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Inside the Cover Book ReviewReview by Patrick Beltran
Film & Video Budgets4th Edition By Deke Simon, with Michael Wiese Michael Wiese Productions 2005 478 pp.
Not long ago, a friend of mine took the plunge and moved to Los Angeles to jump start his producing career. He’d laid the groundwork, of course: short films, festivals, local production work, learning and making contacts as he went. He was so prepared that within six months of moving to L.A., he was the “working” producer on his first feature film, with a real budget and a real paycheck.
Did I mention budget? Oh, yeah. With his new job, my friend had a boatload of budgeting decisions to make. Mind you, this guy’s got an MBA from a top-notch school-- he’s not dumb and he’s not afraid of numbers. He dove right in and put together a fine budget, a professional budget, incorporating all of his knowledge, experience, and research. The first time he had to present his well-thought-out, expertly assembled budget to a Hollywood insider-- I think it was the SAG official assigned to the film-- my buddy received a blank stare in return. “I don’t know what this is,” he was told. “This is not a budget for a Hollywood film.”
Ouch. That’s got to hurt.
My friend’s budget was not wrong, or incomplete, or unprofessional-- just the opposite. What he discovered, however, was that it was not organized in the way in which Hollywood financial people expect a film budget to be organized. Perhaps his categories weren’t in the right order, or to the right level of granularity; maybe he lumped together certain costs that should have been listed separately, or detailed costs that should have been summarized; maybe he used the wrong terminology in places.
So what should a new producer or budgeter do to avoid this confusion? A good place to start is by reading Film & Video Budgets (4th edition) by Deke Simon. At almost 500 pages, Budgets is not the sort of book that you sit down and read cover-to-cover-- rather, it’s a useful dip-and-dive reference for anyone who needs to know how to read or create industry standard production budgets.
The book has sections that talk about setting up a production company; planning for pre-production, development, and marketing; and, new for the 4th edition, an informational overview of projects that use high definition technology. But these sections are mere overviews-- this is definitely not a “how-to” book about filmmaking. The real meat of this book is in the section called “Line Items.”
The “Line Items” section is just that-- a detailed review of every “standard” budget line item that you are likely to encounter in a production budget. The authors cover all kinds of productions, including feature films (digital and traditional), documentaries, music videos, student films, and industrial films. There are hundreds of possible line items listed, each tagged with its standard category and line number, and each explained in some detail.
The authors also provide excellent sample budgets, both in the book and online, in which they list approximate dollar values for each line within each type of production-- although they stress over and over that their dollar amounts should not be relied upon in creating a real budget.
Do I have any complaints about this book? Yes, I do, but they are minor. Some of the line items don’t get as detailed an explanation as I would have liked, and more elaboration in some of the overview sections would have been useful. Also, in the pre-publication galley I read, the SAG rates were already out-of-date, as those rates recently changed (July 2005). However, to me that isn’t a big deal, since even if the publisher corrects the rates before the book goes to print, prices change so often that in a book of this nature, the dollar amounts should always be treated with suspicion.
The bottom line is that the 4th edition of Film & Video Budgets continues to be a valuable budgeting resource tool for beginners and experienced budgeters. A warning for beginners, though: don’t treat Budgets as a single source for production planning. In addition to your own cost research, you will need to learn more about some of the non-budget topics that this book only skims.
And what about my friend? I talked to him the other day and told him about Budgets. He agreed that it would have been a big help to him back when he was first preparing his budget. The good news is, even without the book, he eventually got his budget approved and his film made. As of this writing, he’s in post-production with that movie, and in the planning stages for feature film number two. And, oh yeah, he’s reading Budgets.
I told you he was no dummy.
Patrick Beltran is a screenwriter, independent producer, and freelance writer who works as an IT professional during the day to feed his creditors. He lives in Virginia with his wife and daughters.
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