Is talking about budgets still such a taboo or are most antvillians just to darn lazy to comment? I've asked this before and all I got was some smartassed comments. Thanx for those. Only Gwan's comment has been useful.

the typical budget for the jobs I'm involved in tend to be between 10-30k (GBP). Can't speak for all you US folk but there are lots more being made at lower, almost disposable, budgets now as bands seem to come and go. Not so many bands to really invest in so less risk is taken i guess. Nothing in UK really goes above 120k(that I know of) and even then, it doesn't mean its good. There's some brilliant work made at low level that knock the socks off high end established directors. But there is no real rule of thumb. Lots of money does not really mean a great video but people would have been paid properly at least! One thing is for sure, more money = more people sticking their noses in = more problems = more opinions = more diluted sanitised product.

Budgets in Belgium tend to be lower I guess, all the rest you said rings familiar in my ears. Thanx scooper.

scooper pretty much has it covered.

robbie williams would be the uks top spender so its no coincidence that he is also our top seller.

'no money' can be as low as £500 but the lower the budget the better the artist and the better the track

people do get more involved when more money is being spent but you might actually be surprise how hands on some people can be even when they are getting a video for nothing

My experience is that the low limit for (official) UK commissions is about £6K. You have to pull a lot of favours though to make something decent on this budget and can't do it too often.

Also, bear in mind that the exchange rate from pounds to dollars or euros might not give an accurate representation of actual spending power.

To get an accurate comparison, you need to take into account the relative cost of labour and materials too.

dailyd -

My guess is that many thought that original question was a bit of a troll. That might be why your initial query was ignored. It also had a bit of that "teenager asking 'how do I become a star'" thing where the answer is so long and complicated people just pass on replying.

The true answer to the budget question is, of course, "it depends." The people above are 100% correct for the world that they work in while major label US acts spend lots more. In my experience, budgets for larger projects have come down quite a bit recently, so much so that contests seem like a viable commission.

I have written about the incredible shrinking budget phenomenon quite a bit. More than most people want to read, to be honest. Overall, I would guess the answers from scooper and hass better fit your question.

Thanx everyone for your answers and thoughts. I'm a Belgian filmmaker and haven't done that much yet, a couple of shorts and some music video's. Budgets in Belgium are on the low side and I was just wondering what it was like in the rest of the world, hence my noobie question.