Every line on the sheet is a person, a rental, or a fee, with quantity times rate. The film is SALT FLATS, a 12-day road drama shooting around Bakersfield, and the same numbers roll up into the film budget chart of accounts and the one-page budget top sheet. If you're new to reading a budget at this level, the indie feature budget line by line walks through the thinking behind each department. This page explains how this particular budget was built and where $450,000 goes on a small feature.
Where the $450,000 goes
| Section | Total | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Above the line (1000 series) | $74,414 | 16.5% |
| Production (2000 series) | $262,364 | 58.3% |
| Post-production (3000 and 4000 series) | $42,836 | 9.5% |
| Other costs (5000 series) | $38,500 | 8.6% |
| Contingency, 9.3% of below the line | $31,886 | 7.1% |
| Grand total | $450,000 | 100% |
The production period takes more than half the money, and most of that is people. Labor in the 2000 series is $166,200 before fringes and $196,116 after, which is 44% of the whole film. That's normal for a 12-day shoot with a crew of 27, and it's the reason crew rates and the length of the shooting day matter more than any single rental.
Cast lines come from the day out of days
Nobody on the cast is budgeted by work days. Each line uses the paid days from the SALT FLATS day out of days, which count holds, travel, and rehearsal. The rates are the SAG-AFTRA Moderate Low Budget Agreement minimums effective July 1, 2026: $449 a day or $1,560 a week. A week covers five days. The budget prices each day past five, whether it's the sixth day of a six-day week or a day in the final partial week, at one-fifth of the weekly rate, $312. That makes a weekly contract cheaper for anyone with five or more paid days in one unbroken run, and the description on each line says which contract it is.
Dell has 12 work days and a rehearsal day, 13 paid days from 10/3 to 10/17. Weekly, that's 2.6 weeks x $1,560 = $4,056, against 13 x $449 = $5,837 on the day rate. June adds a travel day and a hold for 14 paid days, so 2.8 x $1,560 = $4,368 instead of $6,286. Deputy Pace is the expensive one per day worked. He works Days 4, 6, 9, and 12, but the gaps between them are holds, so he's paid for 9 days in a row. Weekly he's 1.8 x $1,560 = $2,808, or $702 for each day he's in front of the camera. On the day rate he'd be $4,041.
The rest are day performers at $449. Hollis has 5 paid days, but he's dropped after Day 4 and picked up on Day 10, which splits them into runs of 3 and 2, so the day rate is cheaper: 5 x $449 = $2,245. Marisol and Earl have 2 days each, and Nadia and Bev 1 each. The six supporting roles total 20 paid days, which is $7,747.
Add the $1,000 overtime allowance and the stunt coordinator and two doubles for the Scene 39 fight (2 x $600 + 4 x $449 = $2,996), and cast payroll is $20,167. SAG-AFTRA pension and health is 22% of that, $4,437, and payroll taxes and fees at the budget's 18% example rate add $3,630, both rounded to the dollar. Read SAG-AFTRA's low budget agreements for how the tiers are set.
How crew day rates and overtime are built
SALT FLATS crew work on day rates that guarantee 10 hours, the same structure as the sample crew deal memo for its sound mixer. California's Labor Code 510 requires time and a half after 8 hours in a day, so 10 hours is 8 straight hours plus 2 at 1.5x, or 11 straight-time hours. That puts the hourly base at the day rate divided by 11. Hannah Cole's $440 day has a $40 base, $60 an hour for hours 11 and 12, and $80 after 12.
Shoot days on this schedule run about 12 hours, so every account with shooting crew has an overtime allowance line. It's two hours at time and a half for every shoot day, which works out to 3 x the day rate / 11 per person per day. Sound is the easiest to check:
- Mixer: 3 x $440 / 11 = $120 a day, x 12 shoot days = $1,440.
- Boom operator: 3 x $275 / 11 = $75 a day, x 12 = $900.
- Account 2503 overtime allowance: $1,440 + $900 = $2,340.
- Sound labor: $6,160 + $3,300 + $2,340 = $11,800, plus 18% fringe of $2,124, plus the mixer's $3,000 kit rental and $300 in batteries = $17,224.
The lowest day rate on the budget is $220, paid to PAs, stand-ins, and the assistant positions in art, wardrobe, and hair and makeup. That's a $20 base, above California's 2026 minimum wage of $16.90. The overtime calculator will run the same math for any rate and day length.
Filling in your own version
- Replace the header with your film's schedule version and dates. The budget should always name the schedule it was built from.
- Enter cast lines from your DOOD totals, one line per role, with paid days as the quantity. For a weekly performer, enter paid days divided by five as weeks and check that it beats the day rate.
- List crew by department with prep, shoot, and wrap days as the quantity. Mark each labor line so fringes calculate only on payroll.
- Add an overtime allowance per department for the hours you expect past the guarantee. Don't leave overtime to contingency.
- Put rentals in as quoted: weekly for camera and G&E packages, daily for add-ons like the Day 11 B-camera body.
- List locations one per line with the shoot days in the description, so a schedule change shows you which fee moves.
- Count out-of-town crew by name before pricing hotel and per diem, then total everything and take contingency on the below-the-line sum.
Choices that keep this budget at $450,000
Six crew travel from Los Angeles. Everyone else is hired in Bakersfield, which keeps 5400 travel and living at $16,300: 126 room nights at $90, $40 per diem on 96 nights, mileage, and one cast airfare. Every extra out-of-town hire adds 16 room nights ($1,440) and $640 in per diem before their rate. The film crew per diem post covers how per diem is paid and when it's taxable.
There's no art director, no assistant location manager, and no second driver. The production designer, prop master, and costume designer are on 4-week deals instead of the 6 weeks of prep and wrap a bigger show would give them. The director's fee, producer fee, and screenplay are flat loan-out payments with no fringe. Post is priced from flat bids (sound $9,000, composer $4,500), which are easier to hold than hourly estimates when the cut runs long.
Three lines indie budgets get wrong
Budgeting cast from work days is the big one. Four work days for Pace at $449 is $1,796, against his $2,808 weekly deal. That's $1,012 short, and another $405 once pension and health and payroll taxes are added.
Leaving out the overtime allowance comes next. On SALT FLATS the allowance lines add up to $24,690 before fringes. If you left them out, contingency would be gone by the second week.
The third is forgetting prep and return days. The 1st AC, 2nd AC, gaffer, and key grip each carry a prep or return day, because the equipment checklist has to be worked through at the rental house before Day 1.
Building it in Storiara
Storiara's Budget module builds line items from the story's breakdown and schedule. Cast paid days come from the Day Out of Days, crew and equipment lines use the rates entered on each person or item, and tier tables fill in anything missing. Manual edits are kept when you sync again, and the budget exports to Excel. See the budgeting feature for the setup wizard and top sheet.