Budgeting for COVID-19.

The COVID-19 pandemic has seriously disrupted the media production industry worldwide in so many different ways. One such impact has been on shooting budgets. So, let’s get to it - how do film and television budgets change when factoring in COVID-19? Well, the answer to that question, depends on the answer to this question – does your script allow for a remote shoot?

REMOTE SHOOTS

If your story allows for a remote shoot (i.e., producer, director, heads of department and performers are all working from home) then your budget has the potential to be cut down by a seriously significant amount. If you’re wondering how a remote shoot could possibly come together, check out the quarantine horror, Host. Meanwhile, budgetary considerations for remote shoots are as follows:

• Travel & Expenses/Locations: Is everyone working from home? If so, your travel and expenses line item is reduced. There are also no locations so you’re not having to pay for location fees and all the little miscellaneous things that come with it like permits, trailers, dumpster rentals, parking etc. You’re also probably saving money on a production office and the associated costs.

• Equipment: You might need to purchase additional equipment to send to your performers e.g. recording devices to enhance sound, or high resolution but easy-to-use cameras. Will this be an easy set-up, or will crew be required to assist? If so, this isn’t a truly remote shoot and elements from a non-remote shoot would need to be considered (scroll down). In any event, you’ll need to account for this, but it’ll probably still be cheaper than all your equipment rentals for an on-location shoot.

• Skeletal Crew: Are your heads of department working with the producer, director and performers virtually as opposed to actually being present? It’s entirely possible and doable - in fact, we’ve just done it on a yet to be announced indie film and it went swimmingly! In this case, it would also mean that a lot of the entry level and support positions that go hand in hand with sets, would likely be eliminated. 

• Production Interruptions and Insurances: Remote shoots carry a lot less risk. The likelihood of interruption to your shoot due to a COVID-19 positive case is lower than if you’re shooting on location. Ergo, lower premiums.

• Unions & Guilds: Unions and guilds are also more likely to be flexible and provide waivers if their members are not coming into direct contact with anyone.  

NON-REMOTE/ON LOCATION SHOOTS

Unfortunately, production insurance everywhere right now isn’t covering COVID-19 related interruptions. Unless you’re one of the lucky Australian productions qualifying for Screen Australia’s Temporary Interruption Fund, you’re looking at several overflow effects of this insurance gap which need to be budgeted and accounted for. 

• Locations and Location Agreements.

  Firstly, you want to make sure that if you need to shut the production down for one reason or another, your location agreements are as flexible as possible – this means: (a) flexibility with rescheduling your shoot if need be, and (b) if not, having your security deposit refunded.

  Secondly, you’ll want to try to keep your locations as generic as possible. In case you can’t reschedule a particular location, you’ll want flexibility in finding an alternative location which is readily available and easily accessible and still fits with what you’re going for.

• Hiring Local vs. Importing and International Shoots

  If you’re hiring local, it means not having to worry about quarantining, which would otherwise drive up your travel and expenses line item. It would also mean adding in an additional two weeks (or the relevant quarantine time period) to your traveling cast and crew’s schedule. That’s two weeks of additional pay.

  If your cast and crew are traveling internationally, there may be added costs. For example, Australia requires mandatory quarantining in government approved hotels for 14 days and travelers (in this case, producers) foot the bill. More here on international COVID-19 related production requirements.

  The upside is you could theoretically create an NBA-style bubble for your traveling cast and crew, and require them to stay put during the course of production.

  In any event, the decision of whether to hire local or bring people in will also be dictated by whether you’re going after a state tax incentive, in which case hiring local may be a necessity in order to meet qualifying expenses.

• Catering

  There’s an inevitable bump up in catering fees – everything will need to be individually wrapped, no sharing of coffees, no buffets, and depending on crew size, you’ll need to stagger meal breaks. 

  RIP mingling and making new friends.

• COVID-19 related protective equipment; testing; compliance officers

  This is an obvious one. If you’re all coming into contact with one another, you’ll need to factor in Personal Protective Equipment for your cast and crew. Add to that, hiring a lab to handle rapid COVID-19 testing, and a COVID-19 compliance officer. 

  If you’re a union shoot, compliance officers are required to have additional medical training and experience beyond the compliance course. Highly qualified compliance officers are in high demand and tend to incur higher rates of pay than compliance officers that are newly certified with limited experience. Note, this position is separate to a set medic, and shouldn’t ever be rolled into production assistant positions as there’s a conflict of interest.

  Having said all of this, it’s worth noting that the added cost of COVID compliance personnel, is offset by the fact that many support staff positions will be forgone in order to minimize exposure and enable social distancing. 

• Production Schedules Extended

  OK so, there’s a lot here. You’ll probably have to factor in an additional 1 - 1.5 hours per day to “check in” cast and crew and go through all the COVID-19 compliance measures. On top of this, if your shoot is union, your cast and crew are required to be on set for less amount of time than they otherwise would be, meaning, your schedule is being pushed out and you have to account for extra work days.

  If you’re shooting internationally, or your cast or crew are not local hires, and someone gets sick midway, requiring the production to shutdown, you’ll need to account for pushes in the production schedule – so you’ll want to build in buffers on either side.  

• Contingency

  In all of this, it also means adding in an extra buffer for contingency spend. 

• Complying with guild and union requirements, and local COVID-19 rules

  Finally, there’s an overall cost in complying with all the new, miscellaneous union, guild and local government requirements. For U.S. COVID-19 related production requirements, check out our breakdown by state and territory here.