Thanks, Sweetie, but the sound stages are often in the urban or suburban areas, which means that catering services are convenient. Why not just get takeout from the Chinese restaurant across the street? That's what I don't understand.
For a shoot that is, say, 10 days, getting takeout from the Chinese restaurant
across the street gets old for the cast and crew. For a 30 to 50 day shoot that
wold be intolerable. A nice variety of food is expected. So you go to the Italian
place one day and a chicken place one day and burgers. That is called “catering”
in the budget. “Catering” is the sit down meal served during the 30 minute
meal break.
Craft services is generally the line item used for general food and beverages set
out all day; cookies, chips, veggies, coffee, tea, water. The “crafts” being the
various departments on a production. That can range from $8 to $15 per person,
per day.
If you were still willing to work with me this is something we would have gone over
as we went through the budget line by line. Each project is a little different. Sometimes
there is no need for craft service and sometimes "catering" is simply a call to the
local pizza place. In a shoot of 18 days or longer I have found that hiring a catering
company to come in and set up tables and chairs, provide two different entries,
potato, vegetable, dessert and beverages and then clean up is actually cheaper than
sending someone over to the Chinese restaurant across the street.
A well fed crew is a happy crew. But, of course, there are ways to cut down on costs.
This is something I was willing to help you with. Once again, I'm sorry you have chosen
not work with me on your project.
I too wonder what "production costs" means. I suspect a lot of capital expenses are
in there. In my line item budgets I list every, single expense and where each penny
goes. Nothing so broad as "production costs: $21,600"