the option of hosting a small preview screening, this might be beneficial here. It might also not be. It really depends on the state of the cut, and how many ideas the editor and director still have. If everyone on the team has a very good idea of what still needs to be done, then don’t waste your resources on a preview screening. Only set up a small preview screening if you’re not quite sure what’s working and what’s not. Believe me, after the first 30 minutes of a preview screening, you’ll know exactly what needs fixing!

2nd Director’s Cut: 2-3 weeks
After taking in everyone’s notes, whether it’s from the creative team, or you’ve hosted a small test screening, it’s time for the director and editor to get back to it! You’ll address all notes as best as possible and complete the best possible version of the film. After the 2nd Director’s Cut, you’ve probably exhausted all ideas, so now is the prime time for a Test Screening.

Test Screening
If you can only do one test screening, then THIS is the time to do it — after you’ve done everything you can think of. You should decide before you host a test screening whether or not you have any money left to do reshoots. Don’t decide what you want to reshoot yet, just decide if you can afford it. If so, great! The test screening will tell you what to reshoot. You will print out a questionnaire and ask everyone to fill those out at the end of the screening. Additionally, try to hold back 9-12 people to hold a focus group. The central question around this focus group should be “If you could change one thing, what would that be?” In other words, you’re trying to find out “what’s not working?”

If possible, the person moderating the test screening should be a third party that isn’t involved with the film. That will give you more truthful (and therefor more valuable) answers. The filmmakers should sit in the back, and are NOT ALLOWED to speak OR answer questions. Otherwise, it will naturally lead to the filmmakers defending their choices, your audience will stop giving you valuable criticism, and you will have wasted a test screening.

Another thing to consider: don’t think so much about what they seem to have a problem with. Instead try to decipher why they have a problem with it. Often times, the problem is not necessarily what they point out, but something deeper underneath. Based on the answers of your questionnaire and your focus group, the filmmakers should get together to decide what reshoots or additional photography would best address the biggest issues your audience is having.

The post Indie Post Production: The Process from Start to Finish (Part 1) appeared first on The Filmmaker's Production Bible.

Part 2: From Reshoots to Delivery

Reshoots/Additional Photography: 2-3 weeks
Reshoots/Additional Photography are a great thing, and you should always try to account for this in your budget. You can either budget for it separately, or you can make it a point to save as much contingency as possible and reallocate your contingency saved towards reshoots or additional photography. All else being equal, given the chance to go back and enhance your film with additional photography will always make a better film.

You should plan at least 1.5-2.5 weeks to prep for reshoots, with 1 or 2 days of production. During this 2-3 week period, there is not much for your editor to do. It might be a good time for your editor to step away from the project, or the project might benefit from working towards a “Fine Cut”. Either way, the minute reshoots are complete your editor should immediately start implementing the reshoots/additional photography scenes into the cut.

Reshoots/Additional Photography Cut: 1 Week
This is the time to implement any scenes from your reshoots. Make sure the editor is given this time to work on the reshoot scenes exclusively. Remember that these scenes need to be as refined as other scenes that have had 7-10 weeks of work done.

Fine Cut: 1 Week
Last looks!! After your reshoots/additional photography scenes have been implemented, have one last screening amongst the team, spend the weekend watching it again, put together everyone’s last set of notes, and spend a week refining the cut. By the end of this week you’ll finally Picture Lock.

Turnover Picture Lock
Now it’s time to hand over to Color, VFX, Sound & Music! This is where things can start to get a little crazy, because suddenly the film is in the hands of multiple different departments all working on different aspects of it at once! Color and Sound Edit can be going on at the same time, while VFX shots need to be done before Color can finish, and the Music needs to be ready before the Sound Mix can start. By the end of it all, you need to bring all the elements back into one place to create a DCP of your finished product: your final cut.

