For this post, a $4 million budget example and a 30% rebate is used
So you're planning on shooting in a city/state/country that offers a great tax incentive/rebate. Great! You expect a $1.2 million rebate! Well hold on. Every city/state/country has an evil word in all their contracts called "exclusions". These are costs that the state deletes from the total budget amount when calculating the rebate. These "exclusions" vary heavily from state to state. Some of these "exclusions" include talent/director fees over $250k, post (if not done in the state), music licensing rights, crew/equipment not hired in the state and a slew of other items. Rarely will you see that full $1.2 million rebate, on average, it'll be closer to $800k to $1 million give or take a bit (more on this in a future tip for the day). Still, $800k to $1 million rebate is pretty good right? Yes. But that's not "Net". Huh?
In order to get that rebate, you have to travel there. Thus enters the "travel and living" line items for above the line and below the line. These are direct costs that technically go against your rebate.
Travel & Living contains 4 main elements. Air Fares (1st class RT for SAG leads and name talent, including cameos), hotel, per diem (varies from $40/day to $85/day depending on size of the budget), and a ground transportation/car allowance (on average $300-$350/week). Everyone that travels whether ATL or BTL, gets the travel and living. However, certain crew travels either business class or economy and hotels can be anything normal.
Hotel rates vary & often productions will get great deals if multiple rooms are booked for a long period of time, but still, base crew rates will average about $200/day give or take, while name talent rooms can easily exceed $400 to $500/day.
Now the fun part begins. Per diem & hotel are based on 7 day/wk, not the 5 day shooting weeks (a common mistake made by rookie budgeters). Also, everyone that travels gets a "travel day" to and from. So for a 30 day shoot (six 5 day weeks), in reality, covers 42 days, not 30 (6 weeks x 7 days is 42). Add a travel day on both ends & you have 44 days. This number only applies to talent/crew that only work during the shooting weeks. For several crew that travel, you need to add their prep weeks. Some prep can be done locally, but most prep will be done on location. This can add anywhere from 7 to 42 days/crew member (depends on crew members prep weeks). Wrap needs to be added as well but that tends to only be a few days to a week for most crew.
It's not uncommon for a 30 day shoot, to have some crew on location for upwards of 90 days+. And all those days production is paying travel and living for. On average you'll have roughly 10-15 talent and 10-15 crew travelling. That adds up fast & can easily total $200k-$300k+. Now your $1 million rebate is a net of roughly $600k to $700k. $500k less then what you first thought. All these numbers vary but you get the idea. Be aware of gross and net. 1 name talent shooting the entire production can cost roughly $25k in travel and living costs, excluding cast perks.
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