Budget Detail$

Creating and adhering to a realistic budget is important to the the success of any videomaker's project.

But just how do you compute that magical figure, arrive at an amount low enough to attract investors but large enough to get the job done? It's not easy. Thousands of people labor in Hollywood as budget wizards; not even they get it right very often. So many variables and details can go wrong or astray; it's impossible to plan for every contingency. Most often, you just have to guess.

Still, in this article I'll offer a number of useful guidelines vital for budget preparation. Videomakers who absorb these lessons will at least have a reasonable grasp of the basics of financial planning.

Reasons for Budgets

Video budgets both attract investors and allow you to exercise control over a production.

Since the budget is the foundation of any presentation to investors, it should be specific and accurate. Realism is also a good idea. It's an admirable goal, applying Lucas Film-like effects to a dry-cleaning commercial, but hardly feasible when the video must come in at $499.

Most projects begin underbudgeted and underscheduled. It's easy to understand why. A project will certainly seem more attractive to investors if you can convince them you'll finish the video for less money in less time than the competition.

But this shortsighted method of easy financing will eventually cause you suffering.

Projects underscheduled and underbudgeted leave you with but two options once the show begins:

1) the project goes over budget, or 2) quality goes into the dumper.

Say you tell a client $300 will do to create a training video. Then during shooting rain pours down; you must shut down the shoot, bring back and pay talent for a second day. You've now spent an extra $50, money intended for post. So will you skip the original scoring, budgeted at $50, choosing instead to give the client canned tunes? Or jettison the spiffy title effects for hand-lettered cards?

Sticking adamantly to an unrealistic budget forces you to continually compromise, leading to a loss of quality.

There's a minimum budget for every project, a certain amount necessary to produce a video meeting reasonable standards of quality. Determine your video's destination, then calculate the smallest amount of money needed to reach it. If the available financing is less than this figure, change the project.

Keep budgeting until you have a video you can afford to m…