How to Make a Budget for Indie Film | FILMMAKING 101

Lol, I've just started budgeting and this popped up on my timeline. Shout-out to the algorithm!

This is just fantastic, Julian. Thank you. I can't wait to start on my budget, with joy glee trepidation?, after I go eat a sandwich. Merci beaucoup!

Thanks!

I NEED HELP WITH TRAVEL AND LODGING BUDGET!!

Extremely helpful, absolute champion!

Thank you for going through this line by line. It made the budget much less daunting.

This helped me out so much. Downloaded the spreadsheet and getting to work on my next feature. Thanks man!

Thank you so so much you have no idea. I am in the process of making my first feature so this so helpful.

Spend 2 year developing the story finally finished it. It will be self finance, I will be directing as well as the lead actor with female co lead along with 6 supporting main cast. 2 principal cast, few extras. Total of 3 main location and rest may be steal it :)

I am in the very early stage. The whole think is driving me crazy. Right now in the process of looking for a budget friendly producer.
I am in U.S. Seattle but I been thinking maybe shoot in Toronto because of the large Tibetan population campared to any in the US.

Any advice? Do you think it will be cheaper to shoot in Canada....thanks.

Very informative, thank you.

Thanks for this video. Do you have a video on how to fund a short film?

AMAZING video

What a video! Extremely informative. Thanks a ton

Could you explain how you open each section to add the information regarding unit, amount Etc. I downloaded the template, but am new to Excel. Thanks. Never mind, I figured it out. Thanks for posting this video, it is a great help.

This was extremely helpful. Thank you for taking the time to meticulously identifying all of the steps to arrive at a film budget.

Great insight and big 🙌 from a fellow Canadian

could you also do one with how to distribute the percentage of the revenue to everyone in the production

Has anyone ever told you, you look like Stephen Root?

This was amazing for a non film person. I live in Somoma County and you make me wonder if we are short of location scouts here. Being close to L.A., I imagine someone coming up to look at wineries to shoot something but they wouldn’t know about all of the private properties I can think of like my best friends property where Ive hosted weddings with their perfectly shabby barn with the old tractors, their hilltop view, their lake, & surrounding vineyards (they get to look fancy but a vintner planted a 20yr lease of vines) These are regular people who live on property passed down through generations. You have me thinking of so many people I know who would love to host a shoot on their property. They could use the extra $$ and the film would pay less then whatever market price is I would imagine.

Dang. Mad respect to all of you working for one, two day gigs for something that takes talent. No wonder you guys hire each other on projects. Not having a steady known stream of income must be stressful.

I’m working on a marionette puppet film which is about 45 minutes. Figuring out the budget estimate is extremely challenging. Everything is a built set. I’m making every prop and puppet. I will be the main craftsperson on the production. I have NO IDEA how many days of shooting it will require. It could be months!

But, the ways in which I’m trying to keep costs low is by being the main puppeteer, writer, director, prop & set builder. I’ll probably be the editor as well. I’m filming in my apartment (because it’s all 1:4 scale) and I’m thinking I might buy Edelkrone rigs to pre-program camera moves so I can do as many takes as I want. Lots of stands and pre-programmed lights so I can have the minimum crew possible on each shoot day with a lot of it just being me alone.

I live in the US so grants are extremely limited. I can get maybe $10k from Henson and then borrow the rest. Honestly thinking about what this all might cost is a real brain-breaker!

Boring it is, yet needed ALWAYS. Great Job.

A wonderful resource for anyone curious about the process!