First, and most importantly, as the Showrunner you need access to your budget and the right to participate fully in the budgeting of your show. You can’t do your job without this access and right to participate.
This means you must have the right to be involved in every aspect of the budgeting of your show and have input and participate in every financial decision for your production. You cannot maintain the creative control over production and creative choices without this right and without participating in these decisions.
It means you need to be involved in negotiating the license fee for your show, involved in agreeing to the pilot budget number, the series pattern budget, and every episodic budget. You need to have access to the daily hot costs, production reports and all EFC reports (Estimated Final Cost reports). If you aren’t allowed to participate in all aspects of the budgeting process and the ongoing cost management of your show (hot costs, EFCs, etc.), you aren’t the Showrunner. Someone else is.
I’m always shocked to hear from writer/EPs who haven’t been included in the budgeting process and aren’t given access to all financial aspects of their show. It’s impossible to do your job without this participation. You will be held responsible for the creative and financial success or failure of your show. How can it be fair for you to be held responsible for the budget of your show if you don’t have access to the budgets and day to day accounting materials?
In your first meeting to discuss selling your show (or coming on as the showrunner) with your network/studio/producing pod you must clarify that you need to participate in all areas of budgeting and daily financial supervision. If your studio/possible employer isn’t prepared to give you this participation and access, DO NOT TAKE THE JOB.
I put together quite a laundry list of budgetary terms in the first paragraph of this section. Don’t be concerned if you don’t yet know what the things on that laundry list are, that’s what this section is for. And more importantly, you don’t need to be an accountant to understand any of this. It’s common sense.
First, let’s talk about the ways in which your show will be funded by your studio/network.
THE LICENSE FEE MODEL
For decades shows were licensed (basically a lease agreement) to a network (broadcast, pay, basic cable, etc.) for a license fee. This business model was the way the business worked for many years. It was simple in its design. You aligned with a studio (sometimes a studio affiliated with a network, sometimes not) to make a show. You took that script or pitch to a network and if they liked the idea, they would license it from the studio. This license took the form of a dollar amount for the license and the term (in years) that the license fee allowed the network to air your show (and how many times they could air each episode – usually twice).
While there were many variations on the amount the networks paid for the license fee (and the length of the license), for ease of explanation let’s say that for our hypothetical show --
The network license fee is $1.7 million per episode, with a four-year license for the right to air the show exclusively in the domestic market (the United States and sometimes Canada).
But your show isn’t going to cost $1.7m to make -- it’s going to cost $4m (the Series Pattern Budget). So, the difference between the show’s $4m dollar cost and the $1.7m license fee is $2.3m. This difference of $2.3m is called the Deficit.
The studio you’re working with is planning to cover this $2.3m deficit by retaining the right to sell your show in foreign television immediately, in syndication (off hours on local stations) after a negotiated amount of time, to basic cable (also after a negotiated amount of time), as DVDs, through iTunes, etc. (the Ancillary Markets). The studio would make up the deficit by exploiting these ancillary markets. They would hope to make a profit when the amounts they got for your show in ancillary markets exceed what they had advanced as a deficit.
While the amounts of the license fees and the size of the deficits varied widely from show to show and network to network (based on the ambitions of the shows, star salaries, and the network’s financial appetite for a show), this had been the basic model of how all business was conducted for over sixty years. Until the streaming networks came to town (led by Netflix) and introduced a new model for licensing –
THE COST+ MODEL
The introduction of the Cost+ model was necessary because Netflix (and other streamers that followed) were either already, or were planning to be, worldwide services. With a worldwide streaming service, there are no ancillary markets for a studio to exploit, so there is no way for a studio to make back it’s deficit. There is no foreign sale, no syndication sale, no basic cable sale. The show is going to be on the streaming network worldwide (or on the streaming service for a long license length if it’s a studio or pod not owned by the streaming service -- often ten years). So, when an outside studio was making a show for Netflix, there couldn’t be a deficit and there had to be some profit built in or why would the outside studio make your show? This led to the Cost+ model of licensing a show.
