In this post, I will show a film budget for a typical independent film that has a 500 thousand budget. Most Independent films or small budget films have a budget between 500,000 and 7 million. If you are just starting out, you can study this table below to find out what are typical above the line costs and below the line costs. Usually, the director makes the most amount of money, but most A-list Actors would make more than a B-List Director, because he is hungry to get their name on the screen to market the film around that actor.
For the most part, above the line makes less than below the line when you combine it together, only because of the very few above the line and the many below the line technical staff. In a film budget, everything is guestimated and cannot go more than the guestimated amount. Then, the budget is re-written to show on a film distribution memorandum to show actual costs. I cannot stress this enough: The budget is your most important investment and marketing tool to show to a distributor. Here is the budget below :
BUDGET TOP SHEET
| Story, Copyrights & Other Rights | 0 |
| Direction and Supervision | $84,250 |
| Cast, Day Players & Stunts | $24,576 |
| Travel & Living | $2,000 |
| Legal | $1,000 |
| Office Expenses | $6,722 |
| TOTAL ABOVE-THE-LINE |
$118,348 |
| Production Staff | $33,889 |
| Extra Talent | $750 |
| Art Direction | $13,036 |
| Set Operations | $15,750 |
| Wardrobe | $11,018 |
| Set Dress Operations | $11,940 |
| Makeup & Hairdressing | $5,638 |
| Electrical Riggers | $39,301 |
| Camera Operations | $27,000 |
| Production Sound Operations | $10,364 |
| Transportation | $3,398 |
| Locations | $7,100 |
| Production/ Lab & Film | $30,556 |
| Tests | $1,000 |
| Office Expenses | $5,238 |
| TOTAL PRODUCTION PER. |
$216,106 |
| Editing | $34,130 |
| Music | $5,000 |
| Post Production Sound | $11,200 |
| Post Production/ Lab & Film | $50,126 |
| Main & End Titles | $3,000 |
| Office Expenses | $5,238 |
| TOTAL EDITING PERIOD |
$107,000 |
| Publicity | $32,000 |
| Festival Expenses | $6,400 |
| Insurance | $30,000 |
| TOTAL OTHER CHARGES | $39,600 |
| TOTAL ABOVE-THE-LINE | $118,348 |
| TOTAL BELOW-THE-LINE | $363,404 |
| TOTAL OF ABOVE & BELOW-THE-LINE | $481,772 |
| GRAND TOTAL | $499,922 |
Please reply to the post for any questions or comments or at moviedistributionfacts@gmail.com
Movie Distribution Facts 
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Tell me about your storie.
we can try to work with you to produce this film, let it be know from the beginning that all the details on how we will achieve this will be discussed later, but yes we can get the movie in theaters
Thats great, please leave details for the filmaker
I am in the early stages of making a film, I have written about 20 pages of a biography. I need to have an idea (in sterling not dollars) of what many of the direct costs will amount to. By this I mean a) screenwriter b) producer c) director d) camera crew e) the main actors and actresses and f) hiring of military uniforms-first world war. Other costs I can estimate, as there will be a little bit of filming on location and obtaining of archive film. Pitching and advertising costs we can leave at the present. Office costs will be kept to a minimum, because I am a Chartered Accountant.
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Im needing to find out how much special effects with cost in a fantasy movie. There will be alot of special effects. Any clue where I can get that info?
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sir how much money needed for making a good film . . . included all expenses
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Thanks for the add
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