” This book focuses on the challenges faced by Art and Construction Departments to design and deliver the camera-ready sets envisioned in the script. All while staying on schedule and on budget. The biggest challenge is “Money vs Art.” . . . .The accelerated pace of Film and Television production is unforgiving with little opportunity to learn as you go. Early mistakes may be difficult to undo, which is why it is essential to build a strong foundation and to get things right the first time.”
Most books that are published about the entertainment industry fall short of being truly useful to professionals who are looking for key information to actually help them do their job. This is one of those rare books that provides practical help and is based on hard-earned knowledge gained from the writers’ experiences on over 200 feature films and TV productions.
This book covers an area that is one of the biggest mysteries of film production, budgeting scenery. While most Art Directors carefully guard their budgets and their budgeting system, Supervising Art Directors Greg Papalia and Dawn Swiderski have laid out in sequence the system they have developed and use to schedule and budget multi-million dollar productions.
This information doesn’t exist in any other book, video, or college course.
More than a step-by-step manual, the book explains the rationale for each sequence and points out pitfalls that can trip up veterans as well as newbies to the industry. It’s meant to be a manual that you will continue to refer to throughout your career as a designer and Art Director.
They explain the role of each position in the Art Department and how to create a labor schedule for a show and dealing with the intricacies of studio and guild contracts. They also detail how to budget for the typical expenses of the department itself.
The system is broken down into two main steps – Analyze and Strategy.
The Analyze section involves doing a Script Breakdown, a Set List Worksheet, a Set List and a Script Order Breakdown.
These will be the basis for everything that you do going forward.
In the Strategy section they cover setting up an Art Department and hiring the crew, creating a labor schedule, budgeting department needs, planning requirements for sound stages, mill space, locations and studio backlot provisions. Then they go into budgeting for construction and dealing with the differences between the needs of feature films and episodic productions.
The book contains 22 lists, charts and graphs that outline each of the schedules and budgets that they cover. There are no digital templates provided as the authors assume that each person will have their own preferred methods for creating the documents themselves.
There is also a summary of each of the sections as well as advice on budget submissions and dealing with Producers when locking down a budget, tracking construction cost reports, moving money, and doing a post-mortem at the end of a show.
The book is only available as a physical hard copy. You can purchase it here, here, and here. Several other outlets may be carrying it by this time so it may be available from other sources as well.
R.D. Wilkins
