Film Production Accounting

There is a professional accounting niche that is little known – Film Production Accounting. I regularly receive queries to my web site, or my blog, about film production accounting and of how to enter this field. Most of the queries are from the Los Angeles area, especially from accountants who have a small accounting practice, but not always. One young man emailed me from the mid-west – he was interested in working in Louisiana, where a number of productions have sprung up over the past 4 or 5 years.

FILM PRODUCTION ACCOUNTANT CATEGORIES AND EXPECTED PAY

Production accountants usually fall into the field without much of any kind of accounting background. I believe that film production is the last industry in the world to hire accountants who don’t have some kind of formal training in accounting. Most film accountants get into that position through a period of apprenticeship as assistant accountants. The levels usually go from File Clerk, 2nd Assistant Accountant, 1st Assistant Accountant to Key Production Accountant (sometimes referred to as the Production Auditor). Another position that is classified as an assistant accountant is the Payroll Accountant. The Payroll accountant is an expert in calculating complicated union payroll time sheets and is usually too busy to do much else than just that one function. A good payroll accountant can make in the area of $1800 to $2,000/week on the bigger Hollywood productions and are worth every cent.

The File Clerk would start in the range of $500-$700/Week, a 2nd Asst Accountant in the $900 – $1400/Week range, a 1st Assistant Accountant in the range of $1,500 to $2,000/Wk.  usually the accountants get a little more on a big Studio production, and less on a small independent production.

THE SKILLS OF A FILM PRODUCTION ACCOUNTANT

The Film Production Accountant needs to be conversant with every area of film production, if not downright expert when it comes to predicting cost overruns. The rapidity of spending during the production of the feature film, or TV show, is so high that it would be a nightmare for someone who hasn’t been exposed to the usual reporting system. That’s why an experienced Film Production Accountant doesn’t get out of bed for less than $2,500 a week (a 5 day week). Experienced production accountants demand and get at least $3,500/5 day week, and if they go on location ask for another $1,000 to cover off Saturdays worked (even though they don’t need to work many Saturdays).

The Film Production Accountant’s job falls into the same three categories as any other accounting function:

- Bookkeeping (the speed of bookkeeping has to be experienced to understand. Petty Cash is often in the $60,000 to $80,000 a week range.)

-Reporting (there are very specific Budgeting and Weekly Cost Report formats which can be a bit of an IQ test until you get used to it. This type of report is used throughout the film production world from Australia to India to Europe to North America).

-Auditing (because the money appears to be spent so helter-skelter it can be abused, mostly by producers and department heads. It’s up to the production accountant to see the signals and prevent it before someone embarrasses themselves. There really are lists kept of those deemed to be A, B or C listed. Those that are B and C listed are almost always because of their inability to control their departmental budgets).

So, if you have an accounting background you can pick it up very quickly, but you really do need some experience first. The fact that you’re intimately dealing with so many facets of the actual film production it’s certainly a challenge and, I have to say after 25 years, tons more challenging and rewarding than working in manufacturing, banking, etc.

MY JOURNEY TO, AND IN, PRODUCTION ACCOUNTING

My own background started out in Engineering in the 70″s. Then, when I graduated I saw that open pit mining wasn’t doing it for me, so I started working with an accounting firm to earn a designation. My original purpose was to become skilled enough to be able to use both Engineering and Accounting to help failing businesses turn around. However, after I got my accounting designation I discovered that I would be taking a steep cut in pay to go back to being a junior engineer so I took a job as a Chief Accountant/Controller at a place with about 15 branches. After 5 years I went out on my own, starting a small accounting practice with a couple of other people. After a couple of years of beating the bushes and working 7 days a week I saw that I could make more money as a Film Production Accountant than I could in my practice, so I dropped my office space, my 2 staff, and started working as an assistant accountant.

I honestly thought that I would be a Key Production Accountant in no time, but it actually took me almost three years – with a wife and 2 kids, a third on the way, and a cut in my income I was REALLY pushing to start being the ‘Key” – as they call the department heads in film production.

