What is your budget? What is your budget?Course overview. One of the first questions everyone who touches your project will ask is, “What’s your budget?” The investors will ask it, the banks will ask it, the crew will ask it, the casting agents will ask it, the lawyers will ask it, the distributors will ask it, and even most festivals will ask it. The ever elusive, ever-changing budget.Compare Cost Rates Advisor vs. Training includes practice in breaking down a narrative script and extracting data from the script at a level of detail required to. No previous experience but basic computer literacy and a familiarity with Film / TV production basics is assumed.
![]() They are basically spreadsheets with built-in macros that help delineate every single expenditure you plan on making throughout your project. Most filmmakers fall back on computer programs that are specifically designed to help create an estimate. There are many hidden costs, and filmmaking has so many components to it that generating a realistic budget is always difficult. Unfortunately, it’s not as easy as collecting price quotes from vendors, crew, cast, and consultants, putting them in a list, and finding the sum. Compare price, features, and reviews of the software side-by To have a budget, you must create one. It is not simple to learn, but is easy to use once you master it. Movie Magic is a stand-alone program, meaning it runs on its own format, not off another platform, such as Excel. It is also the most expensive—about $650. Magic Budgeting Tutorial Manual Teaches HowAll the forms are fairly similar, differing only slightly in account numbers and line-item details. You can also create your own. The tutorial and manual teaches how to use every aspect and every shortcut of the program, but it does not teach you how to make a budget if you have neve put one together before.Movie Magic has about a dozen different budgeting forms from studios and companies such as HBO and Disney you can choose from. It will take about a day or two to go through. Also, many unions have other costs, like overtime and how many members need to be present at a shoot, that Movie Magic won’t be able to tell you this either. You may be able to negotiate something other than the rates listed on Movie Magic. If you are planning to use a union crew, it is recommended to contact IATSE (International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees and the Teamsters ( about how you can work together within your budget. But, I was unable to access any Screen Actors Guild (SAG) rates lower than the Standard Low Budget rates, and these rates did not list the weekly Principle rate. ![]() From the Production Staff list, the Production Manager line must be clicked, which opens the Production Manager Details page. In order to enter a rate for a Production Manager, the Produc-tion Staff line must be clicked, which opens the Production Staff section of the Accounts page. For example, the Top Sheet layer of Movie Magic Budgeting has a line item called Production Staff. The third layer of Movie Magic is the Details, which is simply a list of all the components of the subcategories. The Accounts section lists all the main articles in a budget, from each crew position to the camera package to insurance. The next level is the subcategories section, called Accounts. Luckily, Movie Magic allows for that.Fringes are taxes and other percentages that need to be applied to different sections of a budget. In that case, several Globals will need to be set up. Some work on a weekly basis, some on a flat fee, some on a deferred basis and some on a day-rate. But not every crew member’s rate is based on the same period of time. For example, if a shoot is going to last for four weeks, a Global must be set up in Movie Magic Budgeting that prompts it to automatically multiply any crew rate by four whenever the word “shoot” is typed into the specified area controlling the length of the crew member’s time with the company. Seems like a lot of work to simply type in a number, but we’re not done! Because before any of this is done, Globals and Fringes must first be set up.What are Globals and Fringes? Globals are usually fixed periods of time that will be used on more than one item. All labor, even non-union, has fringes, and the amounts vary. Fringe amounts can add up quickly, so it’s important to know what they are and when to apply them. By programming a Fringe, this percentage is automatically factored into the budget. Another particularly interesting product is the Purchasing Card, which can be used instead of cash during a shoot. For instance if the script has been broken down using Movie Magic Scheduling, all the information can be transferred into your budget using a few fairly simple steps, saving a great deal of time and energy when creating a budget. Movie Magic also offers a number of companion programs which all interface. Again, extra research is required.One of the benefits of Movie Magic is that it is extremely flexible, from the number of budget forms to the multiple Globals and Fringes that can be created. Magic Budgeting Tutorial Download The TransactionAlso, the security they have on the program is incredible it can only be used on two computers. Six hundred and fifty dollars is not an easy sum to part with for a low-budget producer. Unfortu-nately they are only open during regular business hours, Monday through Friday—what producer works normal office hours?The biggest downfall of Movie Magic Budgeting is the expense. I had a few problems downloading the program, and they were quick and really nice about helping me. How cool is that?Movie Magic also has great tech support. At the end of the day, you simply download the transaction information from the card, which can then be transferred into an accounting program called Vista, and compare what you are actually spending to what is in your budget. Gold cheat the sims 3 androidForensic Films, The Seventh Floor, and This is That (Good Machine’s new incarnation) all use Movie Magic. But Movie Magic is still the most-used budgeting program out there. This can all add up quickly. All the other applications that can interface with Movie Magic Budgeting cost about the same amount Movie Magic Scheduling costs another $650. So if you were thinking of chipping in with a half dozen of your producer friends, it won’t work. Though it is an Excel-based program, it looks quite nice and professional. It looks much more like a spreadsheet, made up of separate Excel worksheets that are all intertwined through specially set up macros. While Easy Budget costs around $190, obviously much cheaper than Movie Magic, if you need to purchase Excel, it will cost another $400 or so.Easy Budget’s setup is a bit simpler than Movie Magic. This is an Excel-based program, which means that without Excel, the program can’t be used. With that in mind, even if you do not own it, you may want to learn to use it.For a budgeting program that is a bit easier on the budget, I took a look at Easy Budget. Pretty nifty–except for the fact that many crew and cast members get paid differently, and Easy Budget doesn’t allow for more than one type of shoot Global to be applied. Easy Budget also contains a Specs page where Fringes and Globals are entered and then automatically figured into the budget as other amounts are entered. Each worksheet page contains the line-item details. I even enlisted two friends that work in tech support at their companies to help figure it out. But many of the comments are cut off mid sentence, and I couldn’t, for the life of me, figure out how to scroll down or open up the full comment. In theory, this is great, especially for someone new to the budgeting process. These messages are meant to help navigate the program and serve as a reminders. I also found that some of the other built-in macros that the manual states should happen, don’t.In certain fields of the budget, small red tabs are present which, when touched, prompt handy pop-up messages to appear.
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