Why a documentary budget is shaped differently
A scripted feature is mostly spent during the shoot. A documentary is mostly spent after it. The story gets found in the edit, so the budget has to fund months of an editor's time, transcription of every interview, and the licensing of material you didn't shoot. Meanwhile the field crew is small and the shoot is spread across trips, sometimes over a year or more.
That changes the order you build in. Start with what the film needs to be delivered (length, archival, music, and who will require E&O), work backward to the edit, and only then price the shoot. A shoot budget with no link to the edit is how documentaries end up with 200 hours of footage and money for a 12-week cut.
The project
THE LAST CANNERY is a fictional 90-minute documentary about a family fish processing plant closing. The plan:
- 8 local shoot days, plus 2 trips of 5 days each: Savannah, GA in November 2026 and New Orleans in February 2027
- A director-producer on a flat fee, a DP who owns a camera package, and a sound recordist
- About 90 hours of footage, including 60 hours of interviews
- A 24-week edit, original score, 6 minutes of archival footage, and 25 archival stills
All rates, quotes, and license fees below are examples except the GSA per diem figures, which are the government's published rates.
Development and research
| Line | Math | Amount |
|---|---|---|
| Producer research | 4 weeks x $1,000 | $4,000 |
| Archival researcher | 3 weeks x $1,000 | $3,000 |
| Total | $7,000 |
The archival researcher is the line people cut first and regret. They find the material, get the quotes, and log the rights, and the log is what your E&O insurer and distributor will ask for.
Production: crew, gear, and two trips
| Line | Math | Amount |
|---|---|---|
| Director-producer | Flat fee for the whole project, loan-out | $40,000 |
| DP | 18 days x $800 | $14,400 |
| Sound recordist | 18 days x $600 | $10,800 |
| Production coordinator | 10 weeks part-time x $600 | $6,000 |
| Payroll fringes, 18% example | ($14,400 + $10,800 + $6,000) x 0.18 | $5,616 |
| DP's camera package | 18 days x $300 | $5,400 |
| Sound package | 18 days x $100 | $1,800 |
| Lighting kit | 18 days x $150 | $2,700 |
| Travel | Itemized below | $9,852 |
| Drives, location fees, misc | Allowance | $2,500 |
| Total | $99,068 |
The crew's own gear is rented to production outside payroll, so it isn't in the fringe base. Our kit rentals and box rentals post covers the paperwork for that.
Pricing the trips with GSA rates
The federal per diem rates published by the GSA make a practical reference for crew meals and lodging, and IRS Publication 463 ties the tax treatment of per diem to those federal rates. For fiscal year 2027, which runs from October 1, 2026, the GSA API lists:
| Location | FY2027 M&IE per day | Lodging in the trip month |
|---|---|---|
| Savannah, GA (Chatham County) | $80 | $153 in November |
| New Orleans, LA (Orleans and Jefferson Parishes) | $80 | $188 in February |
| Standard continental US rate | $68 | $113 |
The GSA's M&IE breakdown sets the first and last day of travel at 75% of the daily rate, which is $60 for an $80 location. A 5-day trip therefore carries 3 full days at $80 and 2 travel days at $60, or $360 per person.
| Travel line | Math | Amount |
|---|---|---|
| Flights | 2 trips x 3 people x $450 | $2,700 |
| Savannah hotel | 3 rooms x 4 nights x $153 | $1,836 |
| New Orleans hotel | 3 rooms x 4 nights x $188 | $2,256 |
| Meals and incidentals | 2 trips x 3 people x $360 | $2,160 |
| Car rental | 2 trips x 5 days x $90 | $900 |
| Total | $9,852 |
Lodging rates vary by month in many cities, so price the hotel line for the month you'll actually be there. New Orleans in February is $188 on the GSA table and $138 in June through August. For crew pay practices around per diem, including what happens when it exceeds the federal rate, see film crew per diem.
Post: where the money goes
Ninety hours of footage cut to 90 minutes is a 60:1 shooting ratio. That ratio is a good early predictor of edit weeks, and it's worth running your own numbers through the shooting ratio calculator before you commit to a crew schedule.
| Line | Math | Amount |
|---|---|---|
| Editor | 24 weeks x $2,500 | $60,000 |
| Assistant editor | 12 weeks x $1,200 | $14,400 |
| Payroll fringes, 18% example | $74,400 x 0.18 | $13,392 |
| Edit system and storage | Allowance | $4,000 |
| Transcription | 60 interview hours x $90 | $5,400 |
| Color | Package | $12,000 |
| Sound edit and mix | Package | $15,000 |
| Original score | Composer package | $15,000 |
| Graphics and animation | Allowance | $8,000 |
| Captions and deliverables | Allowance | $6,000 |
| Total | $153,192 |
If the shoot runs long and the footage grows to 130 hours, the edit rarely stays at 24 weeks. Four more editor weeks with fringe is 4 x $2,500 x 1.18 = $11,800. That's the cost of "let's just shoot one more trip".
Archival, music, and clearances
| Line | Math | Amount |
|---|---|---|
| Archival footage | 6 minutes x $3,000 per minute (example quote) | $18,000 |
| Archival stills | 25 x $250 | $6,250 |
| Licensed songs | 3 x $2,000 | $6,000 |
| Total | $30,250 |
These example prices assume the rights you'll need at delivery. Licensors price by length, media, territory, and term, and a festival-only license can be a fraction of an all-media worldwide license. The mistake is budgeting festival rights and then getting a distribution offer that requires the full rights, at which point you're negotiating from a weak position. Get quotes for both, budget the one your plan needs, and log everything.
Legal and insurance
| Line | Math | Amount |
|---|---|---|
| Production counsel | Flat | $10,000 |
| E&O insurance | Policy (example quote) | $6,000 |
| General liability | Policy (example quote) | $3,500 |
| Total | $19,500 |
Errors and omissions insurance covers claims like defamation or unlicensed use of material. Expect the insurer to ask how you cleared material, so the archival log and interview releases are part of getting the policy. Talent releases for every on-camera subject are part of that file.
The whole budget
| Block | Amount |
|---|---|
| Development and research | $7,000 |
| Production | $99,068 |
| Post | $153,192 |
| Archival, music, clearances | $30,250 |
| Legal and insurance | $19,500 |
| Subtotal | $309,010 |
| Contingency, 10% | $30,901 |
| Grand total | $339,911 |
Post is $153,192 / $309,010 = 49.6% of the subtotal. Production, including the director-producer's full fee, is 32.1%.
Plan the shoot against the budget
A documentary schedule is usually a set of trips built around people's lives rather than a stripboard, but the same discipline applies: every shoot day has a cost, and every hour of footage has a post cost. The documentary shooting schedule post covers how to plan trips and interview days. The documentary budget template is organized in the blocks above, and the documentaries solution page covers the rest of the planning paperwork.