By the late 80′s I was really enjoying myself, travelling with my young family, but always returning home for a gig or two, before travelling again. I’ve had my kids in school in Florida, upstate New York, Boston, Vancouver but always knowing that they would be returning home to their own school and friends. My wife didn’t have to work because I was making good money and the production was paying for my place to live and a daily ‘per diem’ which covered our food and spending while we were away. To me those were the glory years. As my kids grew up I had to stop traveling so much because they didn’t want to leave their friends, college, etc., but I still managed to get the family to Spain and South Africa. When I had to spend several months in Germany, though, I started to look at other ways to earn an income.

STEPPING STONE TO FILM PRODUCING AND PRODUCTION MANAGING

Like other industries, after spending many years accounting for and auditing the money, including advising producers and production managers, you start to get the idea that you can do as good as, or better job, at producing. There are many production accountants who have gone on to related film production careers – although, funnily enough, they often keep quiet about it. I presume because they want to distance themselves from the infamous “Blue Suit” – the much maligned Big Studio Exec. (Not a job for me – man, talk about pressure).

THE DOWNSIDE

A downside to Production Accounting is that you don’t ever have a JOB. You get CONTRACTS which last anywhere from 5 weeks to 9 months (pretty seldom longer than that). I’d say that my average contract on a film or TV production in the $20Mil to $40Mil range was about 6 or 7 months. Honestly, I really liked the fact of working with different people. I have often talked with other people in the biz, and we almost all agree that the independence that brings is worth the stress of looking for contracts. Once you’ve been in the business for 3 years, and if you haven’t messed up, you’ll be on call, especially if you’re willing to travel.

So, there’s the pros and cons to getting into the film production industry as an accountant.

HOW TO BUST IN

In another blog I’ll tell you how I got started as an assistant film accountant and some tips for you to put yourself ahead of the pack.

Good luck in your career, whatever you choose.

John Gaskin

Film Production Accounting, Auditing & Budgeting Workshops

I have had quite a few inquiries over the past few years on – How to Become A Film Production Accountant. Now that I have wrapped my last production (an M.Night Shyamalan feature, “Devil”) I’m ready to start a tour of workshops. One of my next courses is on training as an Assistant Film Accountant. It’s in Los Angeles. Here’s a segment from my web page at http://www.talkfilm.biz

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Film Production Accounting 101 – Introductory, Intermediate & Senior

(Qualified as Continuing Professional Education 33.5Hrs)

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Film Production Accounting 101 – Introductory, Intermediate & Senior

(Qualified as Continuing Professional Education 33.5Hrs)

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Next is Los Angeles on Sat & Sun, Feb 20,21 9:00AM – 8:00PM

PART 1 (Sat Feb 20/10) (10Hrs) Introductory Live Workshop: For those entering the Film Business as an Assistant Film Accountant

PART 2 (Sun Feb 21/10) (10 Hrs) Intermediate Live Workshop: For those Assistant Film Accountants, and graduates of Par t 1, who want to gain the experience as a 2nd Assistant Film Accountant

PART 3 (13.5Hrs) Senior Live Webinars: For those experienced Assistant Film Accountants who want to upgrade to a 1st Assistant Accountant, or even a Key Accountant – FROM ANYWHERE IN THE WORLD

_____________________________________________________________________________________

See http://www.talkfilm.biz to learn more.

I hope to see you there!

John

The New Dearth of Film Payroll Accountants

Today I spoke with a representative from Quebec who has asked me to deliver film production payroll training in Montreal. I knew that this was a need in the newer tax incentive States, but I didn’t think it was so prevalent in other more established film production centers. This has also occurred in Georgia, Louisiana and Toronto.

I’m aware of the lack of payroll accountants in many places but I was surprised about Montreal. I have worked in Montreal about 8 times and I’ve always been impressed with the level of competence of the film accounting assistants in that city. So, it got me to thinking – what’s with the dearth of payroll accountants  that keep hearing about? Is it the demand from the financiers to have more skilled payroll accountants or is it just that we of the old guard are retiring?  Or, maybe it’s just that the productions are leaving Hollywood more and more and need a more local film payroll people?

