Expert: Alessandro Machi - 7/18/2007

Question
I have a question about film production, not neccesarily large format but production in general. Generally what percentage of the budget is put in pre-production, production and post-production. It is very easy to forget that the budget has to be set aside for post production and spend too much on the actual filming.Thank you.

Answer
Hi John, this is an all time great question.  

Your question also applies to the world of television commercials. Just how much does one spend on making the commercial itself versus how much to spend to actually air the commercial on television?  If you had a budget of 10,000 dollars for a local cable commercial for both the production and the airing of the commercial, how would you divy it up?  If you don't spend enough on the commerical, than it almost becomes pointless to air the commerical at all, if one spends too much money on the commerical, then not enough is left over to air the commercial the proper amount of times for the optimal return on the investment.

If the ratio of production cost to broadcastings costs are off, it can adversely affect the desired impact the commerical is supposed to have..

Many lower budgeted feature film productions tend to minimize the costs associated with a film after the film has completed principle photography.

Costs such as post production sound, music composition, full end credits, insurance, reshoots, accounting costs, creating the trailer, a hearing impaired version with visible dialogue, master tapes, conversion to either HD or Standard Def, DVD creation, DVD extras, the artwork for the DVD, reshoots, relooping lines that did not come out clearly, are all costs that need to be included.

if I were to assign percentages it would be something like this...

15% to create a script, schedule, budget, and schedule a crew, 5% for locations, 15% for above the line crew, 15% for below the line crew, 3% crafts services/meals, 7% expendables & camera, 10% post production editing, 5% post production sound, 5% music composition, 7% cover art DVD design & DVD creation & copies, 10% for promotion/festival/test screenings, 3% for unexpected costs.

All those percentages can easily be changed and altered and if I tried this 10 days in a row the percentages might all be different!  I think I left out insurance and office overhead, gasp!