Mar262010
The PM101 Budgeting Pencil
The what? Am I sure I didn’t mean “budgeting computer” or “budgeting software”? Yep. I’m sure. There really is a PM101 Budgeting Pencil… and it’s unique since it’s more than 50% eraser.
Why? Because no matter how well one writes a production budget, there will always be the job of rewriting, reducing, revising and refining it over and over again. Like any good script that will undergo several drafts before the camera rolls, so will the budget undergo many iterations before becoming locked.
The PM101 Budgeting Pencil is here to remind you of that element of the budgeting process. You write it. You revise it.
Now don’t let all those iterations create panic or fear and block you from writing the budget in the first place. Let them instead release you from writing the perfect budget on the first pass. So in honour of the budgeting process… and in happy anticipation of the publication of the new edition of my book “Film Production Management 101: Management & Coordination in a Digital Age“… I bring you the one, the only and the little odd… PM101 Budgeting Pencil.
Come and join me on FB at www.facebook.com/DebPatzBooks and earn your chance to win a PM101 Budgeting Pencil for yourself. A random FB fan every month for the next three months will win one. And at very least, it will give you a little chuckle – and that’s a good thing too!
So, until then… just write it. Then revise it. Happy budgeting and see you on FB!
Cheers,
Deb
Mar122010
A Location Map for Across the Street?
The next day’s set was in the subway station… right across the street from the production office. Did we really need a location map? I mean who could get lost between the production office and the set?
We made the map anyway, but had a little fun with it. Yes, it had the necessary hospital information and parking directions, but we also included the shops you’d have to pass along the way to the subway entrance – the chocolate shop, the shoe store, etc.
Oddly, on the day the Director showed up at the production office and not at the set. Alas… 🙂
Cheers & a good shoot to you!
Deb
Feb52010
The Unstoppable Call Sheet Joke
We had to evacuate the production office, as the area was being closed off for a hydro emergency. Minutes to leave the office. As a PC, what should I take?
The crew list, contact list, schedule… and the call sheet joke file.
Never made a call sheet without a joke on the back, so not going to stop now! I mean, how do crew read the call sheet at the end of the day? They look at their call time, then turn the call sheet over to look at the call sheet joke… oh yeah, and the map too.
But the call sheet joke makes them seek out the call sheet at the end of the day. It truly serves a purpose.
What are your fav’s? Far Side? Bizarro? Crew-made riddles? Let me know if one of my Gladys comics makes it to a call sheet near you. Until then… happy call sheet joking to you!
Cheers,
Deb
Jan82010
