TV Template Budgets

Modern Day Myth Prod. LLC

Modern Day Myth Prod. LLC

Does anyone know of templates or actual budgets I can use as reference for a cable TV series with a two hour pilot and twelve one hour episodes?

I need it for our bp to present to an investor interested in our series.
 
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Science Fiction is the genre for a TV budget.

My rep thinks I am asking too much for the pilot TV movie with $2 Million. We have a lot of shooting locations, pyros, stunts with breakaways and cables and stunt dummies, sets need to be made, upgrades for costumes and new costumes for other actors, studio rates for a studio stunt coordinator, a TV science fiction director's union rate, and money for two or three name TV actors.

The investor can actually cover the costs of this budget as well as the twelve episodes for a full season.

He wants the loan paid back with one percent interest. We want to attach an overseas TV studio to the deal to repay the loan.
 
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I'm lost here, do you already have an actual budget for your $2M movie made?

Are you looking for actual budgets from existing TV shows, or just a blank budget template?

Not sure how either one of those would help in getting the interest of an investor, they would need to see an actual budget made for your production.

Is your plan to raise the $2M by taking the loan, produce the movie and hope to sell it to a network?

When you say Overseas TV Studio, what do you mean by this? A network? A production company?

Or is this a pre-sale where you sell the movie or a season to a network, take the loan against the pre-sale, produce the movie, deliver to the network and pay back the loan?
 
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While it's not unheard of to spend $2m on a pilot, it's certainly not common and I personally don't know of any examples of a network giving $2m for a pilot to a writer/director with no professional track record.

Modern Day Myth Prod. LLC said:
Post Audio $30,000. Is this a good number? I am sure some of the audio people here would go for it.
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A great number of people would "go for it" for $30k but, if you don't mind me saying, you're thinking like an amateur. To someone who's used to virtually no budget, a budget of say $2m must seem like the solution to all your problems, it's not!! Or rather, it is a solution to virtually all your current problems but what you are not taking into account is that you will have a whole raft of new problems to deal with! Your problem is not finding people to work on the pilot but budgeting wisely and hiring the right people to meet the expectations of the TV execs who are spending $2m. It is possible to meet expectations for a $2m budget TV movie with a $30k audio post budget but would require some "outside the box" approach which would not be standard TV movie working practice and would represent a risk few execs or TV producers would be willing to take. To comply with standard working practices and expectations you would need to increase your audio post budget by probably somewhere around 3 times. $30k would be a more realistic audio post budget to achieve expectations for a TV movie with a total budget of $300k.

G
 
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Okay, I will work in $300,000 in that case.

As I said, we have an offer from an investor to fund it. So, we need to justify the numbers.

The $2 Million Budget is what someone who worked on the old TV series Charmed suggested for a TV pilot film. However, that pilot film had less locations than what my script has. So, we will have to find other ways to shave down the budget.

We may shoot the pilot and series overseas as another option to save money.
 
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Modern Day Myth Prod. LLC said:
Okay, I will work in $300,000 in that case.
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In my opinion you really need to find someone who knows what they are doing with TV movies and series budgets!

You just seem to be picking budget figures out of the air on the basis that as a no budget filmmaker you can imagine creating your pilot for say $20k so with $300k you will be able to make something good and with $2m you could make something really good. But what you think is good or very good needs to match up with what the TV execs want and how much they are prepared to pay. Unless you get someone who has a decent idea of what the TV execs want and how much budget will be required to achieve what they want, IMO, the chances are you'll be laughed out of the room!

G
 
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I still say you're looking at this all backwards. You're trying to guess what budget is acceptable for a studio by asking a forum. Why don't you simply ask a studio? On top of that, the budget is a function of how much it'll cost to make based on your script and attached talent. You'll find that the budgets depend on a lot of above the line factors and the script.

By the way, I'll reiterate what I've said to you over and over again in other threads. You need a Line Producer with this particular experience to answer these questions. I would guess pilots are different to usual budgets with above the line people willing to take a discount on their roles with the understanding of future work if it is successful.

It's great that you found an investor. Congrats. Especially one that is only after 1% interest. Just make sure he is an investor and not a loan shark.

If you're serious on the topic, read at least a good book on the subject. Preferably more than one book.
 
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Today, an independent production company in Los Angeles with a full TV studio stepped forth to offer their help in budgets, getting a cable TV network attached, and co-producing the series.

Another piece of the puzzle appears to be solved.

Talks are continuing.
 
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