It's a simple formula, the cost of your show (the Pattern Budget per episode) and a “+”, basically a buyout of ancillary markets so the studio can make a profit. So, in our hypothetical example above, a Cost+ deal would be $4m (the Cost) and something like a negotiated $1.2m “+” for a total license fee of $5.2m.
The $1.2m I’m using in the example above is a place holder. Sometimes that “+” number is much higher (in the case of a particularly prized series) and often it is lower.
While many of the streamers are utilizing the Cost+ model, it’s important to note that most other distributors (broadcast networks, pay cable networks, etc.) are still using variations of the License Fee model. So, let’s examine what happens in a license fee negotiation between your studio partner and your network.
Learn more about this here.
THE LICENSE FEE/DEFICIT NEGOTIATION
It’s important to understand that when you’ve sold your show to a network, the license fee negotiation begins between the studio and the network often within hours. The creative team that’s ordered your show (script, pilot, series) informs the business affairs executives at their network to begin the negotiation. You need to ensure that you are included in these negotiations. That doesn’t mean you participate directly in the negotiations, but it does mean you need to be informed of what the network is offering for a license fee (or a Cost+ deal).
Why do you need to be involved and know the amounts that are being discussed? Because you need to write a pilot script (or series) that can be produced for the license fee/deficit that’s being offered. You don’t want to develop a show that can’t be produced for the license fee/deficit that you’re going to be given to make your show. This happens often. You’ve pitched a show or sold a script, the network wants to license it but is offering substantially less than what it’ll take to make what you’ve pitched and/or written. Ask a line producer friend to give you an estimated budget based only on the creative. It will help you get a sense of the gap between the license fee/deficit that’s being offered and how much it would take to produce what you’ve pitched.
In the case of a show you’ve pitched, knowing what the budget is going to be allows you to write a script that you can afford to make. There’s no point in writing a show that takes place mostly at night, with a huge cast, rain, lots of VFX, etc. if the network is only prepared to give you the money to make a less ambitious show. You need to write to the budget you will have. There’s a great deal of magical thinking that goes into believing that after they’ve read your fantastic script, they’ll pony up the larger license fee/deficit you were hoping for. This doesn’t happen. Or happens so rarely as to make it virtually unheard of. Don’t fall into this trap, write your script to conform to the money you will have to make it.
In the case of a show that you’ve sold with a finished script, knowing how much money you’re going to have allows you to budget the script early and see if the network is giving you enough money to shoot what’s been written. If not, you need to take a serious look at what you’ve written and see if you can figure out ways to maintain the integrity of what you’ve written while making the necessary changes to bring your show in on budget.
Much too often there’s a disconnect between the amount the network wants to spend and the show the network’s creative executives think they’re getting. Don’t assume your creative executives understand how much what you’ve pitched will cost. They’re creative executives, not physical production experts. They may have a general sense that world building/science fiction/heavy action/period is expensive – but the actual numbers can vary by millions of dollars. Or they may assume a family drama or comedy will be relatively inexpensive but your idea about how it will be executed might involve multiple distant locations, numerous sets, a large cast, scenes that take place in public spaces that require many extras, etc. This is your chance to make sure you’re seeing the same show the network is.
The license fee is a great, early, indicator of whether your vision is going to be supported by the license fee/deficit that your network and your studio/pod partners are negotiating.
How do you insert yourself into the license fee negotiation? You make it clear from the beginning that you expect to be included and then start asking for the information immediately upon the sale of your pitch/script/series. Your studio/pod executive is your conduit. Ask, and if they try and blow you off, remind them that as the Showrunner/Executive Producer you’re going to be responsible for managing the costs of the show. Don’t they want you to be able to succeed and make them look good?
Alongside the license fee negotiation with the network, your studio will be deciding what amount of deficit they’re prepared to carry on your show (assuming your show is not Cost+). It is essential to know the deficit they’re proposing so you can have the complete picture of what your budget is going to be – the license fee plus the deficit will equal the budget for your show and will largely determine whether your ambitions are in line with the amount of money you will have to spend.
