The next lines in your budget offer a commissioner a handy overview of the project’s duration and staffing.

Only complete this line if you have received and spent a development budget, because however much you’ve been given has to be paid back from your final production budget – so it becomes an expenditure line in the budget. You only add the total cost in here because you will already have submitted a detailed breakdown of your costs to obtain the development budget in the first place. A funded development is a bit like a grant that’s only repaid if your project gets commissioned.

Executive Producers are not budgeted full-time (they often work on more than one film at a time). Their time is counted in days.

Budgeted films

Will most likely schedule an EP at 1 day a week during pre-production, production and the edit.

Low budget films

An experienced EP is a good use of money because, alongside editorial and directorial advice, they’ll also be able to help advise on the best ways of keeping your costs down. But you’ll have to strictly limit an EP’s presence on the payroll. For a 40 minute film you might consider one or two days during pre-production for advice on turning a treatment into a visual narrative and on devising a practical filming schedule; one day during production to help with problems on the shoot, and two or three days during the edit for advice on the paper cut and to cover the viewings.

A producer’s responsibility for determining the editorial content of a film necessarily involves him or her from the start of the full production schedule to the end. When a director joins a project varies with the kind of budget.

Budgeted films

Directors are usually taken on board a week or two before the end of pre-production, once the research is coming to an end and the editorial line of the film is clear. This gives them time to work out a visual approach to the narrative. They’d then work down to the end of post-production. Many factual films employ producer/directors to save money and to unify the editorial and visual approach.

Low budget films

It’s best to combine the producer and director roles into one person. But you’ll need that person on the project throughout your production schedule.

If you’re working through an established independent production company, the production manager is likely to be an employee. But many PMs work freelance – so you could hire one yourself if you’re running the project yourself.

Budgeted films

It’s a good use of your resources to take an experienced Production Manager onto the payroll during key stress periods on a film schedule: before production begins to prepare a schedule & budget (half a day); during pre-production to organise research trips, plan the day-by-day film schedule, and contract staff and facility houses. How much time you’ll need a production manager depends on the complexity of your project, some films only need a day or two each week during pre-production - others might need a full-time PM. During production most budgeted films will have a PM on full-time to deal with the day-to-day stresses of a shoot. During the edit and post-production, a PM will normally only be on the payroll part-time to handle intermittent tasks (arranging filming that you need during the edit; obtaining transcripts for a late interview; organising archive/stills; making payments that are a PMs responsibility on a reasonably budgeted film).

Low budget films

The producer is likely to take on this role. But there are some pressure points in a schedule where paying for a few hours of an experienced PM’s time is money well spent. For example: half a day for advice on how to create a realistic schedule and budget; or a day with an experienced PM towards the end of pre-production to help devise a practical filming schedule. If you’re working to a tight deadline or managing a complicated shoot involving lots of travel, all the logistical, financial and managerial tasks can rapidly soak up your energy – leaving you too drained to think creatively about the filming and editing. So don't take on too much. If needs be, persuade someone to help manage the production with you – even if they end up doing it for kudos and a credit alone.

On page 148 In Chapter 8 I explained the importance of working with a knowledgeable local fixer when filming abroad. Whatever budget you are on, my advice is don’t skimp on a local fixer because they are, as their title suggests, someone who can not only fix things for you – but also get you out of a fix.

Budgeted and Low budget films

You are likely to need this person during part of pre-production to find contributors, filming locations and arrange filming permissions; throughout production – accompanying you during the filming, and if needed, translating for you. And also for a day during your edit for fact checking.

A reporter will be closely involved in the development of the film’s narrative and need significant input during pre-production and a presence during production, the edit and post-production. For more on the reporter’s role, see pages 65 - 69 in Chapter 3.

Budgeted films

Well-funded films will have a reporter on the payroll throughout pre-production, production and editing. During the edit, you might wish to restrict a reporter’s presence to the closing couple of weeks to attend viewings, script and rehearse commentaries and film final camera pieces. Plus a day and a half during final post production to script and record the commentaries to picture.

Low budget films

You will have to limit a reporter’s presence during pre-production to a regular advice session – perhaps a half day or 1 day a week – so that they can input suggestions, and critique the developing narrative. You’ll have them on-stream during production only for as many days as are needed to film interviews and camera pieces. Then two or three days towards the end of the edit to view rough and fine cuts of the film and write commentaries. And finally, half a day during final post to record the narration to picture.

An archivist can be conducting research at any stage of your production up until near the end of the edit. There’s more information on the issues you need to consider when using archive and stills in Schedule 9 of this budget.

