Film Budgeting

Budgeting is an important aspect of film production.

During script development, filmmakers produce a rough budget to convince film producers and film studios to give them a greenlight for production. During pre-production, a more detailed film budget is produced.

A budget is typically divided into four sections:
Above-the-line (creative talent)
Below-the-line (direct production costs)
Post-production (editing, visual effects, etc)
Other (insurance, completion bond, etc).

Elements of the Budget:
Story rights: The right to produce a film based on a play, novel, or new story. Can be paid on average £15000-£100000.
Screenplay: An A-list screenwriter can be paid roughly £25000-£50000 to write the first three drafts of a script.
Dialog writer: Can be paid £25000-£50000.
Director: The minimum they can usually be paid is £250000 for one movie up to 1st release, for a minimum of ten weeks' work. Traditionally, a director's salary is about 7 percent of the final budget.
Cast: An A-list actor can ask for hundreds of thousands of pounds, but this usually moves into the millions if they are very successful. The rest of the cast, often come out much worse with many being paid the Screen Actors Guild minimum. Sometimes an actor will accept a minimal fee in exchange for a lucrative share of the profits.
Production costs: The cost of shooting the film including sets, wardrobe, location filming, hotels and transportation. The most prestigious productions will often employ the most successful, and therefore most expensive crew.
Visual effects: If required can cost hundreds of thousands of pounds.
Music: The top film composers can ask for a six-figure salary, so if the music is original in the film it can be very expensive, with all the expanses, rights etc.

The budget can also be used as an advertising tool. For blockbuster movies, high budgets are advertised to imply that the film will be worth watching. People would trust in watching the film more if they knew it was very expensive.

Going over budget:
In the US film production system, producers are not allowed to exceed the budget. Exceptions have of course been made, one of the most notable examples being Titanic.
In other countries, producers who exceed their budget tend to eat the cost by receiving less of their producer's fees. While the US system is profitable and can afford to go over budget, other countries' film industries tend to be financed through government subsidies.


For our project of filming an opening sequence, we do not have a large budget to contribute to producing it. Therefore we have to rely on other methods to keep our sequence looking as professional as possible.We will not be spending any money on people involved in making it, as we will be the main crew, and we will choose some people to help as the cast. Choice of locations are also limited, therefore we have to use places where we do not have to pay, but are still suitable for our shots. Special effects does not really need to be taken into consideration as we will not really be using them as our budget will not reach this. A small amount of money may be spent on costume, make-up, backgrounds and props but this will be kept to a minimum and in most cases it will be borrowed.