Color & Visual Effects

Color / Digital Intermediate: 1-3 weeks
Your editor will turnover the picture lock to the colorist. A conversation needs to be had between the colorist and editor with the producer (or post production supervisor) to make sure that the turnover is done properly. Chances are the editor has been cutting using lower res (offline) files, and what the colorist will need is the high res (online) files. If you’ve ever heard the term “Online Conform”, this is what they’re referring to – process of going from the “offline” edit to an “online” sequence. Make sure you have an explicit conversation about this, and make sure you understand what the budgetary implications of each workflow will be.

Visual Effects: ?? weeks
It’s impossible to say how many weeks VFX will take, as it depends so much on how much VFX your film requires. If you’ve done your homework, you will already have gotten a bid from a VFX house before you started production, and a VFX Supervisor was with you on set during the shooting of the VFX sequences. During that time you should have a conversation with your VFX team to find out how long they estimate it will take. Make sure you give them the footage in time so that you’re not waiting on VFX later on. Remember that the colorist can’t finish the work until all VFX shots are complete and have been delivered.

Your editor can turnover the Visual Effects shots to the VFX team directly, before you turnover everything to the colorist. Alternatively, your colorist might want to handle the turnover, as he/she will be the one ultimately receiving the final files. The best thing is to just have that conversation with your colorist before anything is turned over to decide on the best workflow possible. If you have a good colorist, you should follow his/her advice.

Music Score & Music Rights

Music Score: 6-8 weeks
By the time you have a picture lock, you should already have a composer. In fact, the earlier you have your composer the better. Even if the cut isn’t locked yet, the composer can still get to work on creating the themes and motifs for each character. Creating original score isn’t easy, and it takes time. Lots of trial and error to find that perfect melody. So make sure you give the composer as much time as possible! Six weeks is tight, but doable, if you can bring them on sooner, do that!

Music Rights: 6-8 weeks
Music Rights presents a whole other issue, which is that you often don’t have control over how long it takes. While scoring the film takes time due to the workload, Music Rights on the other hand take time because you’re constantly waiting on publishers and rights holders to respond to your requests. Especially when you have very little money to offer, publishers are very slow to respond. It might also take you some time to figure out exactly who owns which rights to what songs, and how to contact each party. This is where Music Supervisors can be a huge asset, and can get the answers you need much faster. Still, this process takes time, so if you know you want a particular song licensed for the film, my advice is that you go after it as early as possible.

Sound Edit & Mix

Sound Edit: 3-5 weeks
The Sound Edit consists of multiple aspects:

• Sound Design
• Dialog Editing
• Foley Creation & Editing
• Sound Effects Editing
• ADR Recording & Editing
• (in some cases a little bit of) Music Editing

All of this takes time, and the more time you have to work on this, the better. Usually the edit is limited to 3-5 weeks for budgetary purposes, but if you could afford more time, you’ll find it well worth it! The Sound Design of the film can truly make or break the film.

Sound Mix: 1-2 weeks
Once the Sound Edit is complete, it probably won’t sound like much until it’s mixed (or at least pre-mixed). This is really when it all comes together, and personally my favorite part of the entire post production process. This is when you sit in the mix stage (or someone’s garage), watch your film, and you start mixing all the different elements that Sound Editorial have put in for you. If they did a good job, you’ll have tons to work with here, and this is where you really start to find the sound of your film.

Main & End Titles

Simple Main & End Titles: 1 week
Ideally you could have these out of the way sooner, but unfortunately you can’t quite complete your titles until you know exactly who has completed all of the post production work on your film. A good way to go about this is to fill out your Main and End Titles on a Word or Excel file as early as possible, and just leave the last few post production titles for the end. That way, the moment you complete the work, you can fill in the last few credits and send these off to be created.

Your Main and End Titles can be done in a multitude of ways. They could be done by Motion Graphic Artists and Illustrators. They can be done by Animators as an animation sequence. Or they can be done very simply using text overlays in your editing software, or using a service like EndCrawl for your end titles. Once this is done, you’re pretty much ready to deliver! Presuming that you’re going with a pretty straight forward Main & End Titles, one week should be enough to get this done. If you’re planning on something a bit more extravagant, just like Visual Effects, the time it takes will entirely depend on how big you’re going. In that case, make sure you have a conversation with the team about how long it will take — and start early!