Budgeted films

Most archivists are freelance and are usually willing to charge by the day. In return for their fee they add value to a film by suggesting clips that otherwise would never see the light of day as well as saving producers an awful lot of time and money by handling royalty issues and striking deals with copyright owners.

Low budget films

The producer/director will be doing this research.

Budgeted films

On well budgeted films a production accountant sets up a dedicated bank account for the project and runs a cost manager to track spending. They issue regular reports, including a forecast of likely spending, which lets you respond to an overspend in one category, by using money from another to make up the deficit and keep the overall film solvent. At the end of production your accountant will produce a final cost report for your commissioner showing where the money’s been spent and whether the production is over or under budget. Some American broadcasters also require what’s called a ‘general ledger’ – a print out of every item that’s been spent. Accountants usually charge by the day, and how much time you need depends on the size and complexity of the project. A ball-park figure for factual films would be 1 day every two or four weeks during pre-production and editing/post-production; 1 day a week during production.

Low budget films

You can dispense with an accountant if you are prepared to track your own costs as the project progresses. The risk is that you take on too much, fail to keep on top of your spending and find out when it’s too late that you’ve gone way over budget. DIY accounting has its risks. You’ve also got to produce a proper cost report for a broadcaster or online platform at the end of production – and an accurate set of project accounts for the tax office at the end of the year. So don’t take this on unless you are really convinced you have the ability and time to do it properly.

In the UK certain staff on a film production - broadly those with ‘assistant’ in their title (edit assistant, production assistant, camera assistant, assistant producer etc.) can't be employed on a freelance basis. The tax office insists that such people are employed on a tax deductible contract². Employing people on such contracts adds to your production costs because the employer has to contribute to their National Insurance payments. The rate in 2019 was 13.8%. UK employers also have to make a 3% contribution towards the workplace pension of such staff (unless they have opted out). So if you agree a fee of £200/day the real cost to your production could be £233.60. Employing staff on similar tax deductible contracts in America also adds to a production’s costs – because employers are obliged to contribute to employees’ social security and medicare payments – and also pay some local taxes which vary from state to state.

The lines in this schedule are for people who appear on your schedule for shorter periods but are not core members of the production team.

Presenters are not generally involved in creating the editorial content – so if you are using one, they will only need a day at the end of pre-production to get acquainted with the film. Whatever your budget, though, you will need enough time with your presenter during production to film interviews and PTCs; a day to put a ‘personal gloss’ on the style of the narration and to practice reading the commentaries to picture to make sure each one fits. If there are final camera pieces to film, you might also need an extra day during the edit, plus half a day to record the commentaries during final post production.

I outline the reason why you need transcripts when making longer films on pages 109-110 in Chapter 6.

Budgeted films

You’ll normally either be charged per 1000 words of transcription/translation or per minute of interview time. Translation is much more expensive than transcription.

Low budget films

I discuss ways of organising transcription and translation for films being made to low budgets or tight deadlines on pages 174 - 175 in Chapter 9.

When you’ve finished cutting a film that contains foreign language, you should always bring a translator into the edit suite to check your edits and your translations. This does not take very long - you might need to cost for half a day of a translator's time - but it will ensure that you don't make any unnecessary errors in your subtitles – or over-dubbing - and that the edits in interviews really are at the points you intend them to be.

Other key people involved on projects with reasonable budgets are usually on the payroll for shorter periods of time. You might need a consultant, for example, on an historical or scientific film during pre-production and possibly also to check facts for the narration that you write towards the end of your offline. Such experts are usually not paid by the day – but are offered a set fee.

A camera person’s time is measured in days not weeks – even if your shoot extends to a week or more. Obviously the majority of a camera operator’s work is done during production, when most of the filming is completed. But it is possible that you will need to film stand ups (PTC's) or, on investigative films, right-to-reply interviews or ‘doorsteps’ during your edit. More on PTC’s on pages 65 - 69 in Chapter 3.

Budgeted films

You have to decide whether to travel your camera operator with you with all the associated costs, or pick up a local crew in each location? And that decision means balancing the extra cost of travelling with a camera person you know well, someone you can trust, who can create a style for your film, against using a local camera operator whose abilities might be a lesser-known quantity, but who wont rack up heavy T&D costs.

Low budget films

A self-shooting producer director is the most cost-effective approach. The only extra costs to your budget then will be the hire of the camera kit. On a very low budget project you are going to be self-shooting. But do you have the skills to do this? There’s no point bringing back 20 hours of un-cuttable rushes to an edit. So be sure about your abilities as a camera operator, and as a film director, before deciding to shoot your own project. Chapters 3 and 4 tell you more about the skills you need to direct (and shoot) images and interviews.

