Media and film production
Finance for productions that start, spend and end
A production is a business with a beginning and an end, spending fast under time pressure. We put cost control around it that works at that pace, and close it properly when it wraps.
Budget control at the pace of a shoot.
Commitment → actual → overage, while it still matters
At a glance
Actual spend reaches finance weeks after it is committed, so the budget is a historical document.
Cost control during the shoot
Cost against budget, by head, per production.
The economics
Why the numbers are harder here
Production finance is project finance with the clock running. Money goes out quickly, often in cash, frequently decided on set by people whose job is to get the shot rather than to document the spend. The budget is the control, and it only works if actuals are landing against it during the shoot rather than after it.
Revenue then arrives on a completely different timescale, across windows and territories, sometimes years later. So the production has to be closed cleanly and costed accurately while everyone still remembers, because the revenue that determines whether it worked will show up long after the crew has dispersed.
The problem
Where visibility breaks down
- Actual spend reaches finance weeks after it is committed, so the budget is a historical document.
- Cash advances go out on set and are settled — if at all — long after the shoot.
- Talent and crew contracts sit with production, so tax deduction is applied from memory.
- Post-production costs land after the production is considered closed.
- Cost is not held per production, so a second project blurs the first.
Where we concentrate
How we focus the engagement
Cost control during the shoot
- A cost centre per production, with every commitment coded to it.
- Actuals against budget by head, reported on a cadence that matches the shoot.
- On-set advances issued against a named holder and settled on a schedule.
- Committed but unbilled cost visible, not only invoices received.
- Overage flagged while there are still decisions left to take.
Contracts and closure
- Talent and crew contracts captured centrally, with payment terms recorded.
- Tax deducted at source applied correctly by contract type and reconciled.
- Post-production and delivery cost accrued before the production is closed.
- Final cost statement per production, reconciled to the ledger.
- Revenue tracked against the production that generated it, across windows.
Reporting
Reports worth receiving
- Cost against budget, by head, per production.
- Committed but unbilled cost.
- Advances issued and settled, by holder.
- Final production cost statement.
- Revenue by production and window.
Common questions
Questions we hear in this sector
Our production team works too fast for accounting sign-off. Is this realistic?
The control has to fit the pace or it gets bypassed, which is worse than having none. In practice that means coding commitments at the point they are made and reporting against budget frequently, rather than inserting an approval step that stops a shoot.
How are on-set cash advances handled?
Issued against a named holder with a settlement date, and reported as outstanding until settled. Unsettled advances are one of the more common places production cost quietly disappears.
Can you cost multiple productions running at once?
Yes, and it is the main reason to set this up. Without a cost centre per production, overlapping projects contaminate each other and neither has a real number.
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