On a Budget: Scheduling Your Shoot
Budgeting your film is a delicate process. Often, you budget your film first
(this is usually the case with independent low-budget films) by breaking
down elements into categories, such as crew, props, equipment, and so on —
the total amount you have to spend. Your costs are determined by how long
you need to shoot your film (scheduling determines how many shoot days
you have) because the length of your shoot tells you how long you need to
have people on salary, how long you need to rent equipment and locations,
and so on.
When you know you can only afford to pay salaries for a three-week shoot,
you then have to schedule your film so that it can be shot in three weeks.
You schedule your film’s shoot by breaking down the script into separate
elements (see Chapter 4) and deciding how many scenes and shots you can
shoot each day, so that everything is completed in the three weeks you have
to work with. An independent filmmaker doesn’t usually have the luxury of
scheduling the film first (breaking it down into how many days it will take to
shoot) and then seeing how much it will cost.