Most camera operators will strike a 10 or 12 hour day deal with a production company. That means you pay for a day that lasts 10 or 12 hours from the time the camera person starts travelling to the location to the time he/she gets home again. Any time worked over these periods will incur an hourly overtime rate. If you are working with a camera operator, it's worth budgeting for a small amount of overtime (a few hours) because the unforeseen can sometimes make it very difficult to bring in a day's filming exactly on time.

If you’re working with a camera operator you’ll either hire their own camera equipment or rent it from an outside facilities company. Costs are calculated in days. Camera operators hiring their own kit don’t offer a ‘4 days charged for 7 days used’ discount deal like equipment hire companies do – but if your schedule includes travel days where no filming is done, they’ll usually remove the kit charge on those days. Most camera operators are also open to negotiation over the daily cost of their kit – and the longer the shoot the better the discount you’ll be able to negotiate.

Low budget films

A self-shooting camera kit normally includes a tripod, batteries, carry cases, a battery charger, wet weather camera cover, flash cards. Consider the following when deciding what kit to hire:

The camera:

Without training you won’t be able to use a professional camera – instead aim for a high-end consumer model. Cameras are continually being updated so check with a facilities hire company to find out the range of cameras on the market suitable for a self-shooter.

The Tripod:

All tripods support the camera in a solid, static position. But not all tripods allow you to tilt the camera up and down or pan it left and right smoothly. This ability depends partly on the quality of the construction: heavier tripods are better at this than lighter ones because they are more stable and less likely to shift position as you move a heavy camera mounted on the top. It also rests on the construction of the movable part of the tripod head: controlling a smooth camera pan or tilt requires back pressure – otherwise, as you begin to move the camera, it will jolt out of its static position and then either judder or swing uncontrollably on its way to its destination. Cheaper tripods use friction to achieve back-pressure: as you tighten a screw the pressure increases. But it’s very difficult to achieve smooth motion with friction operated tripods heads. Jagged, uneven moves are usually the norm. Smooth pans and tilts are possible with tripods that use fluid in the movable head to provide back-pressure. You can adjust the pressure to suit your needs. So if you want smooth camera pans and tilts, choose your tripod carefully - even if it costs a little more. A bad one can force you to shoot nothing but static compositions.

Camera Cover:

Always make sure the camera comes with a rain protector or you might find yourself paying for a costly repair if the kit is caught in a storm.

Sound kit hired from either a camera operator or sound recordist is budgeted in the same way as the camera gear: you pay a fee for each day you use the equipment and no fee on travel-only days. Your negotiation will be about the rate.

Low budget films

If you’re self-shooting and hiring from a facilities company you’ll be negotiating over the number of days charged over your filming period - with 4 days charged over 7 being the normal discount.

Anything used on the shoot that is not returnable at the end of the filming to your camera operator, sound recordist or a hire company. For example: batteries and gaffer tape.

Most documentary and current affairs shoots only need a basic lighting kit, sufficient for filming interviews in poorly lit rooms. But you might need more extensive lighting to raise the lighting level in a large room – filming a church service, for example, or in a school dining room. You’ll find more information about lighting interviews on pages 84 - 89 in Chapter 4.

The wide angle to telephoto zoom lens attached to professional or high end consumer cameras is sufficient for most documentaries and current affairs films. But some shots are beyond the ability of the standard zoom lens. Extreme telephoto images that provide a very narrow field of view and let you capture that huge image of the sun setting over the hills, need a long telephoto prime lens; very short focal length lenses can offer extreme wide-angle perspectives on the world; and macro lenses are required to capture close up images of small items like insects. If you do need extra lenses and are self-shooting, ensure that the camera comes with a replaceable – rather than a fixed – zoom lens. The effects you can achieve with different lenses are explained on pages 45 - 46 in Chapter 3, and page 90 in Chapter 4.

A wide range of other filming kit can enhance the images you shoot. In Chapter 3 I discuss camera cranes, dollies, camera harnesses and aerial drones. There’s a lot of other specialist kit for hire: car mounts that offer unusual perspectives on travelling vehicles; very small cameras to film in confined spaces or capture dramatic sequences like an armed police raid; and cameras disguised as shirt buttons or hidden in pens, cans of coke or inside a shoulder bag to catch those bad guys red handed. This kind of kit offers exciting perspectives on the world – but be aware that the costs can be high - and setup time can significantly impact on your schedule.

Because this category handles the purchase of items, there is a ‘cost per item’ column - and the number of items needed for your project.

