The "line" is a literal rule on the top sheet. Everything above it is the creative package a film is sold on: the property, the script, the producers, the director, and the cast. Everything below it is what it takes to shoot and finish that package. The labels sound simple until you're coding a stunt coordinator, a star's assistant, or a composer, and different studios put those in different places. This post goes through the gray areas and why the placement changes real numbers. For the broader picture of how budgets are put together, see what is a production budget.
What sits above the line
In a typical four-digit US chart of accounts, above-the-line is the 1000 series:
| Account | Typical contents |
|---|---|
| 1100 Story and rights | Option and purchase price, writers' fees, rewrites and polishes, research, script clearance report |
| 1200 Producers | Producer and executive producer fees, producers' assistants, producer travel |
| 1300 Director | Director's fee for prep, shoot, and post, director's assistant |
| 1400 Cast | Principal cast and day players, casting director and casting costs, rehearsal days, overtime allowances |
| 1500 ATL travel and living | Airfare, hotels, per diem, and cars for the people above |
| Fringes | Payroll taxes and guild pension and health on all of the above |
Two features define this group. The fees are mostly negotiated deals, often before financing, and many of them are flat (a director's fee covers the job, not a number of hours). And a lot of the money is committed early. Once a cast deal is pay or play, cutting a shoot day doesn't reduce it.
What sits below the line
Below-the-line runs from production staff through post and overhead. Production covers the UPM, ADs, coordinators, and every shooting department with its rentals and purchases, plus locations, transportation, stages, catering, and background. Post covers editorial, VFX, music, sound, color, titles, and deliverables. The "other" section covers insurance, legal, accounting, publicity, and general expense.
These costs mostly move with the schedule and the script. An extra shoot day adds crew wages, rentals, meals, and a location fee. A night exterior adds a condor, a generator, and hours that turn into overtime. That's why, when a producer needs to take $150,000 out of a budget, the line producer's first stop is below the line: fewer days, fewer company moves, fewer locations, smaller background.
The gray areas, line by line
Charts of accounts disagree on a handful of lines. The table shows where they most often land and why the placement varies.
| Cost | Usual placement | Why it varies |
|---|---|---|
| Casting director and casting expenses | Above, inside cast | Some studio charts carry casting below the line as a service |
| Stunt coordinator and stunt performers | Varies; often a stunts account near cast or in production | Stunt performers are principal performers under SAG-AFTRA, but the department works like a crew |
| Background, stand-ins, photo doubles | Below, extra talent account | Never above the line |
| Line producer, UPM | Below, production staff | Even with a producer credit, they're budgeted as staff |
| Star's personal assistant, trainer, dedicated trailer | Above if written into the talent deal as a perk | Some budgets code the trailer and driver to transportation |
| Dialect coach, acting coach | Usually in cast | Some put coaches in production staff |
| Choreographer | Below, in production or a music and dance account | Unless a named creative on the poster deal |
| Composer and music supervisor | Below, music account in post | A composer package can be a large fixed fee, but it's still post |
| Development costs and script coverage | Above, story and rights | Sometimes carried as a separate development account the financier reimburses |
| Rehearsal days for cast | Above, cast | Rehearsal space rental is below |
The honest answer on most of these is "wherever your financier's chart puts them." What matters is that every version of the budget codes them the same way, so cost reports compare like with like.
Why the placement changes real money
Incentives treat the two groups differently
Several US programs limit what above-the-line pay can earn, which means a budget that's heavy above the line earns less than its total suggests.
California's Program 4.0 guidelines exclude wages for producers, writers, directors, actors, stunt performers, and music directors, composers, and supervisors from qualified expenditures. Those wages still count toward California's 75% in-state test, but they earn no credit. Louisiana allows above-the-line pay but caps it: after the 2025 changes, above-the-line pay can't exceed 40% of Louisiana spend. Nevada pays 15% on resident wages but 12% on nonresident above-the-line wages (and nothing on nonresident below-the-line crew). Kentucky counts above-the-line payroll up to $1,000,000 per person.
Here's the Louisiana cap on a $6,000,000 feature that spends everything in the state, with $2,800,000 of that above the line because of two name actors:
| Line | Amount |
|---|---|
| Louisiana spend | $6,000,000 |
| ATL cap at 40% of Louisiana spend | $2,400,000 |
| ATL pay above the cap | $2,800,000 minus $2,400,000 = $400,000 |
| Qualified spend after the cap | $5,600,000 |
| Base credit at 25% | $1,400,000 |
| Credit lost to the cap | $400,000 x 25% = $100,000 |
The producer can take that into account when choosing the state or negotiating the deal, but only if the budget clearly separates above and below the line. Check each state's page before relying on these rules; the Louisiana, California, and Nevada pages list the current terms, and the incentive calculator lets you model them.
Union tiers count both
It's tempting to think a big cast deal only affects the cast account. Union budget tiers see it differently. The IATSE Low Budget Theatrical Agreement defines production costs as all above-the-line and below-the-line costs across pre-production, production, and post, leaving out only the completion bond premium and a contingency of up to 10%. SAG-AFTRA's lower-budget agreements count deferred compensation toward their caps. So a $500,000 raise for a lead actor can move the crew into a higher wage tier. The tier projects post shows that math.
Breakage and the greenlight number
Early budgets carry placeholder cast amounts, approved by the financier as part of the greenlight number. When the actor the director wants costs more than the placeholder, the difference is often called breakage. The producer asks the financier to raise the approved budget to cover it, or finds the money below the line. Keeping the cast account honest about which numbers are deals and which are placeholders makes that conversation shorter.
Fixed versus variable when things go wrong
If production shuts down for a week, most above-the-line costs don't stop. Pay-or-play fees are owed, and weekly cast may be on hold. Most below-the-line crew can be laid off, though rentals, stages, and some key crew continue. A clean split lets the accountant run a shutdown cost quickly.
Checking the ratio
A quick check of the above-the-line share tells you what kind of film the budget describes. Two illustrative budgets:
| Crew-driven indie | Cast-driven indie | |
|---|---|---|
| Above-the-line | $300,000 | $2,600,000 |
| Below-the-line production | $1,050,000 | $2,300,000 |
| Post and other | $400,000 | $900,000 |
| Total before contingency | $1,750,000 | $5,800,000 |
| ATL share | $300,000 / $1,750,000 = 17% | $2,600,000 / $5,800,000 = 45% |
Neither ratio is wrong. The second film is paying for names that help it sell, and its finance plan should show that value (pre-sales or a distribution commitment). A 45% share with no sales estimate backing it is a warning. A 17% share on a genre film with no names can be fine if the sales agent agrees.
Where to go next
The above-the-line and below-the-line glossary entries give short definitions. If your film has almost no money above the line, above-the-line costs on a micro-budget covers deferrals and backend points. To see how the sections come together on one page, use the budget top sheet template.
Storiara's Budget module uses the same split: its top sheet shows above-the-line, below-the-line production, post-production, and other overheads as separate sections, with story and rights, producers, director, and cast in the 1100 to 1400 accounts.