Delivery

Presumably you’ve scheduled everything out in advance in a way that all of your different elements of post production have come together. You’ve completed your VFX, Main & End Titles, Color, Score, Music Rights, Sound Edit & Mix. Now it’s time to create your Quicktime & DCP. This will most likely be done back at your colorist. Talk to the colorist and include your editor in the conversation about making sure you get them everything they need (from Titles, VFX, Sound, etc.) DCPs are expensive, so you’ll want to make sure it gets done right! And once it’s complete, make sure you can have a QC (Quality Control) screening somewhere to test (and hopefully enjoy) your final cut!

The post Indie Post Production: The Process from Start to Finish (Part 2) appeared first on The Filmmaker's Production Bible.

Preface

Unfortunately for filmmakers, the moment you start offering any participation in profits in return for an investment, you become subject to laws and regulations of the Securities and Exchange Commission. For this reason, before you start any official negotiations or offerings, you have to talk to an attorney specializing in these laws. The regulations and laws applicable will depend on the amount and type of investors as well as the investment amounts.

Before you even get to that point, however, you should have a basic understanding of how the investments work, and how investors will make their money back. Let’s take a look at straight cash investments (a.k.a. angel investors) and how the major deal points work.

When do investors get their money back?

Before you ask for money, you better know the answer to this question, because this will be the first thing investors want to know! The more you understand this process, the better. So read as much material as you can about how film revenues and profits work (even how taxes come into play!) You’ll have more success raising funds by studying the revenue stream, than you will from studying the investment structure.

There are many different places a production company can get revenues from:

• Domestic Box Office
• International Box Office
• VOD
• SVOD
• TV
• Premium Cable
• even books and merchandise!
• …the list goes on!

All of these have different “waterfalls” from the moment a dollar leaves the consumer’s wallet to the moment it hits your Production Company Revenue stream. But what we’re looking at here is the Production Company Revenue and how that turns into Net Profits.

So let’s assume for the sake of argument, that we’re dealing with a simple MG (Minimum Guarantee) that’s paid out upfront to the production company. How does that MG trickle down into recoupment and profits for the investor? You have to be able to explain this to an investor. First thing to note is that EVERYTHING IS NEGOTIABLE. Nonetheless, there are “standards” that I tend to see over and over, so let’s take a look at those standards, and just know that you can always negotiate a deal to whatever better fits your project.

“Recoupment of Investment”

This will be one of the most important clauses in your financing agreement, and one that investors will pay special attention to. This basically explains what happens to every dollar that comes into the company. Usually the first things to be deducted are “actual, out of pocket, third party costs paid in connection with the distribution and exploitation of the Picture, including taxes, sales agent fees, distribution fee(s), collection account fees and expenses, residuals.” Basically this is telling the investors that sales agents, distribution companies and applicable unions, etc., are going to take a cut before the production company can truly see any money.

After that, you have to repay any loans (including applicable interest and financing fees). These loans (sometimes Gap/Mezzanine financing) are often the last dollars to come in, but they are the first to be repaid. On the other hand, these loans do not participate in the potential profits of the film. Lower risk, lower reward. In order to protect themselves, investors will want to see a cap/limit to the loans a production company is allowed to take on. The investor doesn’t want the company taking on TOO many loans, because the more loans the company takes on, the more investors will have to wait to recoup their investment. The exact amount is negotiable.

After loans are repaid, that’s usually when investors start to recoup their investment. Since it’s usually about 1 – 2 years before they get to this point, they’ll want to receive a premium on their initial investment. Usually this premium is 20%. So if an investor invested $100, they would recoup their initial $100 plus a $20 premium. Again, everything is negotiable. You can negotiate the premium to be 15%, 25% or anything else you choose — however, I highly recommend that you make ONE deal for ALL investors. You will find yourself up against a corner if you start giving different investors different terms.

