Work with a producer and filmmaker who's films have screened at Sundance, Tribeca and South By Southwest to learn how to budget your own independent film between $700K - $2MM so you can attract investors and buyers!

It’s time to take the reins and make your story a reality by producing your independent film!

Independent films that cost between $700K and $2 million are proving to be a fantastic way for up-and-coming filmmakers to get noticed as new paths to distribution grow hungrier daily for more content. Before you start shooting, you must prove on paper that you can produce your story with limited funds. This four-part intensive class guides you through what you need to know, shows you how to avoid rookie mistakes, provides real example budgets for you to learn from, and more.

This exclusive on-demand Stage 32 class is an intensive course that will teach you how to budget your film at a price point between $700K and $2 million. This will allow you to have meaningful and productive conversations with investors and production companies. 

Guiding you each session is Julie Buck, a producer and filmmaker whose work has played at festivals including Tribeca, SXSW, London, and Sundance. She has budgeted and scheduled hundreds of independent films.

In each session you’ll learn a vital step in the process of creating your budget, receiving example handouts of real budgets and assignments that will help you put into practice the wealth of information covered.

Over four sessions, you’ll go in-depth on:

• Transforming a schedule into a budget
• Above the line vs. below the line costs
• Scheduling and budgeting software
• Pros and cons of working with unions
• How to budget post-production
• Rookie mistakes and overlooked costs
• Tax incentives available to you
• And more

By the end of this intensive course, not only will you have a budget for your own film, but you’ll also have the knowledge to create budgets and schedules for future productions, and handouts to keep and utilize in the future.

Plus! Julie will provide you with exclusive handouts to use for your current and future projects. Downloads include:

• Sample budget breakdown
• Rate sheets for your crew and IATSE agreements
• Rate sheets for your cast and SAG agreements
• A comprehensive list of festivals to target
• Sample scripts

Testimonials from Julie's previous Stage 32 Courses:

"I'm so happy I found Julie, she has helped me tremendously in preparing for my new film!" - Christine F.

"Julie has been my favorite teacher on Stage 32 thus far! She's very informative and really cares about helping out her people." - Julia M.

"Julie is fantastic! My favorite teacher from Stage 32 thus far. Take her course! You'll be happy you did." - Zuzanna R.

SESSION 1 – Breaking Down a Script & Scheduling

• Learning the basic elements of the script (Locations, Actors, Page Count, etc.) and how they impact the schedule. Learning to flag difficult elements that might sink a film.
• Breaking down the script into separate elements.
• Rearranging the Breakdown into a realistic one-liner schedule, including day-out-days and tagging elements that could impact the budget.
• Discuss the various software available to schedule a film.
• Q&A with Julie

Handouts: Sample script and schedule

SESSION 2 – Above the Line (ATL) Budgeting

• Learning what Above the Line means, including costs for producers, directors, writers, and actors.
• Discussing important unions and hidden costs of hiring SAG actors on a low-budget film.
• Finding rate sheets, discussing union fringe costs, Taft Hartleys, and potential agent fees.
• Q&A with Julie

Handouts: Rate sheets and sample SAG agreements.

SESSION 3 — Below the Line (BTL) Budgeting

• Learning what Below the Line means, including costs for crew, equipment, locations, legal fees, insurance etc.
• Discussing potential unions that might be involved and how that can impact the backend of a budget.
• Learning about how to create globals and fringes.
• Q&A with Julie

Handouts: Rate sheets and sample IATSE agreements.

SESSION 4 – Preparing for the Unexpected

• Discussing pitfalls of first-time filmmakers’ budgets.
• Learning ins and outs of state tax incentives and how to build them into a budget.
• Next steps to getting your film made.
• Q&A with Julie

WHAT TO EXPECT:

• This on-demand class is designed for beginner, intermediate and advanced students looking to learn to budget a feature film between $700K-$2MM. 
• This class will consist of four sessions which take place on Zoom and go significantly more in depth than a standard webinar.
• Each class is roughly two hours in duration and spaced one week apart from one another to allow you time to work on your assignments.
• Even though this on-demand class is pre-recorded, we highly encourage you to hold yourself accountable by take the lessons from each week to move your work forward.

Producers looking to learn how to budget a feature film between $700K - $2MM to best attract investors and buyers.

Line Producers looking to learn how to budget a feature film between $700K - $2MM to best attract investors and buyers.

All levels of screenwriters (advanced, intermediate and beginner) looking to make a feature film budgeted between $700K - $2MM to best attract investors and buyers

Filmmakers looking to make a feature film with a budget between $700K - $2MM.