Financing / Crowdfunding : Chimpanzee and Budget planning by Amanda Samaroo

I used it about five years ago and find it quite wanting. The standard is Entertainment Partners Movie Magic Scheduling and Budgeting. That is what everyone uses. Now, Chimpanzee could have improved in that intervening time, Amanda. I'm not sure. I want to say that it was a Filemaker based program as I recall. Are you buying it?

I did buy it. I’ve never created a budget and it’s a bit overwhelming

It was much cheaper than movie magic and I’m looking at a smaller indie film.

Well Amanda you bought it, now just take the time to learn how to use it.

Save yourself headaches and pay someone to do budgets.

If y'all want to hire me, I can do budgets and breakdowns (so can a lot of line producers, or even production managers.) I'm mostly an actor and writer, but I need the money. Paid work only, I'm saving up for my next feature.

I tried Chimpanzee, and found it not flexible enough. I prefer spreadsheets, and pen and paper.

One of the most difficult things for independents to do is value their time more than money. Just because you wasted cash on something, that doesn't mean you have to waste time with it too.

As far as "everyone" using movie magic, that's not strictly true. Many independents use spreadsheets, some small studios create in-house software, and there are other SaaS options available. MM is great if you want a job at Amazon or Netflix, but I know line producers who don't use it. You might try Yamdu. https://yamdu.com/

To do a budget you should find a Line Producer who has experience in your demographic. Shooting location, Genre, and ideal total budget limitations, bondable if needed and others.

Ammad Malik plenty of members here on this website can do budgets. When you’re ready with a project & have funding in place (at least for development), I will point you to a PGA union member Line Producer.