FREE Stuff – Managing Film Budgets and Production Costs

I finally succumbed to putting FREE stuff on my web site. I have 13 on-demand Flash videos posted up, as well as related templates, budgets, pictures, etc. They’re all related to the process of production managing film budgets and production costs. They’re not only good for Line Producers and UPM’s, but also for aspiring Film Accountants.
The link to the web site page is: http://www.talkfilm.biz/filmworkshoponline2.htm

Best,

John

Getting Work In Film Accounting/Production- Attitudes Count

Since I decided to do a series of workshops on Film Budgeting, Accounting & Auditing it’s occurred to me many times that I need to instill an attitude as much as accounting & budgeting skill. This is not just true for those who want to work in Film Accounting, but is also true for Public Accountants & Line Producers who come to the workshop for entirely different reasons.

Here’s the dilemma:

– how do you present something that is fundamentally a skill but is primarily an attitude? Man, it’s a difficult thought process.

Within each workshop I try not to make any promises of work…. that is, to promise that the attendees will fall out of the workshop, certficate in hand, and find a producer, production manager, key accountant who will hire them on the spot. There is an attitude prevalent amongst all who work in the film industry that unless you’ve been-there-done-that then you just can’t do it.So, it’s my task to not only give you a skill, but to introduce you to the attitudes of those hiring you. I usually do that through relating actual events that have happened to me, so as to give you concepts that you can relate to your own life.

Because I have worked in such a wide range of professions in my early days:

-Land Surveyor,

-Engineer,

-bottom end of a major public accounting firm,

-Controller at a Bank,

-high-priced-temp-Accountant for a variety of industries,

-small private bookkeeping & tax practice

I can see attitudes from across the room. One glance let’s me know how tough the person is going to be to deal with. In the Film Industry you’re dealing with attitudes that are deep in the fabric of everyone who is involved in it.

And…. one of those attitudes is – you don’t understand what it’s like, so you may not “make it”. This kind of pre-assumption of failure doesn’t allow for any training – at least within a film or television production environment. The old phrase, “Many are called but few are chosen” comes to mind. If a training environment IS provided, it’s quite likely an internship (a euphemism for NO PAY).

What can I do to help you to overcome that barrier? Well, I definitely lay it on the line – knowing this Film Attitude (i.e. pre-assumption of failure) is usually behind every interview is a big factor inn dealing with it. Also, I drill you (that is have you practice several times) so that you are no longer intimidated by the film accounting process, or the attitude of the production manager or film accountant, which is more important (remember what I said about the film industry and attitudes).

Another thing that’s important is to have the ability to speak up and to have a sense of humor. This is not a platitude, although it sounds like one. When the pressure is on, when you’re working 12 hour days, and the Key Accountant throws a BF, it’s expected that YOU don’t.  The only way to avoid getting caught up in a shouting match is to keep your sense of humor.

How do you do that? There have been a few times when I didn’t, but immediately afterward I could see what’s going on and I’d do a face-to-face conversation with whoever – it pretty much always works if you understand the film business and if you look at the positive side of the film attitudes towards work (and life).

There are positive sides to the Film Attitude – the fact that film and television productions get done at all is due to the PUSH attitude. There are so many collaborative steps to produce and distribute a feature film or television show that the longer I’m in the business the more amazed I am that so many productions are made! (On the other side of the coin I’m also amazed at why so many people make it so hard on themselves while they’re making them).

Enough said – here’s the point:

There are downsides and there are upsides to the Film Attitude, and overall the upsides are admirable. If you want to work in any aspect of the film business, especially in film accounting, you need to know what they are and you need to know something of how to deal with them…. as well as have your film accounting skills honed.

Until the next blog….

John

See my web site at http://www.talkfilm.biz for scheduled workshops, articles, etc.

Want To Get Into Film Production?

This is my 23rd year working in the film industry on over 40 film productions. Throughout that time I have never met a new film school graduate who has a clue about handling the most important aspect of ALL filmmaking – the MONEY! Honestly, and brutally, until recently I would rather have hired someone as a production assistant who had worked in a shoe manufacturing plant.

 

Perhaps I’m maligning the jewelry be-studded faces of film school students. I had always assumed (wrongly, it turns out) that film students just weren’t interested in knowing about the business side of filmmaking. However after a recent survey of film students at a reputable film college we learned that film students DO intuitively understand that knowing the language of film budgeting is crucial to their careers in film. Surprisingly, over 80% were enthusiastic about learning more about film budgeting and raising finances!

 

Here’s what we discovered from that survey:

 

1.Over 80% of film students are not only interested in learning more about budgeting for film productions, they are emphatic about it!

 

2.In most cases, film students expect to find information about film budgeting from the internet, or as recommended reading from their professors.

 

3.We also learned that most students feel overwhelmed with the idea of researching this kind of thing for themselves.

 

Those working in the film business recognize how important it is to be familiar with film budgeting and the language of deal-making, if not technically proficient. The confidentiality of film budgets makes it extremely difficult, even for working filmmakers, to get familiar with film budgeting. (I have a true story in my book about a meeting that I had with Ron Howard in 1993 where he wanted to learn specifics about the budget for his film – in spite of having been in the film business for over 30 years as an actor and budding director).

 

Learning about film budgets while on-the-job comes at the expense of hard-knocks, expensive film budgeting software and late night self-training with a technical textbook (if you can find one). In the 23 years that I’ve been working in the film business, I have NEVER shown a film budget to anyone but a select few insiders – Producers, Production Managers, Studios, Bonding Companies, etc. So, exposure to actual film budgets really is an insider’s privilege – which I am about to open the door to for my readers. (Keep in mind the figures shown are samples only. The figures are real enough, but are not drawn from my actual past/present/future film productions.)

 

How can film students get familiar with film budgets while they have the time and opportunity? The only colleges with film budgeting in their syllabus (that I could find after hours of internet searching) was in a specialty course for Production Managers at the New York Film Academy, through mentors at the American Film Institute (where, I’m proud to say, parts of my book are being used by a mentor there, who has a long record of producing films including a term as Vice President of Production at MGM), and a quality masters program like the Peter Starks Producers program at USC (where my book is also required reading.).

 

The only solution that I see for film students, and for working folks looking to get into the film business, is to get familiar with film budgeting and the terminology of deal-making. But… what kind of information, and at what level of detail?

 

The answer to that rhetorical question is – get the information in as simple a format as possible, yet still be effective. By effective, I mean that any training in that area will actually help you impress producers for those few film jobs, get your script into production, find financing, be rehired for more film contracts, be more cost effective cinematographers, etc. Also, the basic concept of translating creative ideas into a budgeting process is new to most people, so that concept should be presented first.

 

Film students don’t need to become keen budget technicians. However, they DO need to get enough exposure to film budgets to understand the fundamentals, and to be able to communicate to film producers, film studios, bonding companies, banks, financiers, etc. in the same language as would be expected from professional filmmakers.

 

All of the above is covered in my book, Walk The Talk. You can see my articles and my book at  www.talkfilm.biz .

 

Cheers,
John Gaskin – 20 years experience in the Film Industry as a Production Auditor. John has managed over 40 major film productions all over the world, almost a billion dollars in budgets. John has worked with some of the industries top professionals, including academy award winning producers Ron Howard, Brian Grazer, Frank Oz etc.

See John’s resume: Go to: ‘About the Author’ at www.talkfilm.biz. Visit John’s Profile at http://www.linkedin.com/in/johngaskin or see my page at http://www.filmcommunity.com/profile/JohnGaskin

 

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