Probably a blend of all the above, with special emphasis on the last point. At any rate it spells opportunity to you guys out there who want to get into the ‘biz but haven’t found a foothold.

Film Payroll is just learning the rule of the specific unions and working out the Overtime, Meal Penalties and Rest Period Violations. You don’t need to know anything about the various producer and employee withholding and contributions to unions and governments. It’s really the easiest payroll accounting job anywhere when compared to other big businesses – well paid, too.

I do a lot of film payroll training. Come to my next one? See my web site for details.

Cheers,

John

Emily’s List – About 43% of All Listings Are For Film Payroll Accountants

As in any job in the film industry, you need to find a way to reach potential employers. For film accountants one of the most common methods of finding jobs is to check-out Emily Rice’s posts on her Google Group – many of us refer to it as “Emily’s List”, although technically it is the Rice Gorton Pictures Google Group.

The internet address is at https://sites.google.com/site/ricegortonpictures/film-tv-prodn-accounting-listings-1

As you’ll see when you go to the web site, you can either “Subscribe” to posts, or simply put the link on your Favorites and check it out whenever you have a moment.

I was talking to an old friend who had moved to Atlanta many years ago. I called her up to ask her about doing a workshop in Atlanta and what the film production environment was like there. Right away she said, “Local Payroll Accountants are really needed – just look at Emily’s List, they’re always asking for locals who know how to calculate payroll.”

So … I did a little home work. I checked out several pages at the top of Emily’s List and several pages at the bottom of the listings. Out of a sample of 120 listings, 52 were for a Film Payroll Accountant. That’s over 43% of the listings are for local Film Payroll Accountants.

As you can see from my other posts, film payroll accounting is all about knowing how to calculate the “Gross Pay” – that is, the Overtime Hours multiplied by the contracted rate, plus any meal penalties and rest violations. You won’t need to know about government and union withholdings and contributions – all of that nasty stuff is done by the payroll service.

So, the task becomes knowing how to calculate union payroll, and that’s all we do for 2 full days – right from beginning to end. You will be left with all of the reference material, as well as on-line access to the full courses and materials for future reference.

I did a screen recording to give you a better idea of how the Film Payroll workshop works – see this short YouTube video:  http://youtu.be/GcwXoq0cRE8

The payroll workshop is over the weekend of Oct 15^th and 16^th in Atlanta.

Hope to see you there!

For more info you can check out my web site at http://www.talkfilm.biz

Best / John

The Hot Cost Report – Knowing Film Payroll

About 2 or 3 times a month I get a comment on this blog asking me if I can send a copy of a Hot Cost. From the tone of the request I sense that I am the last resort and the Hot Cost is a matter of getting the job as a key accountant or not getting it. I always oblige, but with a cringe because I know that without the background understanding of film and television payroll the Hot Cost won’t mean a whole lot to them.

Anyone who has been working in film production accounting, or as a Unit Production Manager, knows that “Hot Costs” exist, and they may have seen them. But it’s the key production accountant who prepares them. They’re a bit of a pain to set-up; however, once in place they’re easy to maintain.

I have written only one other blog about Hot Costs, mainly because it requires a pretty good understanding of payroll, as well as Excel, to really understand the background of it all.

For those of you who missed my earlier blog, I’ll start out by defining, in my own words, what a hot costs is:

- The Hot Cost is essentially daily report which compares the actual variable labor costs with the budgeted labor costs for every person on set. A few other variable costs are compared to budget on the topsheet of the Hot Cost, especially if it’s easy to measure them on a daily basis – like the costs of catering, or, if shooting in 35mm, the cost of raw stock, processing and work prints. Since 35mm is seldom used anymore, that’s gone by the wayside.

Boiled down, the, the Hot Cost is really all about measuring the daily cost of labor (Cast and Crew) with the budgeted amount of daily labor.

