You may have seen my PM101 budgeting pencil: … or you may even have one (and laugh each time the eraser wiggles while you write). It tangibly demonstrates the proportion of time you spend writing a budget vs the time you spend revising it. Recently, it got me to thinking about script or story writing […]
Backwards Budgeting
When it comes to budgeting, whatever you do, don’t start at the beginning! Start backwards. Huh? Peruse a budget template. That’s a lot of categories, isn’t it? Kind of makes the budget template seem smart by itself. Not so. Sure, if you start budgeting at the first category and work your way linearly though the […]
Why Craft Service & Catering Should be Good
It’s a big budget production… the production can afford it! Craft & catering should be good. It’s expected; it’s respectful. It’s a low budget production… the production may not be providing enough time or money to the cast & crew to buy groceries. Craft & catering should be good. Production needs a healthy cast & […]
Ciné-surfer: $1M Budget Breakdown (from Oz Film Commission)
The Australia Film Commission has a set of feature articles worth perusing. One in particular is called “The Financial Lowdown“. Though this article is a tad old (it references films shot between 2000 and 2003), the content is still excellent. There’s a breakdown of a $1M production budget that helps with understanding of generally where in the budget […]
Ciné-Surfer: Pacific Exchange’s Currency Plotter
Working on coproductions, you care deeply about what the exchange rate is doing between the two or three currencies you are using (in order to maximize money making it to the screen instead of to exchange rate loss). UBC’s Sauder School of Business has the the ability to plot exchange rates at the Pacific Exchange […]