This deficit number can be difficult to get a handle on because your studio partner is guessing what the value of your show will be in the ancillary markets. Push hard on this number with your studio partners so they break down for you what their estimates are for what they believe your show will be worth in the ancillary markets and how they determined these estimates. This isn’t you being a pain in the ass, this is you being a smart business partner. Assume the deficit number they’re prepared to take on has some wiggle room on their side – partially because they’re leaving themselves leeway should you go over budget as showrunner.
THE PILOT BUDGET
Alongside the license agreement your studio (or network if they’re also the studio) will begin putting together a preliminary budget. Sometimes they will ask for your input, often they won’t. You need to insert yourself into this process as soon as you’ve sold your pitch/script. Ask your creative executives (or pod) who is preparing the preliminary budget and connect with that executive (usually a studio physical production executive). Tell them you’re excited to answer any questions they have about how you are planning to shoot your show so that their preliminary pilot budget will be as accurate as possible. In some cases, you will already have a line producer on the project preparing a preliminary budget and you should meet with them immediately to answer their questions and let them know of your ambitions and your intention to be involved in every stage of financial planning on your series.
The kinds of questions they’ll need answered are many, but the immediate ones will include how many members of the cast will be regulars (exclusive), how many extras you imagine for the scenes you’ve written, what sets you imagine will be built and what sets will be practical locations, how many days on stage, how many days on local location, how much night shooting you are hoping for on local location, any distant location work, how many Visual Effects shots you are imagining will be necessary, etc. Sometimes studio executives will ask that you do not build any sets for the pilot, and instead use a practical location, and then build a set to match it if the show goes to series. Be careful with this suggestion, you will probably have more money on your pilot to build a set than you will on your series pattern budget.
They will also likely begin to share with you some of the financial challenges they already see in the script you’ve written and whether what you’ve written can be accomplished for the money you’ve been given (license and deficit).
If your director has already been hired, they will likewise want to be involved in these conversations along with your producing partners. If your director hasn’t yet been hired, they will need to be included as soon as they are on board.
As the specifics of your pilot are finalized (cost of cast hired, locations locked, sets to be built budgeted, number of shooting days required, etc.), this preliminary budget will become the basis of your final pilot budget. Your blueprint for what you’ll be able to afford to do. Again, ignore any magical thinking you might have that more money will materialize. Conform your script to the information you’re gathering. One sure way for your collaborators (line producer, director, unit production manager, assistant directors) to lose faith in your ability to be a showrunner is to gather all this information and then ignore it. You must be realistic about what money you have to spend and whether the script you have can be produced on that budget.
THE SERIES PATTERN BUDGET
As the pilot budget is being prepared (in the case of a straight to series order, immediately) the Series Pattern Budget will be prepared. The Series Pattern Budget is the basic budget that sets the average cost of each episode. Think of it like you would your personal average household budget. You have an average amount you estimate you’ll spend every month on rent, utilities, gas, groceries, etc. Some months you’ll spend more on a category, some months you’ll spend less – but on average those are your monthly expenses and what you need to budget for.
The same is true of your Series Pattern Budget. It is an estimate of what you plan to spend in each budgetary category (cast, extras, lighting, transportation, and many more) for each episode. Some episodes you’ll spend more in a certain category. Some episodes you’ll spend less – you’re estimating what you will spend on average in each budget category.
Your Series Pattern Budget will be the “pattern” used to compare each individual episode’s costs against what you’ve agreed to spend. Remember, each episode will have different budgetary requirements. Some will have larger casts; some will have smaller. Some will have more nights (expensive); some won’t have any night shooting at all. Each episode is different, but the costs of every episode will be compared against your Series Pattern Budget. This is a remarkably efficient way to quickly see what is costing more in an individual episode (or less).
Of course, these comparison budgets are only possible if you have finished, ready to shoot episodic scripts available the day before your first day of prep. See earlier sections on this website about the importance of scheduling and having your scripts finished at the start of every prep period.
