I first want to express my heartfelt thanks to everyone who’s making the most of “Feature Film Budgeting: A Step-by-Step Manual.” Putting this together was truly a labor of love. My goal was to make the manual more relevant by not only presenting recent figures but updating them in “real time” with this companion website.
Also, I hope the world of “fringe rates” is not as intimidating as before! Through the many years of accumulating books on film budgeting, each one left me just as confused and no more knowledgeable on the topic of “fringes.” They simply never went into detail on such an integral part of the budgeting process. For that reason, I did my best to divulge the “trade secrets” to you!
ABOUT THE WEBSITE
The Departments within this website will directly correspond to those found in the film budgeting manual. I’ll inform you of any contracts that were ratified during production of this manual and their new rates. In most cases, I’ll show you revised calculations based on these new rates. Important to note that rates may have changed but you should still apply the concepts taught in the film budgeting manual to fully understand them.
Many of the Unions and Guilds, in fact, completed contract negotiations or the third year of an existing contract came into effect. Don’t worry – we’ll cover them all! And you’re probably wondering if I updated the 3 Sample Budgets to reflect the changes. This website wouldn’t be complete without sharing those with you!
Lastly, regarding the new contract rates, I’ll also show where and what figure(s) they replaced in the film budgeting manual. Those references will be in red type (i.e. “Page 4, top”).
IMPORTANT READ FOR YOU
!!!! DO NOT CALL THE IATSE OFFICES FOR “ONE-OFF SHEETS” !!!!
I introduced you to the concept of “One-Off Sheets” when we first learned about the union named IATSE (Page 41). They were to be used when a Production Company had only one project slated. I also mentioned that new “One-Off Sheets” were generated in January of each year. That is not the case anymore. IATSE no longer produces these “One-Off Sheets!” During the production of this manual, IATSE changed how they address these “One-Off” projects. I’ll explain later in detail how you should approach the subject using an alternate method. It’s not uncommon for unions to revise procedures, but I apologize and thank you again for not contacting the IATSE offices.
