Budgeting Tips and Best Practices for Post-Production and Delivery

New filmmakers are often surprised by how much pre-work goes into budgeting for post-production and distribution. Associated costs typically eat up between fifteen and thirty percent of a film’s total budget—but can vary significantly. 

The good news is there are steps you can take to accurately estimate how much money you need to earmark for the last mile of production. But first, you need to understand your costs.

Key post-production costs to budget for

Many things happen in post-production, and each one costs money. Let’s look at some critical line items to include in your budget.

Audio and sound-related costs:

• Music composition and orchestration fees are incurred if you use original scores written by a composer. If you use already existing music, you’ll pay licensing fees in exchange for the legal rights to use music in your film.
• Recording costs, which include fees for voice talent, musicians, and studio rentals, are incurred anytime you record music, dialogue, or custom sound effects.
• Sound design costs are incurred after your film’s entire audio track is recorded. During this process, a sound designer mixes your music, dialogue, and sound effects together—then balances the audio to ensure clarity and optimal impact.

Visual costs:

• Editing costs cover the act of cutting and assembling footage to create a coherent narrative. You have to pay for the initial edit, or ‘rough cut,’ referred to as ‘offline editing,’ as well as online editing—a more refined process completed using higher-quality media.
• Visual effects (commonly referred to as VFX) costs include composition, digital enhancements, and computer-generated imagery (CGI)—all created by a visual artist.
• Color grading costs cover the act of adjusting and enhancing the color and tone of footage to achieve consistency and dial in a desired visual style. This process significantly impacts a film’s mood and visual coherence.
• Graphics costs—including titles and credits—are images and assets created by graphic designers and, in some cases, animators. Your title sequence sets the brand and tone of your entire film, so you likely won’t want to pinch pennies here.

Once all your sound and visual work is complete, you have the first full iteration of your film, and it’s time for quality control. During this step, QA technicians check technical standards and look for any issues, including visual artifacts and audio sync misalignment. 

Now that you understand post-production costs at a high level—let’s take it a step further. 

Factors that impact post-production spending

You need to consider three major things as you build your post-production budget.

1. Scope and scale of your project. The more complex your project is, the more expensive post will be. Factors that impact scope and scale include the length of the film, complexity of editing, and amount of visual and sound effects needed to get it to the finish line. 

2. Level of technical skills needed to fulfill your visual and sound needs. As is true with most things, more experienced artists, engineers, and technical experts cost more money. If you know you’ll need a significant amount of CGI work done or have a particular visual style you’re after, be proactive. Research how much visual artists, sound designers, and colorists who meet your experience and quality thresholds charge on average and budget accordingly. 

3. Number of revisions and changes you request. These will add up quickly. One often overlooked factor that can impact the cost associated with revisions is the number of decision-makers you have involved in post-production. The more people involved in approving content, the more likely you are to need additional rounds of revisions. 

After you’ve made it through the editing, sound, and visual portion of post—it’s time to transition to the world of film distribution. 

Delivery costs incurred during post-production

Once your film is complete and it’s time to put it out into the world, you have to take on the costs associated with that process. 

Include these line items in your distribution budget: 

• Third-party legal and licensing fees: 
  You must secure legal rights to distribute any third-party material used in your film, including stock footage and music. This is a delicate legal process because you need to ensure that the scope of rights and duration of licenses are negotiated in a way that meets your needs. It’s best to work with legal counsel to navigate this step. 
• Mastering and output costs: 
  To prepare your film for exhibition and distribution, it needs to be mastered and rendered to meet the needs of your distributors. Requirements vary, and distributors provide specific details on how content must be rendered to display correctly on their platform.
• Duplication and replication costs: 
  These costs are incurred when producing copies of your final master in different formats. Popular physical formats include DVD and Blu-ray, while digital formats generally include Digital Cinema Package (DCP) visual paired with Dolby Digital or DTS audio.
• Distribution fees: 
  Theaters, digital platforms, and physical retailers charge fees in exchange for playing or selling your film. These fees typically include a set amount that covers the cost of marketing campaigns and promotional materials. 