Find the link to the scheduling section here.
You need to be very involved in the creation of the Series Pattern Budget. It will be your guide as to what you and your writing staff can afford to write. How many shooting days have you got in your Series Pattern Budget? How many guest cast actors, how many locations, how much night shooting, how many hours do you have to shoot each day, how many extras can you use, how many stunts, how many visual effects? Your Series Pattern Budget is your financial bible.
Below is an example of a pattern budget top sheet.
THE EPISODIC BUDGET
The Episodic Budget is exactly what it sounds like – the budget that is prepared using each individual episodic script to arrive at an estimated cost of that episode. As every episode is different, every episodic budget will be different. Some episodes will have more cast or extras. Some will have more stunts, or no stunts. Some will have more locations; some will have less. You get the idea.
The Episodic Budget is based on the individual episode’s script and will then be compared to the Series Pattern Budget to give you a Comparison Sheet (also known as a Variance or a Two Budget Comparison). This Comparison will show you where the overage and underage (savings) are in that episode in comparison to your Series Pattern Budget for each individual category in your budget. You should receive a comparison sheet for every episodic budget, but you may have to ask for it.
Below is an example of an episodic comparison sheet.
If you have a finished, ready to shoot, script available on the first day of your prep period, your line producer/UPM can have a first pass at your Episodic Budget for that episode on the third or fourth day of your prep period. That allows you to then have a Comparison/Variance sheet prepared that will show you where you stand financially for the episode you’re prepping. With the Comparison in hand, you can begin making the changes and modifications to the script necessary to bring the episode in on Pattern (on budget).
When you’ve made these changes (assuming your preliminary Episodic Budget was over your Pattern Budget – and they almost always are), you now have an Episodic Budget you can lock. All the remaining financial monitoring materials we will be discussing work from the locked Episodic Budget for each individual episode.
DAILY HOT COSTS
At the conclusion of every shooting day your line producer and UPM must generate a Hot Cost for your studio. The Hot Cost is what was spent on that day of shooting. The number of hours shot, any overtime or meal penalties, other unexpected overages or savings (this can be anything – fewer extras used, more stunt personnel, whatever).
Your Episodic Budget was always an estimate of what you and your production collaborators guessed you would spend. Your Hot Cost tells you what was actually spent that day. Maybe your Episodic Budget had estimated that you were going to shoot 11.5 hours, but you shot 12 hours. Your Hot Cost will show what it cost for you to go over that half hour. If you had meal penalties, that will be on the Hot Cost. While some material costs can end up on your daily Hot Cost report, the Hot Cost primarily accounts actual hours shot and the labor costs for overages or for savings.
Below is an example of a first day hot cost.
Your Hot Cost won’t only show overages, if you shot fewer hours, used fewer extras, etc. that will show up as savings on your Hot Cost. And there’s a Hot Cost generated every day so you can track how you’re doing on that episode day by day during the shoot. If you’re running over budget, you have time to make changes in what you’re planning to shoot on your remaining days so you can get back on budget (making changes to allow you to shoot fewer hours, etc.).
Below is an example of a final day hot cost.
You must be receiving a copy of the Hot Costs every day. Your studio is receiving them, your line producer. You can’t control the costs of your show without having access to this valuable budgeting tool. It allows you to know where you stand day to day and make changes as necessary. This isn’t only a tool for dealing with going over budget, if you’re saving money on your daily Hot Costs you may decide to return something you had removed from your script because you didn’t think you had enough money during prep -- add some more extras that you’d cut, return a speaking part, etc.
Of particular importance is if you have a director who isn’t making their days and going over in hours. You’ll discover this immediately on your Hot Cost and you can quickly intervene to find out what the problem is and what you can do to help them make their days and stay on budget.
