Phases, not just shoot days
- Development. Research, treatments, scouting and the producer time before anyone rolls.
- Production. Interview days, verite days and any staged material. Crew can be small: director, director of photography, sound, a production assistant.
- Travel. Flights, mileage, hotels and per diems. On many documentaries this is larger than the camera package.
- Archival and rights. Licensed footage, stills, music and legal review. Price these from quotes, not from a day rate.
- Post. A long editorial schedule, transcripts, color, sound, graphics and deliverables. Post is often the largest cash section.
- Pickups. A return trip you already know you will need. If you leave it out, it comes out of contingency.
- Insurance, legal and contingency. Errors and omissions matters once other people's footage and stories are in the film.
How to build it
- List the phases and the trips, not a single shoot week.
- Start from the film budget template and add lines for research, archival and transcripts. See adding lines.
- Separate interview days from verite days so a financier can see what the access costs.
- Put archival and music on their own lines with the licence term in the notes.
- Budget editor weeks honestly. A documentary edit is not a commercial finishing week.
- Once the budget is approved, track budget vs actuals through production and post. Grant reports are much easier from a live budget than from a folder of receipts.