In film and TV production, VFX costs are notoriously difficult to track. A director’s vision for a CG character can change, on-set conditions can impact VFX and lighting, stunts and costumes can need more augmenting than initially expected – and as technology becomes more powerful, the mantra of “fix it in post” can become more of a crutch. Changing tax incentives, labor requirements, scheduling, and a director’s level of familiarity with VFX can all contribute to the VFX budgeting headaches as well.
As a longtime visual effects producer for some of cinema’s most VFX-heavy projects – from Avatar to The Jungle Book, along with a background in finance– I’m intimately familiar with the challenges of building an accurate VFX budget. CURÓ was born out of a desire to address some of the common bottlenecks and build a truly accurate forecast as early in the process as possible.
CURÓ tackles the biggest challenges head on, building a united system for creating and managing your VFX budget. From the beginning, CURÓ clearly establishes each shot’s connection to the script, and provides automation of key tasks for greater organization and time savings. Users can easily insert and track relevant incentives and fringes, see a dynamic overview as well as breakdowns by shot list budget, asset budget, FX budget, and so on. The web-based interface ensures that your budget is secure, always up to date and accessible even if you’re on the road or (God forbid) your computer crashes.
For my fellow VFX producers, EPs, post supervisors, and beyond, I pushed to develop CURÓ for you, check it out and let me know what you think!
