Copywriting for Ambient Skies
Budgeting is just about as far from the creative side of
production you can get, but if you want to avoid the pitfalls of ‘creative’
accountancy then you’ll want to make sense of every cent.
Production budgets aren’t just used to keep a running total
of costs. Showing you have everything accounted for is a key way of winning
investment for the project in the first place.
How will you allow for overtime costs and pick-ups? Did you
budget for loss, damages or delay? How much is the kit and the post work? Are
you prepared to have acting unions sign off on your production payroll?
Laying out all the costs in prep is essential to
understanding what you can and cannot afford, and where a trim here or there
could help you achieve, say, a desired location shoot or camera rental.
Your budget will be constantly updated too throughout
production so you’ll need one that’s user friendly and comprehensive to your
needs.
What you don’t want is software that your clients can’t view
or integrate smoothly into their systems. You don’t want something cumbersome
or hard to use. You do want every last penny to go into production value and
not into your budgeting software.
In this article, we highlight five of the key software
solutions for film budgeting.
Movie Magic Budgeting
Movie Magic Budgeting (MMB) from Entertainment Partners set
the standard and remains one of the most well-known programs, familiar to union
reps and potential investors. It is most commonly used to streamline the whole
process for scripted content (long and short) and generates reports that identify
budgeting trouble spots.
Part of its successful adoption was due to including a full
suite of apps for everything from scheduling to budgeting but, over time, this
may also have led to some criticism as users came up against software bugs.
It’s tricky to keep a lot of plates spinning, a point that EP candidly
acknowledge, by calling the old version ‘clunky, antiquated and boring.’
Good news then that a comprehensive upgrade released in
March addresses.
Among changes: the whole interface has been overhauled, the
Find & Replace feature has been improved so that saved budgets are
accessible even when offline and fringes, groups, globals and locations can be
saved for use in future budgets.
Keyboard shortcuts are the same as in previous versions and
budgets created with legacy MMBs can be imported.
The company hopes to entice new users with a free month
trial (sign up by choosing a monthly plan from the website) and says it expects
a little more critical acclaim with a reimagined suite “that finally answers
the critics.”
You’ll need to register for an EP account to access its
online store but expect to pay from $489.
Gorilla
Jungle Software has been making software tools for film
and video production since the early 2000s including modules for tracking cast
and crew, rehearsal schedules, locations management, basic budgeting,
scheduling, and expense tracking. Gorilla is its principal budget program and
its main competitor is probably MMB which is one reason why Jungle has written
a direct comparison between it and Gorilla–although note that this doesn’t take
into account MMB’s recent update.
For instance, in Gorilla Budgeting, when you first load a
budget, you are taken to the Topsheet (which totals the accounts and contains
potential costs), which is laid out very similarly to Movie Magic.
With Gorilla, you can attach fringes as flat rates or
percentages to any detail line item, create globals for rates and amounts and
re-use them in otherc budgets, add rates to production groups and defer line
items.
You can tell it’s aimed at the larger indie show since it
enables calculation for multiple currencies and for tax credits in different
cities and states.
To help get your head around the various components, there
are at least 30 video tutorials covering things like importing a sample
template to creating fringes and exporting a budget to PDF.
It normally costs $249 for two licences (rising to $599 for
5 users) but add $40 to integrate the Gorilla Ratebook which gives you access
to thousands of unions rates. I say normally because – perhaps due to Covid-19
and the production shutdown – Gorilla is currently being offered for just $99.
Hot Budget
Developed by LA-based production kit supply and rental
company Hot Bricks, Hot Budget is targeted at short form work: commercials,
promos, and music videos.
Among its features is the ability to view the Original
Budget, Running Budget, and Actual Budget simultaneously and side by side. No
need to toggle the visibility of one to compare it to another.
Items like Purchase Orders, Petty Cash and Payroll Log can
be imported from one Hot Budget into another without copying and pasting. You
have options to completely replace the data or merge it with what already
exists.
The latest version 2.0 has a currency converter and an
integrated travel budget for applying cost of flights, hotels, transportation
per diem [whenever that part of the industry gets back to normal]
Another handy calculator will give you a quick estimated
cost of overtime. If your timecards were processed digitally and a compatible
.csv file of the timecard data can be created, then the .csv file can be
imported into the payroll log programmatically without the need to copy and
paste.
You can download a copy directly from the website, after which
a setup assistant will guide you through the licensing process. There’s a very
comprehensive user guide in PDF form and video guides including on insurance
and importing images.
It costs around $100/ year.
Showbiz Budgeting
Showbiz Budgeting from MediaServices sits between MMB and
Hot Budget not only in price (it costs $399 for two installs) but in
functionality too. It’s more geared to commercials but can be used for longer
form scripted projects.
Aside from AICP and AICE forms for commercials, you can
access budget templates for indie feature film and everything from reality TV
and corporate video to documentary and even still photography budgets.
Version 9 of the software (released last year) allow you to
track purchase orders, petty cash envelopes, payroll and other elements that
impact your film budget. When production is complete, it will generate
production reports to make your wrap package look sharp.
Undecided? A 10-day free trial is accessible from the
right-hand sidebar of the product page. When the trial period is over, you can
purchase anytime and retain your data.
MediaServices offer one-on-one, ‘you-set-the-pace’ training
on some of its software for $50/hr and private group sessions from $25 per
additional person.
Good old Excel
Microsoft Excel has been a mainstay of accounting from
shoestring indie features to studio blockbusters for over two decades. There is
a move to wean the industry away from what is after all a manual
(time-consuming) process into faster and potentially more accurate digital
tools but Excel (or Google Sheets) remain a firm favourite and will likely be
so for some time to come.
On the one hand spreadsheets are completely customizable and
can be easily shared with other team members. On the other hand, ‘customizable’
can lead to all sorts of human error if you don’t have even a rudimentary
understanding of how to create, build and read the format.
You could import a customized film budgeting template into
Excel There are quite a few TV/film production specific downloadable templates
to choose from if you have the time to leaf through them. Most of which can be
purchased for a small fee. Boilerplate, for example, offers formats from
$50 which give you a headstart into Excel.
Excel itself comes free with any Microsoft account and
should be good enough for most basic purposes – if you can manage the layout. A
fully-fledged version of Excel needs a subscription to Microsoft 365 for
around $7 a month of $72 a year.
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