The Ivory Tower:

The Film Production Accountant prepares it, and usually the assistant accountants are too busy to get involved – or, if they have some time, the key accountant is too busy to show them. This task is seldom allocated to an assistant (unless the film production is obscenely huge). It is the one task which mystifies most assistant accountants, simply because they are seldom involved directly in preparing it. Another drawback that I’ve noticed with assistant accountants in the last 10 or 15 years is a tendency to specialize in one area, such as running the general ledger duties, but ignoring the payroll duties; or, being pigeon-holed as a payroll accountant only, and not understanding the cost report duties. I have had some pretty nervous requests to explain Hot Costs as a 1st Assistant starts to reach toward being a Key Production Accountant, mostly because of their continuous specialization, rather than understanding all facets of film accounting.

The Daily Production Report (DPR):

Each day the Assistant Director’s prepare a “Daily Production Report”. The In/Out times, as well as the lunch break, is recorded on the DPR. Every person who worked on set is named along with their title. In addition, the DPR shows all the times related to each and every actor, the number of lunch plates, the page count shot (per the Script Supervisor),any notations of accidents/delivery of major equipment/illnesses, etc.

Click on the link to see an example of the front and back pages of a DPR:

DPRBack  DPRFront

Understanding Payroll:

Once you get a grasp the union rules you’ll start to wonder what all the fuss was about. No matter what union contracts you’re dealing with, each Union has broken down their rules into the following 4 categories:

1. The “Basic Day” and Overtime Rules

2. The penalties associated with “Rest Violations” (also called “Turnaround”).

3. The penalties associated with violating Meal Periods (called “Meal Penalties”).

4. The various circumstances associated with Travel – whether to a “Distant Location” (i.e. staying in a hotel), or travelling outside of a defined “Studio Zone” (also often referred to in each locale as “The Circle”).

For those of you newly exposed to Screen Actors Guild, the various IATSE (crew) Locals and the Teamster (driver) Locals, it may seem a little too much, it’s MUCH easier than learning to use Excel – so, have a little patience, do a lot of practice time cards, and you’ll have it.

Conversely, for those of you who have had to hide behind being a Payroll Accountant, but never had exposure to the Cost Report, have no fear. It’s much easier to learn than the other way around (check out my blogs that begin with #1 of 7 through to #7 of 7).

The Excel Task:

Once you have a grasp on the SAG and crew payroll rules, the task ahead of you is to set-up a hot cost format that can quickly estimate the cost of labor for the day and compare it to the budgeted cost per day – for each and every person working on the set. Kind of a tall order “right out of the box”. If you’re using Excel, the only efficient way to do a Hot Cost, you should be able to copy paste the previous day’s time out, enter in the In/Out times of the day your analyzing (i.e. yesterday) for each person, then have the Excel formulas do the rest. I’ve recently done this for a feature. An example of it is on the link below:

HotCostMstr_Sample1

The Payroll Solution to Understanding Hot Costs:

The solution to understanding any Hot Cost is to find a central source of contracts for SAG, DGA and IATSE then summarize the four rules mentioned above. Then have someone show you their version of Excel formulas which comply with these central rules. At the risk of shameless self-promotion, I have done that, one union at a time for each of SAG, DGA, IATSE National Low Budget (any feature or TV production in North America less than $13Mil) and IATSE Area Standards (any feature or TV production greater than $13Mil outside of the Los Angeles and New York zones). I have a general Teamster contract for the non-LA/NY areas, but, honestly, it’s child’s play to understand after learning the above. Actually, it is not a problem for me to say that if you understand SAG, DGA, IATSE Low Budget and IATSE Area Standards you can work anywhere in America or Canada – it would only be necessary to get a copy of the local contracts in those higher production centers and you’d be ready in a day or so.

The Training and the Practice:

I’ve found that a full weekend practicing the film and television payroll rules, followed up by on-line links to all the materials, is plenty for your average person to learn how to calculate the union/guild payrolls to “gross” (i.e. to the gross amount of pay due before union and government benefits/deductions). I also supply templates (yes, with the formulas) which are “helpers” ad which you can use to develop your own Hot Costs, no matter the circumstances. I leave you with on-line links to all of the materials – see this link to get an idea of what I mean.

Have a look at this link to a short video of how my SAG on-line course works.

