The Production Schedule

Part of any film school
education involves how to set
up a production schedule. The
production schedule is an
overall breakdown of how a
film's production budget is used through the making of a
film.

This involves various elements
such as special effects,
costumes, props, make up and
music. It may be hard to
establish how much you plan
to spend on each element at first, but think of it in terms of
how you plan the budget for
your household. You spend a
certain amount of money on
bills and entertainment, with
other funds going to clothes and food shopping. In many
ways setting up a production
schedule is very similar, yet the
amount of funding you have
will greatly vary depending on
the kind of production you're involved in.

When I was a student in film
school, I gave myself a budget
of $4000 for a very short film
that wasn't as involved as say
a major motion picture. I put
some money aside for actors, basically paying for their
transportation costs, yet other
funding went to supplying
food, film, lighting as well as
props.

Keep in mind that this was a
fifteen minute short film, yet
you have to keep in mind that
in something along these lines
you'll probably have to rent
your equipment unless you already own it and the film is
rather costly as well.

Shooting in video will also
save you a substantial sum as
you only need the camera, yet
you should budget these items
accordingly, depending in the
type of camera you want to use. A good hi-def digital video
camera will cost you several
thousand dollars, yet renting
one is usually much less
expensive. I made the mistake
of using 16mm film for this particular project, so
purchasing the stock and
developing costs put me over
budget in the end.