Chapter | Four
Budgets
OVERVIEW
Stop your movie milking you of cash – get a tight rein on your budget before you start shooting and keep your film on track.
The budget means the total that the film costs you – or would have cost you – from prep to editing. Every film has a budget, even when you get everything for free. It’s good to get into the habit of doing budgets so that you think in terms of cost on every film you make.
Films divide up costs into two sections. The first (called above-the-line) is to pay those people involved artistically: director, producer, writer, and actors. The second section (called below-the-line) covers everything else, such as set construction, costumes, makeup, equipment, travel, food and so on.
In most ...
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