Early in my career as a producer, the account team would come to my desk with storyboards for a commercial and ask for a budget.
I'd work out the number of shooting days. I'd count the setups and note whether the job was SAG or non-union, whether it needed art department builds, and whether there were stunts or practical effects.
If there was a big art department build, I'd call a production designer. If there was heavy VFX, I'd call a VFX house and get a real quote. If it was genuinely ambitious beyond that, I'd call a line producer I trusted.
Then I'd apply a baseline from experience: a standard cost per shooting day, which varied depending on whether the job was with a DGA union company or non-union, and on the idea itself.
For years, that's how I built budgets. It was what quality cost.
Then online video took over, and the baseline went out the window. The more I produced, the clearer it got: you can make anything for any amount of money. The only question is what you get for it.
Take a single idea. You can shoot it on an iPhone, or with a large crew and full production. The budget, the quality and the strength of the finished spot are worlds apart. Same idea, completely different outcome.
That doesn't mean more money guarantees better work.
Early on, I was often asked to find solutions for lower-budget jobs. You can come in under the baseline, but it comes with trade-offs, and I've seen jobs go sideways because of them. I've also been on jobs with too much money where the output still wasn't good.
Hollywood shows the same thing at scale. Obsession was made for about $750,000 and grossed more than $400 million worldwide. The Marvels cost well over $250 million and lost money.
That's the muscle an in-house team has to build. Not producing everything cheaper, but knowing where to put the money so it actually makes the work better.
The money follows the idea, not the other way around.
It varies enormously. The same idea can be shot on a phone or with a full crew, and the cost depends on shooting days, setups, union status, art department builds, visual effects and talent. The better question is what the budget needs to achieve.
Producers estimate the number of shooting days and setups, then factor in union or non-union crew and talent, art department builds, visual effects and stunts. Specialists such as production designers and VFX houses provide quotes for the complex parts.
Not always. Low budgets come with trade-offs that can hurt the work, but large budgets don't guarantee good results either. What matters most is spending the money where it strengthens the idea.
By learning where money improves the work and where it doesn't. The goal isn't to produce everything as cheaply as possible, but to put the budget behind the parts of the idea that matter most.