Build a production budget in about ninety seconds.
Answer what you know. You get a costed band, a named deliverables list, and your own client-facing price with your margin already on it. Nothing here identifies you. We record what gets priced — never who priced it.
Any Bid Desk quote, we will produce at that price — subject to the brief, the script and the recce, and the exclusions stated on it.
Reopened from your log
00
Start from your brief
Paste the brief, the email chain, or the relevant part of a script. It fills the form in below — then check it and change anything that’s wrong.
Nothing is stored. A PDF is read once and never written to our server. It only fills in the form — every figure is still calculated from our rate card.
01
What are you making?
This sets sensible defaults for everything below. Change any of them.
02
How ambitious is the craft?
Crew size, camera and lighting move together. This is the single biggest lever on the number.
03
Shoot days and where
One well-planned day carries far more deliverables than most agencies budget for.
Shoot days—
SettingStudio days carry a build; location days carry permits and security.
Art departmentWhat has to be made or dressed. A built set costs the same whether you shoot it once or three times.
How many locationsEvery location is its own fee, negotiation and move — a two-day shoot across six places costs far more than two days in one. Count the studio if you are using one.
A signature venueA stadium, a club, a working hospital — somewhere that has to be hired and managed rather than simply found. On real estimates one of these costs more than all the ordinary locations put together.
Where it shootsCape Town and Durban have their own crews, so we hire there and fly only the director, DOP and producer — their flights and hotels are in the price. Somewhere remote has no crew to hire, so the whole unit travels and is put up.
04
Cast and usage
Usage is the one line that can move a budget more than the shoot itself. Set it honestly.
Speaking leadsOn-camera, scripted lines.
Featured non-speakingRecognisable on camera, no lines.
ExtrasBackground. No usage payable.
WardrobeAn allowance per cast member. Period, uniform and specialist runs at three times contemporary.
Prosthetics or special make-upAgeing, injury, creature work. Ordinary hair and make-up is already included.
Usage and termWhere it runs, and for how long.
02
Animation scope
No shoot. Cost tracks finished screen minutes and the style you choose.
Finished minutesTotal runtime across all pieces.
02
Assets to cut
Editorial from footage that already exists — no shoot, no new crew.
Finished assetsEach versioned, spec'd and named on delivery.
05
What comes out of it
The reason to shoot with us rather than for one cut. Add deliverables and watch how little the number moves.
Hero film — secondsThe master cut. Set to zero if there isn't one.
Long-form — minutesDocumentary or episodic runtime.
Cutdowns — 16:9Shorter versions off the hero. Includes 6s bumpers.
Vertical reels — 9:16Cut native, not cropped. TikTok, Reels, Shorts.
Stills and BTSAround forty selects, graded and retouched.
Behind-the-scenes cutA social-native BTS piece from the same day.
06
Sound and timing
Music licensing and voice are quoted for South Africa, one year, in line with the cast usage above.
MusicLibrary covers most social work; composition is for hero films.
Voice-overArtist fee and record, SA usage, one year.
Delivery in under three weeksCompressed prep carries an unavoidable premium.