What you will need will be driven by the camera you decide to use. Most cameras now use flash cards - some still record onto disk. How many you need depends on whether you keep the rushes on the storage media at the end of each day’s shoot – or, wipe and reuse the media after downloading the rushes to hard drives.

You need two hard drives to make safety copies of your rushes if you are re-using your flash cards. If not, one safety copy will suffice.

Most producers dry hire an offline editing suite and bring in their own editor. But the dubbing mixer, online and grading editors - the key technical people who help you turn your edited film into a finished product – are covered by the hire charge of the post production kit. So you simply allow the right number of hours for the final post-production technical processes in your budget. Although it’s tempting to simply put the bottom line total cost of editing and post production into your budget, it is important to be clear about how long you have allowed to complete each of these processes. If you leave this vague, you are likely to run into heavy overtime costs. Schedule 8 has alternative ways of measuring the time because some aspects of post-production are measured in weeks (like your edit) while much of final post-production is timed in hours. The facility house that you’ve picked for the job will guide you on how much time you need to allow for each of these processes.

Low budget films

If your budget is really limited, you can avoid most of the costs of final post by post-producing your film on the same computer on which you’ve cut the film together. First read the information in the categories in this schedule – then read on here. To post produce in the offline, you must use the original (rather than a degraded version) of the rushes. At the end of the offline, you extend your edit³ to tracklay, record the final narration, mix the sound tracks together, adjust the quality and colour of the pictures, add graphics, subtitles, names and credits. Unless you’re editing the film yourself at home, you’ll be paying for an offline suite and an editor for this extra time – but it will be much, much cheaper than going down the professional post production route.

So why, you might ask, bother with all that expensive post-production in the first place if you can simply do it for little cost in an offline computer? The reason is that the quality of your film suffers when you cut corners like this: the sound of your commentary will not be as good because it hasn’t been recorded in a sound-proofed commentary suite; you have less flexibility to adjust the look of the images in your film; you wont be using a properly calibrated monitor so wont see the level of detail in the images possible on a monitor in a post production suite; you don’t have the technical kit to see whether the luminance and colour levels of your images are correct; and the ability to blur out faces varies with the software package being used. Some are more sophisticated than others. You also can’t generate a quality control report demonstrating that the sound and pictures comply with the rigorous technical specification⁴ that broadcasters and some online platforms insist upon. This might not matter on a You Tube film – but it will matter if you are delivering to the BBC, to a US broadcaster or to Amazon or Netflix. This process does have to be undertaken in a properly equipped post-production suite. Finally: the sound track requirements of some international versions can be complicated and are difficult to achieve in an offline suite.

Before you can edit your rushes, they have to be downloaded onto the hard drive of the computer on which you'll be editing. This is called ingesting. It’s a process that takes time and for which post production houses charge an hourly fee. The editing software used in today’s computers – Avid Media Composer, Final Cut Pro, Adobe Premiere, DaVinci Resolve for example - can ingest rushes shot by most digital cameras⁵ without the need to convert them into another format. But if storage space on the edit computer is limited, you might need to transcode the rushes - removing information from them to reduce their file size and improve performance in the edit. It takes about 30 minutes to ingest each hour of rushes. Transcoding times depend on the quality of the original rushes – and can vary from 30 to 90 minutes for an hour of rushes.

Unless you ask your post-production suite to provide an offline editor to cut your film, this is the only ‘dry hire’ budget line in this category. If not, the cost of the editor is covered in schedule 6 above. Most factual producers bring in an experienced freelance film editor to cut their projects

More often than not, in a film you are listening to more than one sound track at a time. There can be the natural sound of a demonstration, for example, overlaid with the sound of an interviewee speaking or a reporter’s narration, plus a third sound track of music and sometimes a fourth of sound effects. All these tracks have eventually got to be mixed together at the right levels, but before that can happen, the different sounds have to be laid in the right places relative to each other: each different kind of sound (interviews, commentary, music, sound effects etc.) has to be on a different track - with enough of a ‘tail’ at the start and end to allow for fading the sounds in and out. This is called track-laying.

Many factual films are still edited using images that have been degraded – to save on hard drive storage space or to improve the speed at which edit software operates. The pictures are viewable but have been transcoded to a lower quality format to produce smaller file sizes. So when you reach final post, each low quality image in your edit has to be replaced with its high quality original from the rushes. This is an automatic process. Your offline editor supplies a list of in and out times for each shot that’s used in the film and one by one, the originals are painted over the low quality, offline images.