THE EFCs
EFC stands for Estimated Final Cost. Your Pattern Budget and Episodic Budgets are estimates. Your Hot Cost is the actual cost of what you know you spent that day. But the EFC is the actual cost once the final invoices and time sheets have come in (which can take weeks to make their way through accounting). There are usually three EFCs generated on every episode. EFC #1 is typically generated four weeks after you wrap each episode. EFC #2 is generated seven to eight weeks after wrapping the episode. EFC #3 is generated after approximately twelve weeks.
These EFCs indicate what was actually spent on the episode once the bills from all the various departments and outside vendors have been paid. You need to get these EFCs as soon as they are generated. They give you the actual cost of the episode and they often show savings on your episodes that weren’t seen on the Hot Costs.
There are various reasons for these savings, again tied to your Episodic Budget being an estimate. Many of your department heads, your line producer and your UPM will estimate a little more than they think things are going to cost so they have some extra budgetary wiggle room if they need it. You’ll see these savings showing up in the EFCs. Even though it may be weeks later, you can see that you have savings on earlier episodes that you can now spend on the episodes you haven’t shot yet. You want to end your series having put every dime you had in your budget up on the screen (but having spent what you promised to spend in your Series Pattern budget).
Likewise, if you start to see your EFCs showing costs that are greater than what was expected from your Episodic Budget and your Hot Costs, you can investigate why. Do you have a department that is consistently going over (usually indicates a department head who doesn’t know how to properly budget)? Your interest in these financial monitoring tools will be welcomed by your collaborators (even though they may be surprised that you’re interested). It means you’re prepared to be an active producer/partner in their financial responsibilities and that you care about making certain they can do their jobs properly.
Your EFCs are an important tool for controlling your overall spending.
Below is an example of an EFC.
HOW TO READ YOUR BUDGETS
Let’s be honest, very few of us decided to become writers instead of pursuing a career in accounting. The budget documents themselves are imposing, massive, seeming indecipherable doorstop-sized collections of numbers organized by Movie Magic or Excel Spreadsheets. They are accounting documents, created by accountants to serve the needs of account ledgers, purchase orders and cash flow needs.
But you don’t need to understand the specifics of every category, hourly rate or notation. But you do need to have a general sense of how they are organized. Of most importance to you is the TOP SHEET. This is the summary page of the entire budget and has the total estimated to be spent in each department. Julia Dillard, who works with us here at JWP (and is much smarter than I am) has included a very insightful set of definitions of what you’ll find on this Top Sheet and other budgetary terms you will likely encounter.
Find the link to Julia’s budget section here.
Basically, the Top Sheet shows the four primary categories used to organize every budget. ABOVE THE LINE (ATL). The creative personnel category which includes writers, directors, producers, actors and their related expenses and costs. BELOW THE LINE (BTL). Your craft and crew departments, stages, locations, etc. and their related expenses and costs. POST PRODUCTION, your editorial, music and all the costs to finish your episodes after they’re finished shooting. And a final OTHER COSTS category, that is a bit of grab bag but will include insurance costs, publicity costs, office rentals, computer rentals, Fedex costs, etc.
Below each of these four major categories are the department account numbers that the departments use for their employee time cards, purchases, rentals, fringes, etc.
Julia does an excellent job of explaining these four primary categories in her section. She also explains how amortization works and what amort budgets are. These are the foundational budgeting principles you need to understand.
The actual line-by-line budget categories aren’t that pertinent to your management of your budget – that’s the responsibility of your Line Producer and UPM. Don’t be afraid to ask them to take you through your budget category by category when you’re working up your Series Pattern Budgets so you can familiarize yourself with the various categories, but after that you won’t need to be in the weeds episode by episode on the individual departmental categories.
That’s because most of the categories in your budget are fixed costs. Meaning that those costs are contractual and don’t change from one budget to the next. What costs are fixed? Your office rental costs, your department heads salaries, most of your crew, your writers, your directors, producers, the lighting, camera and grip equipment on your stages and trucks. The rental of the stages, the trucks and trailers you’ve engaged for your shoot, the editing suites and editing equipment, the lab costs and video transfer costs. Your regular cast members, casting directors, costumers and special effects trailers. You get the idea. All of things you have on every episode that are your fixed costs of production. They’re going to be paid no matter what else is needed for that episode.
