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Budget
Remember to keep all financial materials after the project has finished. If you are a company you are required by law to keep all financial accounts, paperwork, invoices, receipts, reports and audits for at least seven years.
It’s relatively simple to budget for a video based project, though there are a number of extras that can notch up the base cost unexpectedly. Quoting for multimedia and DVD is a whole new ball game.
There is no standard template for drawing a budget up in either case, but, as a guide, you could think about costs in the following categories:
| New Media (Web, CDROM) | Video based media (VHS, DVD) |
| Project overheads including insurance, contingency, production fee (if applicable), financial management, depreciation on equipment and postage/stationery/couriers | Project overheads including insurance, contingency, production fee (if applicable), financial management, depreciation on equipment and postage/stationery/couriers |
| Project manager | Producer/Director |
| Development costs/working group/advice | Researcher/Runner |
| Project researcher + research costs | Preproduction research costs |
| Information Architecture | Shoot: crew, camera, lighting and sound kit, transport, accommodation, location venue hire, actors, presenter, props, makeup/costumes, food and drink (also known as per diems) |
| Content management system (will it need one?) | Payments to contributors |
| Databases | Archive: music/images/footage (include licencing/permissions costs) |
| Design Work (layout or typical screens and homepage, inc buttons and navigation) | Commissioned music and graphics |
| Coding (Java, Perl, PHP, etc.) and scripting (HTML, Javascript, XML, XHTML etc.) | Transcriptions and transfers |
| Content copy writing and editing | Video (offline) editing including cost of viewing by subjects to give final approvals |
| Images, animations, videos, audio clips, sound effects (don’t forget cost of licensing/permissions) | Voiceover recording and sound dub |
| (Web only): Server space (hosting)/domain names (URLs including renewals)/security (firewalls and spam controls) | Final (online) video edit |
| Software licenses | Mastering/submastering |
| Testing (including accessibility conformance) | Duplications |
| Publicity | Packaging design and print |
| (Web only): Upkeep | Publicity |
| (Web only): Moderation (discussion boards, blogs, data input) | Safe storage of raw footage and masters |
If, after production commences, the client asks for extras on top of what is quoted for, you should give them a costing for those extras, and have it agreed in writing before proceeding. Sometimes, particularly with clients who don’t have much experience of commissioning digital media production, it helps to be really specific to them about what the budget does or does not include.
In video/DVD production this might be stuff like:
• Duplications, packaging and/or
print materials or supporting booklet or training materials.
• Turning the video into a DVD by compression, design and
encoding
• PR or marketing
• Evaluation or piloting
• Setting up and management of an advisory group
• Library music which is cheap, or use of known
commercially recorded music and/or specially commissioned music, both
of which will probably be much more costly
• Special graphics or moving graphics especially
computer-generated imagery (CGI) and special effects
• Subtitling or on-screen signer
• Alternative language version(s)
• Drama (extras here include scriptwriter/editor,
script supervisor, actors, props and costumes, sets, locations, lots more
per diems, second camera, more lights)
• Support workers for people needing support during
the production process e.g. interviewees or those learning the technologies
as part of a user involvement scheme
• Training for beneficiaries
• Presenter or voice over
• Filming outside local area (county, borough,
a 50 mile radius from...…) which would incur significant travel
and overnight costs
• Rostrum camera work (straight flatbed scanning
is free though, if you’ve got a decent scanner)
• Still or moving archive images and sound