The process of adjusting the colour, brightness, hue and contrast of the images in your programme. You might need to correct under/over exposed shots or add a particular effect to a sequence – for example colourising a dramatic reconstruction to make it stand out from the rest of your film. How long this takes depends on how fussy you are about the overall ‘look’ of your film.

The final task in post production - where you finish your film by adding graphics or other visual effects; adding on-screen name captions, a film title, credits and a company/broadcaster logo at the end. The durations of an online vary wildly with the complexity of the tasks. If you only need to add a few name captions and credits, it won’t take very long. But if you need to blur out people’s faces - the more faces, the longer the online’s going to take (see text box on page 225).

Any commentary laid into a film during the offline will be a rough version, recorded on a lip mic in the edit suite. This narration is then replaced⁶ with a high quality version recorded by a voice-over artist or your presenter/reporter in a sound proofed commentary booth. Whoever does the job, they read each commentary link while watching the edited film –if a link doesn’t quite fit, it can be subbed down on the spot to match the pictures.

The different kind of sounds in your film have now been laid out on different tracks, and your last sound task is the dub – also called the final mix: the process of mixing together all the sound tracks in your film at a pleasing level. It’s no good putting out a film in which the commentary is swamped by the music. You’d lose intelligibility. It’s equally no good putting out a film in which the commentary is so dominant that you can’t hear the music track or the sound effects. You’d lose atmosphere. And you don’t want to crash into an incoming music track – much better to gently fade the track in underneath an outgoing interview, for example. All these audio issues have to be ironed out in a sound mixing studio with a specialist dubbing mixer.

Post houses charge for combining the mixed sound track with the onlined pictures, undertaking the technical sound and picture quality control checks that broadcasters and some online platforms insist upon, and uploading the final file to a broadcaster or online platform’s website.

Films that have more than one source of funding - for example broadcast documentaries that are part funded by a foreign broadcaster; films for an online platform that need to be intelligible in different languages; or films that you wish to sell abroad, will need an additional final post production process to prepare what’s called an international version. This is a visually ‘clean’ copy of your film that has no captions, no subtitles, no credits and no opening and closing titles. You’ll provide this information on paper to your co-producer or purchaser so they can add all this in local language themselves. You’ll also have to provide a different sound track to the one that is prepared for your original film – one that at least permits the replacement of narration. The exact audio requirements of international broadcasters vary and you’d need to check individual needs.

Most archive footage and still images have now been digitised and put online – so getting hold of a viewing copy is normally a cost free process. You simply download a watermarked or low res version from the website of whatever library has the material you’d like. But calculating the cost of using archive material depends on whether the footage or stills originate from a royalty-based library source or a royalty free source. The fees charged by the former are more expensive and more complicated to calculate. Those charged by the later are much simpler and cheaper.

Before using any images or filmed archive that have not been specially filmed for you it’s prudent to carefully consider the costing issues listed in this schedule - whatever source you are obtaining them from. Failing to do this might open you to being sued after the film is shown.

Long-established archives like British Pathe, Movietone, APTN, the BBC as well as US networks like CBS, ABC, NBC, Fox etc. charge a royalty fee for the use of their material. These are the fees that give you the right to use their footage in your film. They vary widely from library to library and from country to country. The cost that you put into this section can only be an estimate at the stage of preparing your budget as you’re unlikely to know exactly what footage you’ll need from which archive – never mind how much you’ll use in your as yet unedited film. What you put in this spending category will ultimately restrict how much footage you can use – because you are unlikely to get a sympathetic hearing if you go back later on and ask for more money. So it's worth giving this section considerable thought as well as doing some costing research.

If you have an archive intensive film, and a reasonable budget, it is worth paying a specialist archive researcher who can help you find the footage and negotiate the rights clearances. You need to find out what clearances your commissioner requires before you can begin to estimate likely costs of using archive from copyrighted sources. With that information, you have to take the following 7 decisions in calculating likely royalty fees.

How much footage will you use?

Libraries usually quote the cost of using their material by the second. But many have a thirty second or even one minute minimum usage fee, with the cost accruing per second after the minimum is reached. Some archivists think the days of such minimum fees are numbered [see text box]. The more footage you use from one library the better the deal you will be able to strike.

Where will the footage be shown?

You will have to decide the territories for which you require clearance. In other words: where do you wish to screen their material? Clearly it will be cheaper to buy footage to show in one country - than it will to get clearance to show it in any country in the world. Royalty costs vary from country to country. The most expensive market is the USA, so it is cheaper to request clearance to show the footage throughout the world if you exclude the US market – than if you include it. If you are using footage from an American archive the costs also tend to be higher. With many films now being placed on digital platforms, world clearance is now requested for archive used in most films.