The last step is to make sure your film lives on forever, which is done by securing a long-term storage and archive solution. The goal is to identify a safe place to archive project files, footage, and final masters to ensure that you’re protecting your intellectual property and investment. Costs vary based on storage capacity needs and security considerations. 

Watch for unanticipated post-production fees

There’s a formulaic way to calculate estimated costs for all the post-production processes defined and explained above, but a few whoppers can still pop up toward the end of the post. 

The most frequent “surprise costs” producers incur include: 

• Going through multiple rounds of quality control:
  This frequently happens if an error is discovered late in the post-production process. Sometimes, situations that trigger late-stage changes can’t be avoided—but taking your time working through edits early in post will help you minimize this risk.
• Rush fees: 
  When you need something right now, and all hands are on deck, things get expensive. You can face hefty rush fees if you’re under a tight deadline and experience filming delays, encounter hardware or software issues that delay editing, or run into any number of other unforeseen issues that significantly impact timelines. 
• Legal complications: 
  You can easily find yourself caught in a legal snare related to rights clearances. This happens when terms of use are poorly defined or misaligned; general terms are misunderstood, resulting in a dispute; or your team neglects to pay licensing fees for a piece of third-party content somewhere along the way. 

Now for the most important question: How do you avoid these unpleasant surprises and keep post-production and distribution costs under control?

Expert Advice: Be aggressively proactive about post

In a recent webinar I moderated, titled Post-Production Preparedness: Budgeting for Post and Delivery, a few of my favorite industry experts shared advice on managing post-production processes and costs. The overarching theme was this: it's important to be thorough and flexible. 

Producer and post-production expert Mike Jackman cautioned that ‘post begins in prep.’ He stressed the importance of thinking all the way through your final product—down to who you’ll distribute through, how many sets of deliverables you need, and what type of visual and sound budget you’ll need. He said, “If you budget incorrectly, you pay for it later—either by paying more because of things you forgot about or because you ran out of money and have to scramble.” 

On the distribution side, post-production accountant Rachel Schneider from Trevanna Post encouraged producers to consider distribution from the jump. She says, “If you're making a movie funded by friends and family or angel investors and it's your first film, there's not going to be a counterparty telling you, ‘this is what you have to do to get the movie distributed.’ If you sell it, you get all the requirements.” Knowing those details up front makes budgeting much easier. 

Producer Luca Borghese says, “A lot of work can be done that will be helpful for the finishing process before you start shooting.” He suggests taking the time to understand who your team has worked with before, bidding out vendors, and negotiating to see which one makes the most sense to manage various post processes and maximize your budget. 

He also stressed the importance of having realistic expectations and prioritizing collaboration. Borghese explained, “There’s a pot of money, and that's the only money you have to make the movie with. You have to be honest about what you think it's going to take and also be understanding what other departments’ needs are—and finding a way to make the best process for every department, not just yours.”

The bottom line is, enlisting expert help is crucial, especially for newer filmmakers. 

How to pick the right post supervisor

Finding the right person to manage post on your production’s behalf is critical; but how do you choose? Rebecca Schneider advises teams to focus on finding a strong communicator and looking for someone who’s equally good at managing the technical and creative aspects of post as well as the financial aspects. As she explained “Small things get lost if you don't have someone well-versed in post-production helping supervise and shepherd that through.” 

Whether you’re heading into post, you’re actively in principal photography, or you’re still polishing the script and exploring incentives, Entertainment Partners has the experts and the tools to support you through the entire arc of production. With teams on the ground in North America, the UK, Australia and New Zealand, we’re your production partner across the globe. Connect with us today to learn more!

This article contains general information we are providing on a subject that may be of interest to you. Nothing in this article should be considered tax, accounting, or legal advice. You should consult with your own advisors regarding the applicability of this information to your specific circumstances.