Check out http://www.talkfilm.biz  if you need some more info about cost reports, production accounting, managing film budgets, etc.

Cheers,

John

Film Accounting 101 – Orlando and Atlanta

Film Accounting 101 workshops are coming to Orlando in Sept (Sat/Sun Sept 24/25) and in Atlanta in Oct (Sat/Sun Oct 1/2).

For the last 3 or 4 years I’ve been holding these workshops in various production cities around the US and Canada. I haven’t made it to Orlando, nor to Atlanta, before. So, I’m excited about the prospects in these two cities.

Who is it for?

Film Accountants really are a strange breed of accountant. It’s probably the last well-paid accounting position that can be had in the world without also being a certified accountant  (although being a CPA wouldn’t hurt). So who would benefit the most? Probably someone who had a strong interest in the field, is organized and good with numbers; someone who is pretty good with Excel and knows enough Word to get by; someone who doesn’t mind the longer hours of work and isn’t averse to traveling (although travel is not always necessary, depending on where you live now).

If you’re not familiar with the range of income and the life of a film accountant dig around in my bog here – there are a few blogs that will give you a very good insight into that.

About the workshop

The week-end workshop is hands-on training using a common proprietary general ledger software used in the Film Industry. You’ll be doing exactly the same thing all assistant production accountants do – all of the details are practiced in a controlled environment. Film Accounting offices are generally set up the same throughout North America (if not the world). We DO in the workshop what any assistant accountant must DO in the actual working environment of any film or television production. So, after 2 days of practical ‘doingness’ you will be feeling pretty good about walking into an accounting office as an accounting clerk or a 2nd assistant accountant. As an additional option you can also do the 7 live on-line webinars after the weekend training which will take you into the next level of understanding of managing a film budget and the cost reporting to the financiers.

I hope to see you there. You can check out the details of the course by visiting my web site at http://www.talkfilm.biz

Cheers,

John

Film Production Hot Costs – Webinars?

A young man, newly starting as a Key Production Accountant, asked me about Hot Costs. Below is the response that I wrote to him. It occurred to me that a lot of people have asked for a template of the Hot Costs that I use and perhaps there is a demand for a webinar on Hot Costs. Have a look at the info below and please give me your comments.

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Hi, Erik. Helene passed along to me your emailed questions. First of all, I’d like to congratulate you on your new key accountant position.

1. On the Hot Cost template that I sent you the 0.74 is a conversion rate of CN$ to US$. For your purposes make it a 1.

2. TA ia “Turnaround”, a common term for “Rest Violations”.

On your question about doing a webinar on Hot Costs – I like the suggestion.

Background of Hot Costs:

The basic concept behind any hot cost is to estimate the cost of the actual day with the budgeted day. Labor is the biggest area looked at. In any labor calculation (cast or crew) you’re looking at:

- Overtime

- Meal Penalties

- and, Rest Violations (Turnaround).

 Over the years I’ve worked out this particular format for myself, but it doesn’t have to be as elaborate. For instance, when Hot Costs first started to be used, in the early 90′s, myself and the UPM would sit together and rough it out with a few pencil scratch marks on the back of the daily production report (i.e. the average time for all grips and elec’s was 14 pay hours x 11 of them at an average rate of pay, then compare that result with the budgeted number of pay hours x the same average rate of pay. We’d do that for each department, as well as the drivers, add it up and say – there’s your number).

 However, as the majors grew more and more cost conscious we were forced to become more and more detailed oriented. Also, some UPM’s and studios will challenge your Hot Cost results, so it behooves the production accountant to have a tidy schedule ready to answer their questions.

Film Payroll and Hot Costs:

I’ve never done a workshop on Hot Costs, only because you first need to know Film Payroll, then you need to know “If” statements in Excel. So, the course on “how to do Hot Costs” reduces to either, or both, a film payroll workshop or Excel programming workshop.