In what medium will the footage be shown?

Is it for internet use only? Or for internet and TV? Will it be used on a catch-up service and, if so, for how long? Or perhaps it's only for screening at a film festival? Or in cinemas?  UK independent production companies that produce content for US based TV or internet platforms like Netflix will normally clear archive for use in all media – either including theatrical (if the film is also being shown at film festivals or in cinemas) or excluding theatrical.

How long do you want to have the right to use the footage? 

Because many films end up on the internet, ‘in perpetuity’ (or unlimited) is the most common clearance that’s requested. If a more limited period is required (5 years, for example) and the archive will only grant a shorter licence (say, 3 years) you must make sure that the footage is at least clearable for the additional period when the initial period expires, then flag this with your commissioner and come to some arrangement about how to manage the additional cost when the licence has to be renewed.

How many times will you screen the footage? 

If your film is being made for broadcast, how many times will it be shown? If it is for an online platform that places films online permanently, you’d request the use of the archive ‘in perpetuity’ (see above) and clear it for an indefinite number of  screenings.  Some traditional archives still insist on a limit to the number of screenings they will offer.

You Tube & Vimeo footage

This is not copyright free, so using it without a licence from the rights holder is risky. The owner could object to its re-use and bring a damages claim against you. If you can't track down the owner, you can lower that risk, by keeping a paper trail of the steps you took to try and find them, and by setting aside a sum from your budget specifically to pay for any claim after the film has been shown. But this doesn’t remove the risk and you could still end up paying significant damages in a legal dispute with the owner.

Underlying rights.

Beware! Buying the use of the footage doesn’t necessary buy all the rights to its use. You have to check if there are any underlying rights due: for example, payments to artists or musicians who appear in the clip, even when the clip is very old and tracking down every individual and negotiating a fee can be time consuming and costly in its own right even before you pay the fees. So it’s best to avoid using clips involving dancers backed by a full-blown orchestra!

Deciding how much you need to pay for a copyrighted still image from a traditional, royalty based library is similar to the one described for archive. But you pay a ‘flash' fee to use a still – that is, a royalty fee for each time you show the image in your film rather than a fee that increases as the length of time the image is on-screen increases. So if you show the still twice, you will normally pay twice – albeit you can get 50% reductions for second and subsequent usage. The other royalty issues (where will the image be shown? How many times will the film containing the image be screened? In what medium will it be used? And over what period do you want permission to use the image) are the same.

Only the best funded factual films have the budgets to pay for a specially written music track. Those that do usually negotiate a ‘buy-out’ deal with a musician – in which the musician agrees to relinquish any rights to further payments from future sales of the film in return for their fee.

Most documentaries and current affairs films use library music to complement their narratives. If you are commissioned by a broadcaster or online platform, you might be able to use library music without a cost to your film if the rights you wish to clear for a piece of music are in fact covered under the licence terms the broadcaster or platform has agreed with the relevant music library⁹ . If the licence doesn’t cover what you want to do with the music - you have to discuss purchasing a licence either with the library itself in the US, or via a collecting society like the PRS/MCPS¹⁰ in the UK. You can obtain cheaper licences for films being made, for example for festivals, that can later be upgraded if your project does get commissioned.

Freight costs cover the cost of transporting items to and from a filming location. If you are on a tight deadline you might decide to send a hard drive with half your rushes back to base so that your editor can begin work before you finish the shoot.

When you travel abroad with filming kit, customs officials in both your home country and the country you’re visiting need to know that you are not using the excuse of filming to import or export goods on the quiet without paying tax. So you have to prove that the equipment you take out is exactly the same as the kit you bring back home with you. Carnets are used for this purpose in the 78 countries and regions that are members of the ATA carnet scheme¹¹ (ATA is an acronym, a combination of the French words ‘Admission Temporaire’ and the English ‘Temporary Admission’). A carnet, then, is a temporary import/export document that lists all the technical items that you’re going to be using on your shoot – and allows you to take them into a foreign country and bring them out again without paying any import duties. It’s valid for 12 months. Carnets are prepared by official agents (an agent that’s been approved by the customs authorities in your home country).

If you are travelling to a country that’s not part of the carnet scheme, it’s advisable to find an agent in the country you’re visiting who understands the local import/export regulations to guide you through the bureaucracy and meet you at the airport to make sure all goes smoothly. Getting a crew into some non-carnet nations can be extremely difficult without such help.

