Movie Budgeting: Preparing your budget

Budget comes from a French word which literally means ‘small purse’ and in the world of film production; the definition is something hardly appropriate. Every movie maker is limited by the amount of money that will be spent. A wise movie budgeting is the only way for him to be certain that the allotted funds will be enough. The movie budget is the key element in the overall movie package. It can be just as important as a great story, top talent and director.
A studio officer once said that a movie budget can be easily written on paper napkins. Indeed, movie deals have been signed on table cloths at the Cannes Film Festival. A popular misconception that the movie budget must be presented in a template that matches the studio is truly hogwash.
Unfortunately, for many independent film producers, it is rare that the elements in a movie package are attractive and compelling from a marketing point of view. Nowadays,filmmakers are required to have a reliable and solid estimate before even approaching todays challenged and risk averse studio executives and film producers.
A good movie budget is an estimate and not an accounting. It is a very good guess on how much you think your next epic would cost in terms of location, effects, casting and etc. The best educated guesses can only come from actual experiences. It is not until you finally screwed up something that you actually learn from it. These painful life lessons taught you to conserve financial resources, lower down a budget and streamline the process. Your movie budgeting goal should always be to maximize the overall production value.
movie budgeting can be approached in several ways. You can always take the brave route of doing the ‘do it yourself movie budgeting’ system armed with a film budgeting book and a blank copy of an Excel file. There are also others who use special movie budgeting software applications to come up with financial plans.
For individuals who are ready to take the plunge into independent movie film productions, purchasing a movie budgeting services could just make the work easier for you in the long run.