“Percentage Share of Profits”

Once investors have been repaid their initial investment + premium, now you can start splitting the remaining moneys. Before you go into Net Profits, it’s possible you may have promised certain cast & crew deferred payments. This is the point where these deferments are paid. The investors will want to keep a limit on the allowable deferments as well, because the more deferments are paid out, the more they’ll have to wait until they can take in their Net Profits. As a filmmaker, you’ll want to have enough wiggle room here in order to make more attractive deals with cast & crew during production.

Finally, after deferments are paid out, we can officially label the remaining funds, if any, Net Profits. The Net Profits is typically split into two pots: the Investor’s Share of the Net Profits, and the Producer’s Share of the Net Profits. This is typically split 50-50, but again… this is entirely negotiable. Investors will receive a “proportionate share” of the Investor’s Share of Net Profits. In other words if the Investor’s Share of the Net Profits is $200, and ‘Investor A’ invested half of the budget, then ‘Investor A’ will receive $100 of the $200 profits.

Other rights

Other than how investors receive their money back, there are other rights they might want to ask for, and it’s up to you whether you’re willing to give them:

• Voting Rights
• Veto Rights / Right of Refusal
• Mutual Approval Rights
• Meaningful Consultation Rights

Investors may want these rights on a number of issues that, in some way, will affect their investment. This could be related to:

• Distribution of the Picture
• Casting of the Main Talent
• Final Cut of the Picture
• Investment in Sequels, Prequels, Spinoffs

The list can go on and on, but these are some typical examples. What rights are you willing to give to your investors? That’s something you should consider very carefully and decide on before they ask for it. Lastly, a right investors will always have (and anyone participating in Net Profits) is the right to audit you at their expense.

So… ready to start your company and officially make your feature film?

The post How to make a Deal with Film Investors appeared first on The Filmmaker's Production Bible.

The workflow in a quick snapshot:

• Get Start Forms & I-9 from every employee
• Deliver these Start Forms to your payroll company
• Get Daily Time Sheets from each department
• Input the times from your Daily Time Sheets into the backs of Production Reports
• Get Weekly Time Cards from every employee
• Approve and send in the Time Cards to your payroll company
• Get Payroll Edits from your payroll company
• Approve and release checks to your employees

Let’s take a look at each step.

The Start: Start Forms

Appropriately called a Start Form, this is a sheet that you get from your payroll company, which you should have your employees fill out BEFORE they start work. This should be filled out at the same time as their Deal Memo and I-9. The Start Form is an important document that tells the payroll company who the employee is (along with important info such as SSN/Tax ID), as well as what his/her hourly rate is, if he/she has a guarantee, and lastly the bottom part of the Start Form is a W-4, in which the employee has to claim their total number of allowances for Tax Withholding.

You may have negotiated a rate per day with your crew, based on 12 hours, but you still have to break it down into an hourly rate when you fill out the Start Form. Unless you’ve hired someone as a Weekly Employee, in which case you would put their weekly amount under weekly rate instead. But more likely than not, you’ll be dealing with Hourly Employees. Once you calculate their hourly rate, there is still a question of guarantee: if an employee works less than 12 hours, did you agree to still give them a minimum guarantee equal to 12 hours of work? If so, then you have to put in “12” under “Guarantee”. That tells the payroll company that even if the employee reports working 10 hours, they will be paid as if they worked 12 hours.

Your payroll company cannot process any payroll without this Start Form, so make sure you keep track of acquiring these forms from all of your employees! I like to use my Crew List in the Filmmaker’s Production Bible to keep track of who has handed in their paperwork, and who is still missing.

Daily Time Sheets

Daily Time Sheets is a sheet that simply records everyone’s IN and OUT times as well as their MEAL OUT and MEAL IN, and if any NDBs were taken. These are usually filled out by the Department Head or Best Boy for each department and returned to the production office at the end of each day. It’s easy to overlook the process of filling out Daily Time Sheets on very small run-and-gun indie productions, but I’d argue that this small extra step actually makes your life much easier when it comes time to filling out Time Cards and making sure everyone is getting paid properly.

When Daily Time Sheets are handed in at the end of the day, Production then uses this information to generate the backs of the Daily Production Reports for that day. This is the first place where the PM/LP double checks that the times being reported are accurate. Sometimes crew members report incorrect times, and most of the time it’s not malicious, people just make mistakes — but it’s the PM/LPs job to make sure the times being recorded are correct.

