Instant video production planner

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The moment you get an idea for a production, or a call from a potential client with a few sketchy details of what they want, you want to be able to work out if what is in your head is practical, right?

Not a thorough budget and project plan, just an idea how the costs stack up and what you are going to have to do to get the ball rolling.

BOE (Back of Envelope) Project Planner is just what you need. It is free and with it, you can draft a project plan and budget for TV, film or video in under 5 minutes.

Here is how it works:

1 Start a project by clicking on NEW and filling in a project name, and your deadline in weeks and days. If you like, you can also add comments, a projected budget and a running time.

Click SAVE (BOE Project Planner will remember your project when you return to the site but it saves it on your computer, so nobody else can access it)

2 Select your project and click EDIT to bring up a budget sheet. Choose any empty slot and click BUDGET ITEM EDIT. You can now choose any of the listed budget items and hit OK to add it to your budget.

For example, if you know you will need a camera crew, select Camera Operator. If you want to add budget items that are not listed, you can just type them in above the list and click CUSTOM ITEM.

3 Fill in the Cost and Days columns - if your camera operator is costing 250 per day and you are planning to shoot for 5 days, stick that in. The Total Costs field at the top lets you know your total spend and you can compare that to the projected budget

4 THE CLEVER BIT

Now select one of your budget items and click BUDGET ITEM TODO. Whenever you add an item, BOE Project Planner automatically adds a list of things you may need to do to get that item going. It also looks at your deadline, and provisionally schedules days on which you need to do those tasks.

In other words, if you add a camera operator, you will automatically get a reminder of when you need to book, prep and go on location with the camera operator. Of course, you can change the days, add to the todo list or remove items, but right from the start you can begin to plan your production and see how realistic your schedule is.

5 Return to the budget list and click VIEW FULL TODO LIST. This gives you a production diary telling you what tasks you will need to do on what day to keep your project on schedule.

NOTE: You can sort the full todo list into day order by clicking on the Day label at the top, but you can not edit it on this page because each todo list is associated with an item in your budget - edit the individual todo lists, not the main one.

6 When you have finished, choose OK to return to the main page, and select your project, then click EMAIL to send yourself a copy of your plan as an email.

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