Speaker 1: Okay, this goes to the camera department and this goes to wardrobe and where did I put the food budget? Oh, there it is. And this goes to the food budget.

Speaker 2: ♪♪ Hello, filmmakers. Ash here, and welcome to Film It Yourself. A budget is like a living document that can change throughout the filmmaking process. But having it as both a guideline for purchases as well as a method for keeping track of expenses is a huge lifesaver for any filmmaker, especially if you're self-funding your film. After all, filmmaking is expensive. For example, I once spent over $1,000 on a short film that was only a minute long. If you aren't setting financial goals or keeping track of how much money you're spending, you can easily find your money practically fluttering away. So let's get into how to make a budget so you can hold on to as much cash as possible. There's really two steps to making a budget. First is creating the estimated budget, which is made up of estimated costs and should be done before making any purchases. Creating this version of the budget will help give you the overall big picture of how much your film might cost. And can often be eye-opening for first-time filmmakers. This step is also important because it can help you set limits for how much each department can spend. This way, it's clearly communicated and there's no expensive surprises down the road. In order to make your estimated budget, you'll need to research how much each item will cost so your budget can be as accurate as possible. You can do this by checking out rental gear, props, and location prices online, as well as asking crew members for their rates. For wardrobe, talk to your wardrobe supervisor and come up with an estimated price for each character's costume, including any background actors you might have. Once you've collected all your estimated costs, it's time to put them in your budget. To make your budget, first, make a column along the top for categories. The first is department, and this is where you will list which department the cost is associated with. The next category along the top is item. This is where you'll list the item being purchased. If it's a cast or crew member, you'll list the character or crew member's role. Next to that is the description category. This is where you'll list either a description of the item, if need be, or if it's a cast or crew member, you'll list their name. After that is the cost category, and this is where you'll put either your estimate or your actual cost for each item. Then you want a department total category, where you can add up the totals for each department. And finally, you can optionally have a notes category if you feel you might need to enter any notes. Along the left side of your budget, you'll want to have sections for each department. Generally speaking, your departments should be cast, crew, transportation, camera and lighting, props, location, wardrobe and makeup, crafty and meals, post-production, marketing, and insurance. Also, pro tip, don't forget to add film festival and distribution costs, which you can include in your marketing category. Once you have your estimated budget filled out, make sure you add a total for each department as well as a divider, so you can clearly see what each department costs and its section in the budget. And of course, finally, add up the total for each section into a grand total at the very bottom. This is your estimate for how much your film will cost. Once you've made your estimated budget, the second step is updating it every time you make a purchase for the film. And pro tip, make sure you hold on to all of your purchase receipts for tax and reference purposes. Updating your budget is critical to figuring out how much your film will actually cost, because sometimes things can cost different amounts than what you estimated. Hidden fees like taxes or shipping costs might raise the price, or on the flip side, maybe some of your departments were able to come in under budget. It can also help you with future projects, as now you have a pretty good estimate for what a film that size might cost. So you can use this data to help build other film budgets. By constantly updating the budget to get the most accurate financial information possible, you'll know exactly where your money is going and be able to hold onto as much of it as possible. And if you don't wanna do all that formatting yourself, you can get access to all of my filmmaking templates, including this budget, by supporting me on Patreon for the cost of a cup of coffee. You can find a link in the description below, and I could really use the help. My coffee budget is definitely in the red. Well, time to get filming.

Speaker 1: Better crack these babies open. Let's see if there's like a plug on.

Speaker 3: No, there's no. Okay. Okay. Man, I've got to find a better way to store my money.