 Regardless of your geographic location, I teach all the fundamentals of film payroll (as well as film accounting, managing film budgets, etc). The unions covered are:

SAG, DGA, IATSE Low National Budget and IATSE Area Standards rules. (i.e. not the West Coast IATSE Basic Agreement, nor the New York locals). NOTE: The IATSE Basic Agreement as applied on the West Coast, and the New York union rules, are very similar, but there is variation among the Basic Agreement Locals which can be looked up once you understand the basics of film payroll.

Let’s see if others are interested:

Having a webinar on Hot Costs is a good idea, though. Hopefully, those who attend will already have a handshake idea of film payroll, as well as a good grasp of Excel.

 I’ll propose it on my blog and see what sort of response I get.

 Thx for your kind words about the usefulness of the recorded videos of the on-line webinars. I’m pleased that they helped you.

Best / John

Presenting the Film’s Weekly Cost Report-#7 of 7

Over the last 10 years, or so, Film Director’s have slowly started to be on the weekly distribution list to receive the weekly cost report  – especially by the Major Studios (Disney, Warners, Universal, etc.). But, hey, very few film directors have a clue what to do with it. (Mind you, no one else but a chosen few ever get to see it, so why would the Director know about it?).

 

The poor director who gets a copy of the film production’s Weekly Cost Report is caught up as a character in a living ‘Dramatic Irony’ (per my dictionary that’s: ‘the irony occurring when the implications of situation, speech, etc. are understood by the audience but not by the characters in the play’.) The audience (the Studio, and to a lesser degree, the Producers and Production Accountant), feel that the Director/Department Head/etc. (the characters in the play) should know what’s going on with cost over-runs, or cost savings, but those poor characters in the play only use the cost report as a place mat for leaky coffee cups, agonizing the outraged audience.

 

Okay, so I’m being overly dramatic here, but…knowing how to read and influence the presentation of the Weekly Cost Report is a very important key to surviving, and expanding, in the film production business. It really doesn’t matter your position in the film industry, if you work in film & video production at all, you need to be familiar with the basics of how to present your costs incurred in the best light. If you gleaned one thing from the previous articles, let it be this:

 

MONEY IS VERY IMPORTANT TO THOSE WHO HOLD THE PURSE STRINGS!!!

 

All right. I promised you a bit of practice in this final article of this series. So, let’s investigate ways to ‘direct’ the costs of producing your film, regardless of your position in the film industry.

 

There are several ways to categorize the ways you can ‘Direct’ the costs. In all of them you’re looking hard at the Estimates-to-Complete. Have a look at the chart below. It’s a typical representation of the Electric Department of any Cost Report: (if your computer screen sees this chart as fuzzy, then you can either print it out – the print on the page shows very clearly – or click the attached PDF file for page 92 of my book).

 

Keep in mind that you’re looking for one of two things,

 

(i) Available ETC’s (Estimates-to-Complete) which can either be used to satisfy the Director’s creative vision more effectively, or to cover off known cost overruns in other areas, or

           

(ii) Under estimated ETC’s which when found, allows you the luxury of not being blindsided with an embarrassment but rather grants you the ability to plan an offsetting cost savings.

 

 So, how do you look at this department to see if there’s any fat in the Estimate-to-Complete?

 

As you might expect, about 25% of the production departments are some form of labor cost. Labor is usually paid the week after it’s worked (the only exception is New York city). Look at Column 3, the Actual Costs This Period. The amounts in the first 4 lines are what the crew in the Electric Department is paid for the previous week’s work. 

 

Look at the Best Boy Electric line – you can see in Col. 3 that he was paid $3,060 for his work last week. So, rounding to an easy number to work with, we can say that he will probably make $3,000 per week for the rest of the shooting period + let’s add another week for wrap (wrapping out the equipment, ensuring there are no missing rental items, etc.).

 

Now, still looking at the Best Boy’s labor line, have a look at Column 7, the Estimates-to-Complete – you can see that we have $21,930 left in ETC’s to pay for the Best Boy’s labor for the rest of the show. Again, rounding to an easy number to work with, we can say that there’s $22,000 left to pay the Best Boy.

