Budgeting SAG actor rates – a few tips
Budgeting for SAG actors on your film can make the difference between a good film and a bad one. Here are our tips on how to begin when using SAG actors.
Film Investor Types and Their Reasons for Investing in Films
Film investors aren’t a dime a dozen, for one very good reason: putting money into a film is one of the biggest, most risky investments someone can ever make. The typical film investor is one who does it for a living, either packaging films or putting together slates or is in some other way involved … Read more
Budgeting a Film — Two Categories DIY Filmmakers Often Get Wrong
When budgeting a film, there are certain categories filmmakers can afford to slash the budget on, or “skimp on,” if you prefer. Here are our film budget line items you can go a little light on, and our advice for what budget items you probably shouldn’t cheap out on.
Docuseries — The New Narrative Paradigm?
Hey Clyde, Is it me or has the docuseries just exploded overnight? Ever since Making a Murderer caused an uproar on the digital platform medium there has been nothing but a consistent wave of excellent documentary series coming through the trenches. There have always been documentary series that have existed on television, particularly on PBS … Read more
Race, Gender, and Where Does Cinema and TV Go From Here?
Hello Bruno, I just finished watching the entire run of “The West Wing.” I wouldn’t argue about its status as classic modern television. It’s fast, intelligent, classy, and features some of the best dialogue, performances and camera movement in television history (however, I really loathed the score, especially the credits sequence music, just pandering and … Read more
Interview with cinematographer and camera expert Illya Friedman
Budgeting a film camera department isn’t easy. We sat down with cinematographer Illya Friedman of Hot Rod Cameras for tips and tricks from an expert.
Richard Walter Interview – Should Screenwriters Care about Film Budgets?
Film Budgeteers recently sat down with veteran screenwriting professor and master screenwriter, Richard Walter. Walter has taught writing for the cinema for the better part of four decades and serves as the Chairman to the UCLA graduate school of screenwriting. He’s also the author of several fiction and non-fiction books and makes regular tv and … Read more
How to Budget A Film – The Topsheet Line Items
Film budgets can be daunting. Any good filmmaker knows what it takes to get her film made, and knows how to put together a simple budget for their project, but most new filmmakers aren’t intimately familiar with the vast amount of categories and line items found in a typical professional line-item film budget. What’s a … Read more
Getting Into Sundance Shouldn’t Be Your Only Strategy
If you’re serious about raising film money from serious film investors (or at least film investors who don’t laugh you out of their office), you’re going to need to own up to at least one simple fact: Hoping your film gets into a film festival and gets sold is not, repeat, NOT, a viable film … Read more
Planning to Fund Your Film via Product Placement? Nope.
Well, okay, the title of this post is pretty harsh. There’s technically nothing wrong with product placement in any film, unless it’s blatant and gross and, well, product-ish. But here’s three things to watch out for when accepting a company’s product placement offer. 1) Know that no company is going to give you cash to … Read more
