Collect your outline, timeline, bid and distribution plan (distribution will be fully covered in part three of this series but it must be fully fleshed out in your pre-production planning if you wish to raise funds from someone other than your parents or credit cards). Create a printed proposal using these elements to pass for your fund-raising efforts to support your project. Documentary film budgets can run the gamut from low-budget to multi-million dollar ventures, but many make it on a very limited amount of hard capital. Documentary filmmakers as a group are notoriously successful at getting "sweat equity" from people who volunteer their equipment and their expertise for a stock in the project. There will always be some hard costs though, and if you are not in a position to cover them yourself you should see an attor-ney and get help setting up a simple system that will enable you to accept funds on behalf of your not for profit project. Some filmmakers seek financial support by asking existing non-profit organizations to sponsor their project, then take in the funds, and allocate them back to the filmmaker.
Randal K. West is the Vice President/Creative Director for a DRTV full service advertising agency.
Once you have made the initial choices about your documentary you will need to create a budget that reflects accurate estimates of the costs involved. First estimate how many days of shooting it will take to film your documentary. Divide the total into days when you will record sound and days when you will just shoot images. In the industry, they call this type of film/video budgeting as defining your "Day of Days." Create a proposed set of crew costs for both types of days. Even if your crew is volunteer, you will still need to consider food, travel and ancillary costs. Next create a list of equipment for each type of day and project any "real" or "hard" costs. Determine if you will have to rent support equipment, (sound, lights etc,) and get estimates for this equipment that you can put in your budget. Will you have to get permits or insurance to shoot in any of your locations? Include these and any projected expendables such as videotape, in your projected budget.
If you plan to use much of your own equipment, (camera, editing system) and these will not constitute "hard" costs in your budget, create an "in-kind" contribution section of the budget that demonstrates the savings created by your "sweat-equity", (volunteered hours), and owned equipment. This is helpful when soliciting contributions to cover the remaining "hard costs" because potential investors can see exactly where you allocate their contributions. Create a postproduction budget and be sure to include both editing time and costs for licensing stock footage, existing film footage, photos or music.
Video/Film budget templates exist on the Internet that can help you create your budget, just be sure to eliminate any line items that don't apply to your project.
"Fulfillment of the Dream:" How to plan your approach, find your subject and begin the process of bringing your vision to fruition.
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