Simply getting things done in some parts of the world is much easier if you have some small change to pay tips to make your filming run smoothly. You might need a few pounds or dollars to give to a security guard to let you get that lovely sunset shot from the top of a building. Or as a thank- you to your driver for working a couple of extra hours when your shoot over-runs. But beware: this is not a green light to pay significant sums of money to bribe your way to a key interviewee or to get access to someone acting outside the law. You’ll compromise the integrity of your film if you’re seen to be buying a story.

Many countries require an entry visa and a filming permit before you can travel. This is simply a costing issue for factual films that raise no sensitivities with the government of the country in which they are being made. But producers of critical investigative films need to consider whether they can honestly fill out a visa application form or filming permit – including a description of the editorial content of the project - without being refused entry. Most democratic countries are used to critical journalism and wont try to prevent film-makers from accessing their nations. But that’s not the case everywhere and you will have to decide whether a more covert approach is appropriate. You might, for example, opt to travel in on a tourist visa and hire a local film crew or a local camera kit. The risks of doing this can be significant, so you must assess them responsibly – with expert and local advice, together with the agreement of your commissioner - prior to putting your plan into action.

Anyone travelling on your behalf to a foreign country must be protected against serious local infections – both by being vaccinated and by taking prophylactic medicines on the trip to prevent illnesses like Malaria. It’s your responsibility to make sure your team know about medical risks and how to protect themselves against them. You also have to pay any costs. Check out the foreign travel section of your government’s website for specific information about the risks in any country¹². Your doctor is, of course, another useful source of advice on medical risks.

It’s very easy to get stung here for a lot of money if you are travelling abroad with a significant amount of filming equipment. Some airlines charge by the bag (so they allow you to take one bag in the hold and each excess bag is charged). Other airlines charge by the total weight of your bags – giving you an allowance of, say, 30 kilos, and charging for the rest by the kilo. So you need to find out the policy of the airline on which you are flying – and work out your likely excess baggage costs. The costs can be very steep - more than $1500 per trip if you are taking a lot of kit away. If the costs rise too high, then consider hiring your camera kit in the country in which you are filming.

These lines are self-explanatory

The items in this schedule protect your team, your contributors, people you come across during your film trip, the equipment you hire and your rushes from the unforeseen. They also protect production companies from the costs of being sued before and after a film has been aired.

A production company that’s commissioned and funded by a broadcaster or an online platform will have to sign a contract that commits it to taking out professional production insurance to cover against a range of risks.  No commissioner wants to hand over a large sum of money only to find that all the hard drives containing your rushes have been stolen at the end of a shoot – and you have nothing to edit and no way of affording a re-shoot. Production insurance covers you against such a loss, and many other losses, by providing financial compensation to get you out of such a fix.

There are lots of insurers. While the insurance they offer is generally the same, different companies offer various enhancements to the cover and it’s worth shopping around. The policies contain sections that are not likely to be relevant to most factual films (insuring animals used in filming, for example, cover for filming in planes or boats, insuring hired-in craning equipment). I’ve ignored these in what follows and give a brief overview of the key production and personal insurances that are likely to be most pertinent to factual films.

This overview is not a substitute for the policy wording itself. As ever with insurance polices: READ THE SMALL PRINT CAREFULLY to understand what’s covered, what isn’t covered and the compliance information to ensure you don’t invalidate the policy simply through ignorance.

Cast Cover.

Insures the production against the additional costs of a key member of the team falling sick, having an accident, dying or suffering an unforeseen bereavement. Cast cover pays out for any extra costs incurred by having to delay the production – or reimburses you the money spent if you have to abandon the project. Key team members have to complete a statement of health declaration  - or have a medical examination  - and have this accepted by the insurers before they are covered for any risk other than an accident.

Film Union Travel Insurance.

This offers financial compensation if any member of the production crew is injured, disabled or killed in an accident while working on the film. For normal activities, it applies anywhere in the world apart from the crew member’s home territory. For hazardous activities agreed by the insurer, it applies anywhere in the world. FUTI usually covers medical and emergency travel expenses; loss of or damage to baggage, equipment and money; unavoidable changes, cancellations or delays to travel arrangements. It doesn’t cover incidents caused by war/terrorism. If you are travelling to a war zone or a country where terrorism is likely, you’ll need to take out an extra accident policy tailored to such areas.

Media.

Insurance that covers the production against the loss, damage or destruction of the rushes, sound track and archive footage. Insurers insist that you test the camera, lenses, storage media and sound equipment before the start of filming; that you check the quality of each day’s filming as soon as possible after the shoot ends; and obtain the insurers’ agreement to the back-up, storage and security arrangements you’ve put in place for the rushes.

