Understanding the ins and outs of a production budget is critical to more than just the producers involved. It’s essential for all team members to know how their roles and creative decisions impact the overall financial plan of a project. A well-crafted budget can be the difference between a project’s success or its downfall.
To help demystify this vital aspect of filmmaking, AFTRS offers a Budgeting Fundamentals short course. This six-week online course equips students with the knowledge they need to navigate the complexities of production budgets, and the skills to do a basic budget themselves.
We spoke with Judith Lanigan, who recently completed the Budgeting Fundamentals course, to explore her insights and takeaways. Judith’s creative expertise spans from experienced circus and street theatre stunt performer to set and costume designer and writer. She delves into what inspired her to take the course, how it complemented her skills, and the impact it has had on her approach to the screen industry.
Tell us a bit about your current role and career to date.
“I’ve always been a creative: a circus/street theatre stunt performer at an elite international level, circus set and costume designer, and published author.
As an author, I found a fascinating world of outrageous real characters in the declassified files of Australia’s Intelligence history, and from that wrote a chronological series of stories. These stories seemed more suited to TV series, so I did AFTRS’ Writing a TV Series short course, created screen adaptations of those Spy v Spy stories and started looking at producers and production companies.”
What drew you to the Budgeting Fundamentals short course at AFTRS?
“I wanted to understand how producers work and function. Their world seemed like mystery to me. I felt that if I understood more about producers, I might be better able to help them see what I see, communicate my ideas in a common language, and make my work more producible.
So when I saw the Budgeting Fundamentals short course, so reasonably priced, and a short commitment of time, I thought it might be useful in understanding the mystery of what they actually do.
I expected to be bored, to be honest, but what I learnt is that producing is an art, just like writing is. They work very very closely together, possibly one of the most important relationships to get right, to understand, so that I as a writer can help in problem solving.”
How did the course complement your existing skills?
“I feel like I can now speak the same language as a producer, but more importantly I learned from this course how passionate a producer must be about a story to achieve the almost impossible task of getting that story to the screen. As a writer, I’m there to help them achieve this impossible task.
There is a Producer concept of ‘Lock or Flex’ that I now understand. What facets of story, scene, location and so on, are locked and essential to the concept, and what is flexible to make it possible to get the story to screen? For example, as a writer, it’s tempting to place a key conversation in a street, but with a historical project, that is very expensive. Every extra must go through specific wardrobe, hair and make-up, the art department must dress every shop front, every sign, every vehicle, or VFX post-production budget increases to clean it all up. Understanding that, the writer can place that key conversation in a stairwell, and with the right lighting it can be a much more dramatic scene.
As we moved methodically through all the different parts of a budget, I started to understand how every choice I make as a writer affects the production. The budget lines were a fascinating view into the roles of each of the many people required to take my idea and story into a living production that went to screen. And the process of how a TV series is assembled in post-production completed the overview.”
How has the course impacted your career trajectory or approach to the screen industry?
“I feel enabled as a creative.
I understand the essential magic formulas of QAPE and QAPEability. This a crucial part of the producibility of a series concept, and I think it is essential for a writer to understand this. I can weigh the pros and cons of local versus international components and characters in writing.
I have a much clearer understanding of processes and protocols. In my spy stories, I have a character based on a real-life counter-espionage agent who was Korean-Australian. Writing her is like writing Michelle Lim Davidson in every breath and line of that character. I was always torn; should I be trying to attach actors and key creatives to the project? Now I know that is the work a Producer does.
I feel like I can walk into a meeting with producers and key creatives and work well with the team because I understand all our roles much better. I can help them see the stories and discuss the producibility, and more importantly, understand how the items on the finance plan can be enabled. And when production problems arise, I am enabled to help efficiently solve them. The film and TV industry is like a living breathing body; each part is dependent on the other, like the heart and lungs, so every decision made has a flow-on effect.”
What advice would you have for people considering taking an online short course at AFTRS?
“Do it. There are so many AFTRS short courses where you get to learn from someone working in the industry with real life examples (and stories! The war stories!) who can teach, explain and discuss how things work.
I had no idea that I was going to learn so much from this short course, and part of that was the teacher’s willingness to answer all the questions from everyone.”
Explore the ins and outs of budgeting for yourself in our Budgeting Fundamentals short course. Across the six weeks, you’ll learn the basics of breaking down a treatment for a budget, the difference between above and below the line costings, and creating a workable schedule for the project. Dive into this online fundamentals course.
