Most film directors have chosen to stay away from film budgets and production costs. Heavy grinding SHOULD be left to the accountants, but, let’s leave it on the table:

The film director is at the helm of a huge money-burning machine. The film director’s job is to produce his vision of the script, on time and on budget. Serving him is a team of film production experts (the line producer, the unit production manager, the AD team, the production accountant, etc.) all there to help the film director do just that.

Film directors deal with understanding the basics of on-set filming, without being able to fully light a set, operate a crane, or focus a still camera. In the same spirit, the film director must understand the basics of budgeting and the extremely important process of weekly cost reporting. Every creative decision involves money. It makes good sense to learn how to translate creative ideas into costs.

Experienced managers know the weekly cost report. If you don’t know him yet, I present him to you:

The Weekly Cost Report informs all Producers, Studio Executives and Funders of the costs you are spending and how those costs compare to the Approved Budget. If you can’t challenge or defend the conclusions made by those who read that financial ‘Report Card’ (ie those who pull the strings of the money), your ability to control your career is significantly weakened.

Find a comfort level where you can, at a minimum, know what to ask during the budgeting phase and have a good understanding of how you can offset a cost overrun with cost savings in another area. Learn how to formulate broad cost compensation concepts to reach your vision and you’ll impress Studio executives.

Imagine the following scenario:
You are the film director of an independent film production. You have shot the exteriors that the script asks for and you have seen the newspapers; however, you KNOW there is a better shot of that exterior in Oklahoma that would give the perfect opening hook to your film.

You know you can convince the producers of this on a creative level. But he also knows that most producers will cringe at the task of dropping that bombshell on Financiers/Bonding Company that he needs to dip into closely guarded contingency funds. (Oh, I told you we’re going to Ok…)

1. How do you propose solutions to these added costs?

2. What is the correct way to approach the cost trade-off game?

3. How do you defend those cost trade-offs?

It’s always going to be a challenge to present this type of choice, but it’s a very doable challenge if you know how to translate your needs into cost offsets using my ideas from Walk The Talk.

usual way:
As a film director, you sincerely express your opinion that the shot of Oklahoma would be a perfect opening for the film. What kind of response do you think you’ll get? Here’s the most likely, based on my experience:

Film Producer/Bail Bond Company Representative – This will put us over budget by $150,000. I’ll talk to the… ‘whoever’ – (it’s a secure position).

Walk the path of conversation

Alternate: Film Director

– The cost of filming 1 day of locations will not require a full crew in Oklahoma. I called the Film Commission there (see my website for internet links to all the major Film Commissions and Syndicates) and was assured that there is plenty of local gear available to work with at a very decent price.

– I reckon it should cost about half of your estimate, say about $75,000 to give us a little more than we really need. I can get that back in the next 5 days here in New York. (Note: You’ll need to pick up a copy of my e-book to see how I got to the $75,000 figure – see Figure 17.2, Table 3)

– You see, I’ve rehearsed the next five days with my very experienced cast and there’s no way we can’t complete the scheduled scenes in 10 hours a day instead of the budgeted 13 hours. And, as everyone knows, the last 2 hours in New York cost about $10,000 a day (see Figure 15.1 in my book).

Alternate: Bail Bond Company Representative – Oh. Ask the accountant to make a schedule of the costs so we can verify them. (That is the last position of a financier: it is up to the accountant to verify his estimates).

You get the drift. You are simply applying a cost offset technique in the same technical way you would use focal points, storyboards, crane shots, etc. You are ‘directing the money’; money is not directing you.

Some directors, through the school of hard knocks, have developed an ‘ability’ to conceptually convey their creative ideas through a ‘what’s the cost?’ process. But that process is very often tainted with the guilt of ‘the blue suits’ and ‘the money boys’ and ‘all they care about is money’ and so on. It is also often based on misinformation, biased towards a predetermined decision. Take my word for it; Unless you, as a film director, might be familiar enough with the language of money in film production, you’re in the proverbial creek.

You, as a film director, are at the helm of a money-burning machine. The best way to gain the trust of those who pull the strings of the money is to know how to participate in the budget approval process and then offset the costs to get YOUR vision on set. You could think of it as Directing, only you are Directing The Money.