That means that you have only a few categories that are Discretionary in each episode. These are the costs that you control and can adjust, because they’re not fixed costs. These are the areas that you will concern yourself with during your prep period as your Episodic budgets and Variance reports are prepared.
So, what are the Discretionary areas that you do control and can impact through your script?
SCRIPT LENGTH AND NUMBER OF SCENES
The first and most important discretionary area you need to address is the length of your script. How long should your script be to create the length of show you plan to air? Every additional minute of screen time you shoot that won’t end up on screen is a waste of money and you want to be able to spend that money elsewhere.
In broadcast television and ad-supported television, the locked final airtime is a fixed number (usually around 43 minutes for an hour program). Even when making a show for a pay cable or streaming service that doesn’t have a fixed airtime, your studio is giving you a budget that is assuming an airtime (usually around 50 minutes or less for an hour show).
Every minute of additional time you shoot but don’t use is wasting production value that you could be putting to better use elsewhere. Pay attention to the script timings that your line producer will have done for you. If your script timing comes in at 65 minutes, you need to cut your script down. While there’s no one page count length fits all genres, a final page count that is somewhere between 50 to 57 pages is a good rule of thumb. You want some additional page count so you have extra footage to work with in editing should a scene not work or need to be shortened. But shooting substantially longer scripts is a mistake.
The same discipline is necessary when you’re looking at the number of scenes you’ve written into your script. Every new scene requires the company stops and moves on to shooting a new scene. This takes time. If you have too many scenes, you won’t be able to make your schedule. Again, as a rule of thumb, you should never have more scenes than you do pages. A script that’s 52 pages long but includes 65 scenes will not be on budget. Combining and reducing the number of scenes in your script is an area over which you have discretion that will assist you in controlling your costs.
CAST
How many speaking parts have been written into the episodic script? Are there more speaking parts than you had budgeted in your Series Pattern Budget? How many one day speaking parts? How many Top Of Show (TOP) actors - actors who will need to be available to you for all the days you’re shooting the episode? Do you need all the characters? Can parts be combined? Can parts be eliminated?
When you check your Assistant Director’s (ADs) Day-Out-Of-Days spreadsheet on the second or third day of prep, are there actors who you thought would be only working for a day who have been spread over numerous days (costing much more) because they’re appearing in an interior scene on Day 2 and then an exterior scene that is being shot on Day 7? This happens often when you’ve written a scene that begins indoors and then ends on an exterior, you may have included the character in the exterior without having thought about it. Remove the character from the exterior. This may save you as much as five to ten thousand dollars in actor spread costs, fringe benefits, etc.
Below is an example of a day out of days.
The number of cast parts you’ve written effects many other budget categories as well. Trailers for each cast member to use while shooting. Their costumes, the number of make-up, wardrobe and hair crew members needed to service them. Meals, transportation, hotels and per diem if on distant locations.
This isn’t a suggestion to cut characters you need to further your story but a suggestion to use your early prep period to take a careful look at how many characters have been written into your episode and if they’re all necessary and for the number of days they’re being paid. If yes, then great. If not, makes changes during your prep.
EXTRAS
Another area that can have a major impact on your budget is your Extras account. By the third day of prep, your AD and director should have a preliminary extras count based on how many extras they think they’ll need to populate the scenes you’ve written. Talk to them about how they’ve arrived at those numbers. Do these numbers conform to what you had imagined when the script was being written? Do the locations they’re wanting to use require more extras to populate than you had imagined?
Just like with your cast, every extra has costs beyond their individual salary. Wardrobe, hair and make-up, waiting areas for them when not on set, meals, additional PAs and ADs to manage and position them when there are large extra scenes. On location they will need tents, tables, chairs, heating or air conditioning units. Extra transportation for vans to move them to and from the location to the crew and cast parking. If you’re doing a period piece, the costume, hair and make-up costs per extra can be significant – ask you line producer for an approximate cost per extra. If you’re doing a restaurant scene, you’ll need props and food prep workers to supply all the meals being put out for extras and the cameras. Is that restaurant scene essential, or could it be out on the sidewalk outside the restaurant?
