Fringes are costs you must include in your budget for every cast/crew member. For non-union cast/crew, you must pay FICA, Federal Unemployment Insurance (FUI), and State Unemployment Insurance (SUI). For cast/crew members who are a part of the DGA, WGA, Teamsters, SAG, or IATSE, you also pay unique guild fringes, such as Health & Welfare and Pension costs. And fringes can add up, so they have to be budgeted for correctly.
If you've entered a small budget amount, your budget might just show a few hundred or thousand dollars for SAG. But if you're budgeting for a large, multi-million-dollar picture, you can bet your budget will include full union fringes.
But don't worry - our budget also makes room for us filmmakers producing films in between as well. For example, our calculations assume that if you're shooting a $4 million movie, you might not be using Teamsters to run your transportation department. But if you're making a $7 million movie, you probably need to be.