Is there a thing such as a “development budget”?
A cost we don’t think about when embarking on a feature film project
When we talk about starting feature film projects, we frequently forget to talk about the whole process that starts much before we even know if our film will become a reality. I’m talking about the process of actually developing a film project and what that entails financially; usually an undefined period of time, which can go from months to years.
I don’t want to scare you with numbers and costs, we know how expensive filmmaking is, but let’s start from the beginning: what does a feature film development process include?
Everything, or, almost everything can be included in this process.
From starting to talk about an idea and how you’re going to develop it, to set the plot and subplots, to actually writing the script and dialogue, up to thinking which actor could go with each part…in conclusion, it’s the previous phase to having a production company signing a deal with you to produce and finance your project. Even after gaining the support of one or a couple of production companies, the development process can still take quite some time, as every element of production finds its place.
But if we’re being practical, what should we take into account when we talk about a development budget?
Even if it is a cost that, as we were saying, it’s not taken into account usually, it is important to understand it, even though it’s only in an abstract sense. To give an example of what would a standard development budget look like, we will asume that our project is being developed as an adaptation from a book.
- Development funds
- Book adaptation rights deal
- Research
- Location scouting
- Travel, Accomodation & Festival Costs
- EPK & Other materials development
- Teaser trailer development
- Budgeting & Accountancy development
As you can see, these are all costs that we can easily accumulate while trying to start a film project, and which we usually omit, even before we know if our project will get the financing it needs.
Let’s analyse each point and see what it consists of and why they’re (sometimes) necessary.
Development funding:
This is the main cost a screenwriter will incur in, the minute you start to write a script, as usually you won’t get paid until you achieve to sell it to a production company which will make it happen. This is something that happens with almost all kind of writing; until one doesn’t start to get commissioned to write, this will usually be an irrecuperable cost. But, if we get a production company or investor to bet on our project, we will be able to apply to state funding for development, which almost all european countries will have in their film funding budgets. If we get this help, it will be a window of time we will gain as writers to keep on working on our script. It’s not something we should count on, as it is very difficult to get this kind of funding, but if we do, it’s like a breeze of fresh air.
Book adaptation rights deal:
If what we’re trying to develop is a script from an existing source, like a book, we will have to draft up and present an option to acquire the rights of the book for a period of time, depending on the time we think we need to work on the script and make the film. The price on the rights might vary and it depends a lot on factors such as who’s the author, the notoriety of the piece, the amount of time we want the rights for etc.
Under Spanish law, after 70 years of the author’s death, the rights of the work become free to use by anyone, therefore not needing to sign any contract to be able to work on the book we want to adapt.
Research:
Depending on the type of story we are developing, we will need to investigate about aspects that have to do with it, so we can be as coherent and faithful as possible to its reality and context. This is especially true if we are trying to do a movie based on true or historical events. The thing is that, we will need a person or team of people researching all this information, and this takes time and money.
Location scouting:
Though this tends to be a point which we cover during preproduction of a project, it’s also true we can include some scouting in a very early stage of development, so we have more material to show to possible interested investors. Looking for locations, depending on the kind of project we are working on, can be a long and laborious process. Sometimes it means to travel to far away areas, with difficult access, getting permits to visit them, negotiating rental prices etc. and that is a job that very few people know to do well.
Travel, Accomodation & Festival Costs
When we are working on the development of a project, and we have a production company attached to it but we’re still looking for financing (as building the budget for a film comes slowly, usually), we will have to go visit film festivals and its markets, in search of more production companies and investors who might want to participate on our project. This means we will need to cover transportation, accommodation, festival feels to access these events, etc.
EPK & Other materials development
And of course, we could not go to a film festival and have meetings without having something to present to investors, distributors or sales agents. We will need to create the materials we’re going to show: sales dossier, a provisional poster, maybe a teaser trailer or mood trailer…and all this work needs to be developed, printed and taken with us to each event. Specifically, we will have to hire a designer who will have to develop an idea for the poster that is suggestive enough, not having anything set in stone yet: not actors, director or anything, but who will know to represent the essence of our idea.
Teaser- trailer:
If we want to develop a teaser-trailer to show at film festivals, it means having to put together a small production team, developing the idea we want to show in it, shooting and editing it. In most cases, this will be something that we will do with what we’ve got, asking favours to friends and acquaintances, but which in the end becomes a sunken cost which we wont recoup.
Budgeting & Accountancy development
Finally, we shouldn’t forget that as we advance in the development of our project, we will have to account for the costs we start incurring in. That’s why we will need someone to manage this, who will prepare a preliminary budget, which will evolve as we build our project.
Summarizing, even the development phase of a project can have many, many expenses which we don’t think about usually. It’s not about ending up spending money on all of them, but sooner or later, whilst your project advances, you will have to keep in mind these kinds of elements more and more.