Extra Expense.

Provides cover against any extra production costs as a result of damage to or destruction of a property being used by the production. It also insures the production against the breakdown of camera, sound and lighting equipment and portable generators that have been shown to be working before the start of work; against power failures and against strikes, bomb scares or civil protests preventing the production from entering a location.

Technical Equipment.

Covers the production for the cost of repairing or replacing camera, sound, lighting and other equipment that’s lost or damaged.  But not against unexplained or mysterious losses.

Production Office Contents

Covers the physical loss of or damage to temporary office contents like computers, hired in for the production.

Money.

Protects against the loss, theft or destruction of production money, unless left unattended in hotel rooms, unlocked offices or vehicles.

Terrorism.

Covers the production if an act of terrorism damages property within their own country under the Media; Extra Expense; Technical Equipment; Production office Contents and Money sections of the policy. It also covers the production for extra expense caused by acts of Terrorism in the home nation that do not result in property damage – and for any loss caused by an act of terrorism in the UK that leads to illness or an injury in an individual insured under the cast cover section of the policy.

Public & Product Liability. 

Covers the production for its legal liability to pay compensation if someone not working on the film is injured or their property is damaged as a result of the production’s negligence.

Employers Liability (UK)/Worker’s Compensation (USA). 

Covers the production’s legal liability to pay compensation for an employee who is injured or contracts an illness as a result of the production’s negligence while working on the film. In both the UK and US it is a legal requirement that employers obtain this kind of cover. If you are employing foreign nationals based in their own country, you may need to take out extra local liability cover.

Property of Others.

Covering the production’s legal liability for any damage or loss of property owned by others that’s being used in your production and is not covered by any other section of the insurance, so long as you have taken reasonable care of the property.

The cover offered by production insurance policies does not normally extend to people you employ who are foreign nationals. So if you are asking a fixer to work with you in another country, especially when working on difficult and potentially dangerous projects, you shouldn't forget to offer them some accident cover in case they get injured while working for you. You will have to take out a separate insurance policy to do this.

E&O stands for ‘Errors and Omissions’ – and this is insurance cover that pays out if your film gets sued after it’s been publicly screened. It covers the production against a range of legal risks including defamation, confidentiality breaches, copyright infringement, and privacy claims. If a production company is sued, defending an action can cost hundreds of thousands of dollars or more – and without insurance, the costs can quickly push your company into liquidation or you into bankruptcy. Most broadcasters insist that you get this cover in the contract you sign. And if you plan to distribute the film, E&O insurance will also be obligatory. An E&O policy covers a film for a certain number of years in the territory in which it is first broadcast. If the film is to be shown elsewhere, you either have to negotiate an extension or take out a new E&O to cover the countries in which it will be shown.

When you apply to an insurer for an E&O policy, the proposal form asks a lot of questions about the production company and the film. It also asks for the name, contacts and experience of the lawyer who will be checking your final film script for E&O purposes. You are asking an insurer to cover you in the event that your film is sued for libel. Inevitably, the insurer wants reassurance that all has been done to minimize this risk – so you have to budget for an experienced media lawyer to cast their eye over your script in advance of its first screening. Their advice might force you to make adjustments to your commentary or structure – so you should leave room for this at the end of your editing schedule.

Some production companies pay a lawyer to advise on the contract offered to them by a broadcaster or online platform, to ensure that their rights in the film are protected and that what's formally being asked of them in the small print is reasonable. This can be money well spent because contractual language is complicated and without an experienced legal eye looking over the wording you might find yourself agreeing clauses that, later on, you will regret. Alternatively you might wish to add a clause to protect an interest that only an experienced media lawyer will be able to identify. And if your film has the potential of selling abroad, you are going to have to share some of the foreign sales proceeds with your commissioning department. But what that proportion is, and what can be allowable as the costs of such sales before any such split is made, is normally a matter of negotiation. With the internet and catch-up services, this whole area is very complex, and a knowledgeable media lawyer who’s aware of industry norms can be invaluable.

If you are running your film production from home, you wont get a very sympathetic hearing from a cost controller if you add office rental into your budget. So you’ll need to justify adding this line into your budget. And if you are in the fortunate position of running more than one project at a time from the same base, you might have to charge a fraction of the weekly office rent that you are paying. What is acceptable here also depends on the kind of budget you are being offered: very low budget productions are unlikely to be able to charge rent – and you might have no choice other than to run such a project from home or swallow the cost of rent.

The same applies to couriers and taxis needed at your base – or your post production suite. The lower your budget – the less likely you are to be offered anything in this category.