Film budget
calculator.
Crew, kit, locations, post and contingency — then the number that actually matters: what to charge to keep the margin you intended.
Works in your browser. No account, no email, nothing uploaded. Pick a project type below and it starts with the lines that kind of job usually has — the rates are yours to fill in.
New lines start at this many days. Changing it won't rewrite days you've already set.
Crew
People × day rate × days. The biggest number on most jobs, and the one that moves when the schedule does.
Equipment
Rented or owned. Owned kit still carries a rate — what it would cost to rent, or what you charge internally — because it depreciates and it isn't on another job that week.
Locations
Fees, hire, scouting, standby power.
Transport
Vans, fuel, tolls, flights, parking.
Accommodation
Rooms × nights for crew away from base.
Catering
Crew meals, craft, water. Per head, per day.
Insurance
Production, equipment, public liability.
Permits & fees
Film office, road closures, drone clearance.
Post-production
Edit, grade, sound mix, VFX, deliverables.
Music & licensing
Composer, library tracks, archive, stills.
Miscellaneous
Anything the rows above don't cover.
What a film budget calculator is for.
It turns a list of what a production needs into two numbers: what the job will cost you, and what to charge for it. That is the whole job of a budget at the quoting stage — everything else is detail you add once the work is real.
A spreadsheet does this too, badly. It doesn't know that your gaffer is on night rate after 18:00, it doesn't notice when the kit list creeps, and it will happily tell you a job is profitable because a formula three columns over still points at last year's rate card. This page is the quick version, for one job, with the arithmetic written down where you can check it.
Crew
People × day rate × days, per role. Include prep and wrap days, not just the shoot. Overtime and night rates are where budgets quietly go wrong.
Equipment
Camera, lenses, lighting, grip, sound. Rented kit at its quoted rate; owned kit at what it would have cost to rent — it isn't free just because no invoice arrives.
Locations & permits
Fees, hire, scouting, standby power, film-office permits, road closures and drone clearances. Small lines that stop a shoot dead when they're missing.
Transport & accommodation
Vans, fuel, tolls, flights, parking, rooms × nights. The first thing to grow when a location moves.
Catering & welfare
Per head, per day. Cheap to budget, expensive to improvise, and the first thing a crew remembers.
Insurance
Production, equipment and public liability. Usually a percentage or a flat premium per production.
Post-production
Edit, grade, sound mix, VFX and deliverables — often weeks after the shoot, and the most commonly under-budgeted section on a first pass.
Music & licensing
Composer, library tracks, archive footage, stills. Licence terms drive the price more than the track does.
Contingency
A percentage on top of everything above, for the overrun you can't itemise yet. Ten per cent is the usual starting point.
Cost, markup and margin are three different numbers.
Most quotes that disappoint were priced with a markup by someone thinking in margins. The gap is real money, and it widens as the percentage grows.
Everything above, plus contingency. What the job takes out of your account.
Cost × 1.33. Profit is €3,300 — which is 24.8% of the price, not 33%.
Cost ÷ (1 − 0.33). Profit is €4,925, and a third of the invoice really is yours.
- Add every line: people × rate × days, kit × days, and the flat costs.
- That total is your subtotal before contingency.
- Add contingency — a percentage of that subtotal, 10% by default.
- The result is your production cost.
- Divide by one minus your target margin to get the client price:
price = cost ÷ (1 − margin). - The difference between the two is your profit.
What should a film budget include?
Crew, equipment, locations, transport, accommodation, catering, insurance, permits, post-production and music or licensing — then a contingency on top. The two most commonly forgotten are equipment you already own, which still costs you something in depreciation and lost rental, and the post-production days that arrive weeks after the shoot.
How much contingency should a film budget have?
Ten per cent of the pre-contingency subtotal is the usual starting point, which is why this calculator defaults to it. Documentaries and anything shooting on location or abroad often carry more; a one-day studio job with a fixed crew can carry less. It covers the overrun you can't itemise yet, not the lines you forgot.
What is the difference between markup and profit margin?
A markup is a percentage added to your cost; a margin is profit as a share of the price the client pays. They are not the same number. A 33% markup on €10,000 of cost gives a €13,300 price and €3,300 profit — a margin of 24.8%. To actually keep 33% of the price you have to charge €14,925. Quoting a markup while thinking in margins is one of the most common ways a job earns less than expected.
How do you calculate the price to charge a client?
Add up every cost, add contingency to get your production cost, then divide by one minus your target margin: price = cost ÷ (1 − margin). At €10,000 of cost and a 25% target margin, the price is €13,333 and the profit is €3,333.
Should equipment I already own go in the budget?
Yes. Owned kit isn't free: it depreciates, it needs servicing and insuring, and while it's on your job it can't earn anywhere else. Give it the rate you would have paid to rent it — or the internal rate you charge — so the job carries its real cost and the kit's earnings are visible over time.
Do I need an account to use this calculator?
No. It runs entirely in your browser, nothing is uploaded, and the figures stay in the tab until you close it. Slatewise itself — where budgets become schedules, client PDFs and margin reporting across projects — has a free plan with no card required.
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