 

Here is the simple rule that Producers and Production Managers use all of the time:

Take the rounded number in the ‘Actual This Period’ column and multiply it by the number of weeks left to shoot + 1 for wrap. Compare that number with a rounded amount of ETC.

 

In the Electric Department example above let’s say that there are 6 weeks left to shoot and one week of wrap for a total of  7 pay-weeks to go.

 

Best Boy $3,000 x 7 Pay-Wks  =   $21,000    

Compared to the ETC               =   $22,000

 

Nope. No fat there; but, at least we’re not in trouble there, either. After practicing this for a while it only takes about 20 minutes to go through all the labor accounts in a 12 page cost report, which will tell you a surprising amount. Anyone who plays cards, like bridge or whist, will tell you that this is child’s play.

 

One of the labor accounts in the Electric Department is in trouble – the projection of the labor cost is quite a bit less than the ETC. Can you tell which one? (If not, check out page 93 of my book.)

 

When projecting the labor cost in this way keep in mind two things:

 

1.It doesn’t work on accounts that have on-again-off-again labor, like Riggers, Special Effects labor, Construction labor, Stunts, etc. However, it does cover most of the crew.

 

2.Allow a little for ‘hard’ weeks and for ‘easy’ weeks. For instance, in our last example you could have said to yourself that the Best Boy had a particularly hard week last week, and reduce the amount. But, don’t get too complicated. It’s just a quick analysis tool.

 

I call this procedure ‘Projecting the Labor Cost’ rule. It’s not a new thing. Producers, UPM’s, and Department Heads use this rule every week in film & video productions everywhere. It works.

 

There are several more simple procedures to ‘direct’ the costs. They all work just as easily. I call them:

 

-Offsetting the +/- variances within the department

-Offsetting the +/- variances to the bottom line

-the Hot Cost savings or over-runs

-Projection Through to Completion

-Projected Fringes Technique

-The Missing Purchase Order

and more.

They’re available in my book – see my web site here “Walk The Talk”. All of them are simple but effective.

Visit my web site at www.talkfilm.biz. To buy my E-Book “Walk The Talk”, click here , for the full information and training on ‘Directing the Money’.

New Orleans -Film Accounting and Auditing For Professional Accts

This workshop introduces the professional accountant to the film industry specific standards, terminology and methodology as used throughout the industry. Before servicing this industry, or planning an audit of a film or television production for State tax credits, it is essential to understand the processes, industry standards and the ethics of not only the film accounting, but also of the producers and financiers of this very insular industry.

The workshop counts as 8 hours of CPE. The workshop will be held on Monday, May 23^rd in New Orleans.

In addition to the Major Topics listed (see the link below) you will also compare the Louisiana State Tax Credit with other State tax credits – to gain a better understanding of why the Louisiana State Tax Credit is working so well.

The workshop is delivered by John Gaskin, a production accountant who has 25 years experience working on over 45 film and television productions of every size, in 5 different countries. John is also an engineer, an instructor, and an author of a book used in the mentoring program at the American Film Institute, the U. of S. California’s producer program, and the U. of Tampa’s producer program.

There are many testimonials on John’s home page. For more information on the “Film Accounting & Auditing for Professionals” workshop see http://www.talkfilm.biz/filmworkshops2.htm

New Orleans -Production Payroll For Accts and Line Producers

Film Production Payroll – The Most In-Demand Job in Film: Saturday, May 21^st in New Orleans

Film Production Payroll has never before been open to a training program. It has been open only to those with insider’s exposure.  

Film Payroll Accountants do not do any of the complicated deductions and remittances to the unions and the IRS, nor does the Payroll Account write the paychecks – that is all the task of an outside service called an “Entertainment Payroll Service”, who also becomes the Employer-of-Record. However, before submitting the timecards to the payroll service, the Payroll Accountant must calculate all of the three producer’s sins first:

1.        Overtime
2.        Meal Penalties, and
3.        Rest Period Violations

Arriving at what is called “Gross Payroll”.

So, the Payroll Accountant must know how to calculate the “Gross Payroll” – i.e. how to calculate the Overtime, Meal Penalties and Rest Violations for each of the applicable unions. This may seem daunting at first, until you see that each union has a set of rules which can be referred to for every circumstance.

