Budget Research: More Property

While doing my budget it occured to me how much more staff I have than expected... I'll certainly be needing a larger office than my originally planned Edgar House, Bath (2,200 sq f). Not much more but I will need more. So I decided to look around for some industrial space, to use as office space. Around 4,000 - 5,000 sq f.

Sadly there's absolutely no available space in Bath, but Bristol turned up a lot of results. Surprisingly cheap results too!

http://www.estatesgazette.com/propertylink/advert/avon_trading_estate_bristol-bristol-3282942.htm

A pretty dingy space in Bristol, 5900 sq f, in what looks like a fairly busy lorry yard. Only £18,000 a year though!

http://www.estatesgazette.com/propertylink/advert/gatton_road_bristol-bristol-3272709.htm

This one looks quite a bit nicer, 6100 sq f at £35,000 per year. Still pretty reasonable. It already has a large office area. There is also a warehouse space, which would be fairly useless to me and coud be converted into more office space if I needed more. The office space is already quite a bit larger than the Edgar House space though, so should be more than enough!

So! New property: 

5B Gatton Road, Bristol

6,163 square feet.

£35,000 per year.

On site parking, warehouse, large office space, security gate.

Budget Research: Computer Equipment

Now a look at the equipment we'll be needing in the studio for the staff!

Probably the most important equipment, the animation work stations. These computers are high specced as they will be used not only for the 3D animation and modelling, but also for rendering.

Main Specs:

3.1Ghz Quad Core Intel i7

16 Gb Memory

2 Gb Nvidia GPU

2x 2 TB HDDs (RAID 0)

22" Widescreen 1920 x 1080 Monitor

Comes to £1,419.00 inc VAT from http://www.pcspecialist.co.uk.

I'll need 14 of these machines in total, 4 for animators, 4 for the modellers, 1 for the lighting / camera, 1 for Cloth / Hair, 1 each for the lead artist and animator, and 1 each for the editor and compositor.

The rest of the machines, which will only be using photoshop and word will be lower spec to save money:

Specs:

3.1Ghz Quad Core Intel i5

4 Gb Memory

512 Mb Nvidia GPU

2x 1 TB HDD (RAID 0)

22" Wdescreen 1920 x 1080 Monitor

Comes to exactly £700 including VAT, again from http:www.pcspecialist.co.uk.

I'll need 5 of these, for the admin folk (4), and the sound editor (1).

So that's 19 computers... One for each of the staff who will need one, the software needed for each will go ontop of that.

I'm having some trouble finding the price of software at the moment, I know that you can buy a license for a business that allows you to install software on all of your machines. But it's impossible to find an actual price! I'll have to com back to this, or buy the software for each individually.

On top of that, I need to head over to staples.co.uk or something and find a bunch of desks and chairs, and some stationary equipment.

Budget Research: Staff

With the studio now pretty much decided on, it's time to have a look at the staff I'm going to need:

The animation itself is going to be CG with 9 episodes at 10 minutes each. 

With this in mind I'll be able to make a decision on the size of the team I'll need, then have the teachers check over it before anything is final of course! I'm using our course references for studio staff and their wages, which I'm not sure if I can upload onto my blog... So I won't.

Admin

1 Producer

1 Director

1 Production Manager

1 Human Resources

Written

1 Script Writer (Temp)

Visuals

1 Lead Artist

1 Lead Animator

1 Storyboard Artist

4 Animators

4 Digital Artists (Modellers)

1 Lighting / Camera

1 Cloth / Hair Technician

1 Concept Artist (Temp)

Audio

1 Audio Editor / Track Layer

1 Composer (Temp)

5 Voice Over Artists (Temp)

Post Production

1 Compositor

1 Editor

That seems to be about everything that will be needed, with sound editing being in house rather than outsourced (I'm a bit of a control freak and this is imaginary... So I want everything in house).

That's 20 in house staff for the duration of the production, and 8 temporary contract staff.

Theoretically the production should take around 6 - 8 months.

Next up is the equipment budget!

Production Budget Research - Properties

An important part of a productions budget, and a pretty sizeable chunk of it too is the property where it will be made. Now then since this is imaginary it doesn't really matter where we actually have our office though it does have to be large enough for our imaginary needs.

So since there's no rule telling me where to go, I can have my office anywhere I like, and where I'd like is in Bath, England, because it's where I'll actually be living after uni.

I'll check for properties in or near Bath and pick whichever I prefer.

Edgar House, George Street, Bath

I like this property, it's in the center of Bath and is a decent size for what I need. The property has 2 floors and they can be rented independently. The rent is calculated at £13.50 per square foot.

Floor 1: 1,245 sq f = £16,807.50 per annum

Floor 2: 1,425 sq f = £19,237.50 per annum

Both: £36,045

Vintry / Wine Street, Bristol

This is a large office block in Bristol, with 3,310 sq f, rentable per square foot at £9 each per annum.

Walcott Street, Bath

A nice looking office in a convenient location in Bath, no information is included on the website about price or size however...

Gay Street, Bath

The cheapest office I've come across so far. Located near the center of Bath and only £350 pcm (per calendar month). No info on the size again, and it looks rather small...

London Road, Bath

Again within walking distance to the center of Bath, no prices are included on the website.

So far, Edgar House is my favourite by a country mile. It is the most expensive of the ones I've looked at, at £13.50 per sq f but at £36,045 for the year it's still a fairly reasonable amount, especially for property in Bath.