I and trying to determine the pay for a line producer to create a preliminary budget necessary so that I can use it to begin my capital raise for a full-length independent feature film. I'm based in California, but I'm making tentative plans to film either in the state of Georgia, Canada or a combination of both locations. My idea is to have this person stay on once project funding is in place. Any guidance in this area would be greatly appreciated.
Thank you in advance for any comments and suggestions.
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Even a preliminary budget (when done right) requires a thorough breakdown of script and scheduling -- it takes 2-3 weeks and results in a comprehensive set of documents that can be refined with casting and location costs (the two biggest variables). It's also helpful for you to have a range so they know what scale to work within (ie: below $3 million is a different set of wages). Done right, it should cost about $3,000.
Feel free to reach out if you need someone, my company does these as a part of our services.
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Thank you Laurie, that's kind of what I had in mind and you just provided confirmation. I've been away from the industry for a while and I want to make sure I'm in the ballpark. I have a tentative budget of around $10M in my head, but I'll still collecting some info.
I would definitely like to reach out in the next few weeks as I don't really have someone yet.
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Michael Bennett - I've known Laurie for many years and I highly recommend her work. She has been in the industry a long time and has a terrific knowledge base of all levels and scopes of films.
Welcome back to the industry :)
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Michael Bennett, since this is your initial budget, I'd recommend doing a lower-budget version and higher budget version. A lot of costs and # of shoot days will depend on the script and # of locations. I have done budgets for several features films, 2 of which were union and the others which were non-union independents. I usually charge a day rate of $550/day and a first pass usually takes about 2 days. As Laurie mentions, revisions etc. can increase cost from there but in early stages of presenting to investors, I think it's usually good to have a beginning point.
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I highly recommend Laurie Ashbourne as well. She's fantastic.
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Thanks,.Amanda Toney and thanks for the connection, Michael Bennett
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and TY Richard "RB" Botto
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Thank you Amanda Toney, that's good to know about Laurie. I'll definitely have a discussion with her.
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Thank you Richard. Laurie you have a lot of fans. That speaks highly of you.
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Happy to help, Michael Bennett
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@Patrick McIntire is an experienced line producer as well i believe