What will this production cost?

What the tool answers

Two questions come up before any quote goes out: roughly how much is this, and where does the money go. The Budget tab starts from a format template — brand film, social package, commercial, documentary — and turns it into crew lines, technical costs, locations, cast, post, insurance, fee and contingency. Every line stays editable.

The result is not one number but three. Low puts every crew rate at the bottom of its band and trims the other costs by 15 %, high puts every rate at the top and adds 20 %. The realistic figure is exactly what you entered. If a client’s budget sits below the low figure, you know before the call that the scope has to shrink. The Crew rates tab shows all 22 roles on one axis and works out what a booking costs with overtime and travel days.

How we calculate

Crew lines are days × day rate. Equipment and locations are multiplied by the shoot days. Catering counts everyone on set — crew without the post roles, plus the cast — per shoot day. Insurance is a percentage of the direct costs, the production fee (overheads and margin, in German calculations „HU + Gewinn“) sits on top of that, and the contingency on top of everything.

The day-rate bands are editorial ranges for commercial and corporate work in Germany, Austria and Switzerland, net, for a 10-hour day. They come from offers and bookings we see, not from a union table — buyouts, kit rental and usage rights are always extra. On the Crew rates tab the day rate covers a set number of hours (10 by default); each hour beyond is charged at one tenth of the rate plus the surcharge you enter. There is no binding overtime standard for freelance commercial crew in Germany, so the surcharge is yours to set.

direct = Σ crew (days × rate) + equipment × shoot days + locations × shoot days + catering × people on set × shoot days + travel + cast + rights insurance = direct × insurance % fee = (direct + insurance) × fee % contingency = (direct + insurance + fee) × contingency % overtime/h = day rate ÷ hours in the rate × (1 + surcharge %)

Where the tool is wrong

• Usage rights. For commercials, talent buyouts and music licences can exceed the entire crew budget. The tool has a line for them but no way to price them — that needs the media plan.
• Rates outside DACH. The bands reflect Germany, Austria and Switzerland. London, Paris or Los Angeles run on different rate cards and union rules.
• Employed crews. Productions bound by the German collective agreement for film and TV workers (TV FFS) pay weekly wages with their own overtime and rest rules; a day-rate calculation does not map onto that. Under the Working Hours Act employees may work at most 10 hours a day.
• Kit and vehicles. “Equipment per day” is one flat figure. A camera package, a lighting truck and a drone permit each have their own logic; enter them as one daily sum or add the details in the quote.
• Fee and contingency. 15 % and 10 % are working values. Agencies, broadcasters and in-house teams each expect different numbers — check what your client accepts.

From a quote

A two-day brand film from the template, every rate at mid-band, comes to about €32,300 net. Add two actors for two days at €600 each and €1,500 for music, and it is €37,500. The client’s ceiling is €30,000.

Setting every crew rate to the bottom of its band still leaves about €30,400 — and booking a whole crew at minimum rates is rarely realistic anyway. Cutting to one shoot day (one director, camera, light, sound and make-up day less, one equipment and location day less, half the cast days) brings it to about €25,700, leaving room for one rate at mid-band. The conversation with the client is then about one shoot day versus two, not about whether the camera crew can work for less.