Weekly Time Cards

If you’ve had your crew hand in Daily Time Sheets, then filling out Weekly Time Cards becomes much easier (since you already have the information recorded for each day.) A good habit is to print out the backs of your Daily Production Reports (since those have the IN and OUT times for everyone based on their Daily Time Sheets) and put them up on the wall of your Production Office. That way, when the crew comes in to fill out their Weekly Time Cards on the last day of the week, they don’t have to look up their in and out times; they can just use the Production Reports to fill out their times.

Once all the Time Cards are handed in, the PM, LP or Accountant is going to have to review all of them to ensure that the IN and OUT times are correct, as well as the Meal OUT and IN times, if there are any Meal Penalty Violations, if there are any Box Rentals reported, or other notes (such as Re-Rates on certain days, if for example, a Best Boy was promoted to a Key position on one day). All of these things will need to be reviewed, and approved by way of signature before these are sent off to your payroll company.

Tip 1: ALWAYS have the Time Cards organized in alphabetical order of last name, as you will be receiving the Payroll Edits in this order, so it makes your life much easier to keep to the same order.

Tip 2: Make sure you have a good understanding of accounting time.

Payroll Week: the Timeline

So now that you know what forms you need to hand in to your payroll company, it’s important to understand the timeline. Standard payroll week is Sunday – Saturday, which means that Saturday is the end of the work week regardless of what your days off are on production. In other words, if you’re production shoots Wednesday – Sunday, then the last day of your “production week” is actually the first day of your next “payroll week”. So your Time Card would look something like this:

Sunday — Hours Filled in
Monday — blank
Tuesday — blank
Wednesday — Hours Filled In
Thursday — Hours Filled In
Friday — Hours Fill In
Saturday — Hours Filled In

Because your “production week” might be different from your “payroll week”, it’s important to pay extra attention to possible 6th and 7th days, which might not be apparent from looking at just one week’s Time Card.

So… your timeline looks like this:
Saturday night you receive Time Cards from all employees
Sunday morning you review & approve these Time Cards, and address any issues with employees if applicable.
Monday morning you send all approved Time Cards to your payroll company
Tuesday/Wednesday your payroll company sends you the payroll edits
Wednesday you approve or send notes on your payroll edits until approved
Thursday/Friday checks are released.

Payroll Edits

These can be the most tedious to go through, especially when you have 100 employees you need to review. You may be tempted to skim through it, but it is IMMENSELY important that you take your time to thoroughly go through each and every position and make sure the pay is correct. This will save you money and time. If you don’t do this, and someone is underpaid, you’re going to have an unhappy crew member coming to see you and it will take you more time and energy to fix the problem than it was to correct it in the first place. If you overpay someone, it will also be a pain to correct the overpayment plus you’ll have to have an uncomfortable conversation with a crew member because your messed up. Payroll is one of your biggest expenses that could put you over-budget, so make sure you’re keeping a very close eye on these edits.

Since you’ve organized your Weekly Time Cards by alphabetical order of last name, you can put your Payroll Edit and Weekly Time Cards side by side and go through each employee to ensure that the information from the time cards were translated correctly onto the payroll edits. I use a few calculators to ensure that the math adds up, and I send explicit notes if something is amiss. Do not rely on your payroll company to approve the math, you will be surprised how many mistakes you find in every payroll edit — it is imperative that you do the work here, even if it’s tedious.

Tip: Sometimes your payroll company will send you edits with just the payroll, and sometimes they’ll include the fringes. I always ask that they include the fringes so that I can keep track of those as well as the payroll itself for cost reporting reasons.

So that’s it!

That’s the step by step in a nutshell. It might not all be 100% clear, and that’s okay — at least you have a framework to get started. As you go through the process and just follow these steps, things will become more and more clear. Inevitably you will have questions, and your payroll company will be able to walk you through those.

The post Running your Crew through Payroll: a Step by Step Guide appeared first on The Filmmaker's Production Bible.