Budgeting Lab: Build a Budget for Your Low Budget Feature in 8 Weeks

Payment plans available - contact edu@stage32.com for details

Limited to 10 People - 2 Spots Remain

With so many platforms and distributors looking for new projects to fill their libraries, now is the perfect time to make your low-budget feature. But before you can take a single shot, you need to know what it costs. A bad budget can break a production before it even starts, but an expertly made budget can lead to investors and opportunities.

Before you go out to investors to finance your low-budget feature, you must know how much money you need and, more importantly, how you’re spending that money.

This ensures you don’t undervalue your project, which sets up production to run out of money before you finish.

To get the right sum for your project, you either have to spend money you don’t have yet to hire a line producer and schedule or build one yourself without any experience.

But, what if you could not only have a budget and schedule ready for everything investors expect to see but also have an expert look it through to make sure you’ve got everything you need?

What if a professional line producer who’s worked on hundreds of budgets could show you the ins and outs of budgets so that you know how to do it yourself for all of your projects?

In this Stage 32 exclusive lab, you’ll go directly through your low-budget feature script with Chris Smith, a line producer, producer, and production manager with over a decade of experience. He’s also built over a hundred budgets for projects of every level and format.

Over eight weeks, you’ll learn how to comb through your script to determine every line item you’ll need from pre-production through post.

Chris has made over ten indie features, been an Executive in Charge of Production, created content for MTV, Cartoon Network, NatGeo, and NatGeo, and has overseen countless commercials, music videos, shorts, and more. Having worked his way up through production, Chris knows every crew role, rental and item in budget, as well as how important they each are. 

Over the course of his career, Chris has built over a hundred budgets for projects of every level and format.

Chris will show you how to budget for:

• The schedule
• Above-the-line talent
• Every crewmember needed
• Rentals
• Locations
• Contingencies
• Production and accounting fees
• And so much more

Using a limited class size, you’ll have the ability to work on your own budget and receive Chris’s invaluable experience, plus, see how these lessons adapt to each of your classmates’ projects.

After every session, you’ll have an assignment to build on the information you’ve just learned and to practice while setting you up for the next session.

You’ll also have access to handouts from Chris, featuring the budgets and schedules from professional productions to see exactly how the pros get it done.

You’ll walk away with a budget, schedule, and the knowledge behind the choices you’ve made so that investors see you as a credible filmmaker and producer that they want to work with.