Again, if these are important elements for your storytelling, then spend the money. But you want to be conscious of these expenses and make certain that what’s being spent is what you intended and that there aren’t other story solutions that could use fewer extras but still get the onscreen impact you’re striving for.
COMPANY MOVES
A company move is when you are shooting at one location and you have several other locations to shoot that day but the other location or locations will require you to move the entire company. Moving your trailers, production trucks, cast, and entire crew takes hours, and you will lose valuable shooting time doing it (often two hours or more). Avoid this at all costs. Pick your hero location (most important location) for that day and then choose other locations that are pushcart close (the crew can push their carts). Do not do company moves. This will often require you compromise, but you’ll have that hero location you love – even if the alley you use isn’t as great as the other alley you wanted to use but that would have required a company move. Hey, it’s an alley. Compromise and save your budget.
This issue can also Include stage moves. When you’re shooting on a lot and have multiple stages with sets, it’s important to make sure the stages you rent are very close together so that you can move between stages quickly on the same day. If your two or three stages are far apart, you’re going to need to consolidate scenes to single days on a set to make certain you’re not wasting shooting valuable time moving between stages that are far apart.
DAY AND NIGHT
Day scenes are relatively inexpensive. Night scenes are expensive.
It’s as simple as that. When you’re off your stage sets and onto local locations or onto the studio backlot, remember that daylight is free and everything you do at night requires extensive lighting. Even with your new, highly sensitive digital cameras. Not only that, but everything moves slower in the dark. Your crew gets tired, it gets cold.
You need to take a careful look at how much day and night you’re anticipating when you’re writing (or supervising the writing) of your episodes. If you’ve had an entire episode written that takes place on night exteriors, you will be way over your budget. Cast and crews working all-nighters is a terrible idea. Expensive and hard on all. If you have a story that requires it, do it. But make sure most of it is written for interiors on stage that you can shoot as night, or on locations that can be blacked in (windows blacked out) so they can be shot during the day.
RAIN, SNOW, WIND, SPECIAL AND VISUAL EFFECTS
Rain is expensive. And in some parts of the country, basically impossible (Los Angeles is one, where drought conditions have made creating rain prohibitively expensive). The costs to create rain, even where it’s possible, are extensive. SFX personnel, rigging, cranes to suspend the rain bars, and pumps and plumbing to power them. Also, given that it’s very difficult to be certain you’re going to get a cloudy day when you create rain (so the sunlight doesn’t make your rain look ridiculous) you almost always are shooting rain at night – see above, expensive. Do you really need it? Can your character just come into an interior wet from being outside? How can you minimize the scale of your needed rain? Not a full street exterior, maybe an alley or small side of the house the character is entering. And remember, if your character is going out into rain (starting dry and ending up wet) there will be a lot of time spent getting the character back into new, dry wardrobe, hair dried, etc. before take two. Time lost equals money.
Snow is likewise difficult and expensive. It’s tough to make falling fake snow look good in the daylight, so you’re likely shooting it at night – I know I’m getting repetitive, but its expensive. Snow blankets and blown snow work to show there has been snow. But setting up a full snow scene where snow is falling requires lots of money with additional personnel, wind machines, condors to get overhead, clean-up afterwards. And the various artificial snow products available and safe to use around actors aren’t very convincing. Do you really need it? Is the expense worth it to you? What else are you willing to sacrifice to pay for it?
All forms of Special Effects (SFX) are expensive and time consuming. Fire, gunfire, explosions, car crashes, stunts. They may be central to your storytelling but make certain that what’s been written can be accomplished in a safe and cost-effective way. We sit behind our computers and write elaborate action and SFX sequences. But don’t get too attached to what you wrote when you didn’t yet know what it would cost. Listen to your line producer, SFX technicians, ADs and stunt coordinators. They’ll help you tailor your sequences to your budget and safety. They want to please you and they’ll be excited to try and figure out how to accomplish it, so they won’t always tell you how much something is going to cost. Ask them. Make changes (or not) based on what they tell you.