You just need some practice and someone like John Gaskin to point out the applicable rules for each Union, as follows:

-          SAG (Screen Actors Guild) for Day Performers

-          SAG for and Weekly Performers

-          DGA (Directors Guild) for the Assistant Directors and DGA Trainees

-          IATSE (International Association of Stage and Theatrical Employees) for Crew working on what is called a “Low Budget Agreement”, meaning productions less than $12Mil

-          IATSE, for the “Area Standards Agreement”, i.e. for local productions in excess of $12Mil.

-          Teamsters – i.e. the drivers on film productions.

The workshop will be held on Saturday, May 21^st in New Orleans. It counts as 8 hours of Continuing Professional Education. This one-day workshop also includes on-line courses for follow-up self-training at your own pace, with John Gaskin available for mentoring over the email lines.

The workshop is delivered by John Gaskin, a production accountant who has 25 years experience working on over 45 film and television productions of every size, in 5 different countries. John is also an engineer, an instructor, and an author of a book used in the mentoring program at the American Film Institute, the U. of S. California’s producer program, and the U. of Tampa’s producer program.

There are many testimonials on John’s home page. For more information on the “Film Production Payroll” workshop see http://www.talkfilm.biz/filmworkshops6.htm

New Orleans -Managing Film Budgets and Production Costs

My final series of workshops are coming up in New Orleans. I’ll be delivering three workshops over three days. Here’s the one for Line Producers, Emerging Producers, or just anyone who wants to learn more about managing film budgets and costs - Sunday, May 22^nd in New Orleans

The attendees will review a $9Mil budget from several angles, learning the practical methods of managing a film budget used by film producers and production accountants everywhere. From that very important step, we practice the essential steps in controlling and reporting the production costs through the Weekly Cost Report – this report is fundamental to ALL media-based productions, and is reviewed weekly by the completion guarantors, the financiers, the studios, etc. In addition you will be introduced to the 6 basic ways that you can use to control the costs before they are spent.

The workshop is delivered by John Gaskin, a production accountant who has 25 years experience working on over 45 film and television productions of every size, in 5 different countries. John is also an author of a book used in the mentoring program at AFI, the U. of S.Calif’s producer program, and the U. of Tampa’s producer program.

The workshop will be held on Sunday, May 22^nd in New Orleans. It counts as 8 hours of Continuing Professional Education.

There are many testimonials on John’s home page. For more information on the “Managing Film Budgets and Production Costs” workshop see http://www.talkfilm.biz/filmworkshops1.htm

Producers, Film Accountants, Admin – Excel Training A Must

One of the most vital tools to Production Accountants is Excel. It really is a necessity to analyzing and reporting the various elements of media based financing, budgeting and costs. So, in a recent workshop where emerging producers were predominate in the group it was a shock to see how little the group knew about spreadsheet software – a couple weren’t even sure if it was on their laptops. One of my attendees found a great free site for on-line Excel tutorials.

I pass her email on to you all:

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Microsoft Excel Tutorial for Beginners #1 – Overview

Okay, here is a link to a series of fabulous tutorials on Excel by Motion in Training.  This is a guy is from England  . . . he’s a great teacher and wonderfully easy to follow.  I went through 16 of the tutorials today for beginners.  Here is the YouTube link to first tutorial:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8L1OVkw2ZQ8&feature=related

Excel is a powerful spreadsheet program used in all businesses today . . . a must know!  It is a marketable skill that you will want to highlight on your resume! And believe me, as you look for a job in the arts industry . . . they will be asking for those skills. Even if you are not working in an office, you will need this for all accounting, inventory, merchandising, props lists, suppliers, expenses,  . . . . budgeting for almost anything.  In the film and television industry, you will need to know it as a production manager or assistant – whether you are on the set, or in the production office. If you are a producer, you will need to know this.

The better you are at it, and the faster you are at it, the easier your job will be and faster you will move up in the industry.

SO CHECK IT OUT!   It’s really worthwhile. 

-Virginia