Almost anything can now be accomplished through Visual Effects (VFX). Green/blue screens, CGI, Volume Stages, pre-Vis. But that doesn’t mean you should do it. If you’re doing a show that’s going to use VFX, you need to get an early handle on the costs. How much per shot? How many shots can you afford in each episode? Are there other ways to accomplish the same thing safely without using VFXs? Does your idea of what your show should look like even support the use of the VFXs? In a show that isn’t fantasy based, the use of VFX can often feel artificial and pull your audience out of the reality of the show. VFX are fantastic tools, but make sure you need them and that your ambitions for their use fit within the confines of the Series Pattern Budget you’ve agreed to with your financial partners.
LOCATIONS
Are a major discretionary area you need to monitor carefully. The number of locations that are off your set will drive your costs. Not only the number of locations, but also the type of locations. Seedy warehouse or a falling down garage are much more affordable than an upscale mansion that can run you $40,000.00 to $75,000.00 a day (not to mention the need to remove all of the current occupants’ furniture and belongings, replace them with your own, then put the occupants up in a hotel while you’ve kicked them out of their house). An airport, a stadium or other large venue are all obviously expensive. As is a street you’re going to have to close for driving shots.
Be aware of how many locations, and what type of locations, you’re writing into your scripts during the writing process.
A FINAL THOUGHT ON DISCRETIONARY BUDGETING
Having your scripts finished and ready to shoot on the first day of prep (NO LATE SCRIPTS) will allow you maximum flexibility throughout the prep period to get the information you need to stay on budget. Your Line Producer, UPM, ADs and other production partners will have what they need to make recommendations to help you stay on budget. This allows you the flexibility to make the changes you want to make to best support your vision for your show.
For a further explanation, please see the budget accounts cheat sheet here.
A QUICK LIST OF THE AREAS YOU NEED TO LOOK AT CAREFULLY WHEN PREPARING YOUR SERIES PATTERN BUDGET
There are several areas you need to be particularly aware of when presented with the first pass at your Series Pattern Budget.
Your Writers Budget. How much money has your studio put in as an estimate for your writing staff? In my experience it’s at best 70% of what you’ll need. Ask lots of questions. How many writer producers have been budgeted for, and at what level (co-producer, producer, supervising producer, co-executive producer, other executive producer or producers)? Are the amounts they’ve budgeted for them appropriate for the writers you hope to be able to bring on? Ask. Oftentimes it’s just a lump sum from some other budget they had on hand and needs to be examined and adjusted to current market rates and the experience level of the writers you want to bring onto the show. Is there any money allocated for a few writers to still be employed during post-production? Same question for your non-producing level writers. Executive story editors, story editors, staff writers. Are they budgeted for the number of weeks you’ll need to figure out your show and then get the show written? There’s often a flat number of weeks for the writers assumed in the first pass of the Pattern Budget. Ten weeks? Not enough time to figure out your show and get eight or ten scripts written. You’ll need twice that amount of time. At least.
Your Producers Budget. This line item may also include some or all your writers with producer titles, so make sure your writers’ budget and producer-writer budgets include both the time and salaries you’ll need.
The number of days you’re budgeted to shoot. And for how many hours you are budgeted to shoot. Discuss these issues in depth with your line producer and UPM. Make sure what’s being budgeted conforms to what you’re hoping to shoot. If you have a seven-day budget, with ten hour shooting days, you’re going to be significantly constrained in the number of scenes you’re able to shoot, and the scope of those scenes. If you have a ten-day shoot, with twelve-hour days, you’ll be able to do much more – but if your show is going to require numerous stunts or visual effects or minors (children) this may still be a very difficult. The message here is to have detailed conversations with your production professionals so you understand fully what the budget includes and how that will impact what you can write. There’s no point in writing what you won’t be able to afford to shoot.