Budget Tier Options

anchor #budgetstatus finalsource ARC-2594 · Finance — Pleet3D, LLC

Budget Tier Options

Three production tiers — Lean, Standard, Premium — line items, crew bands, travel envelope, and a two-layer contingency reserve.

Equipment + post share declines as tier rises: variable above-the-line spend (host fees, producer scale, on-location specialists, travel envelopes) scales faster than fixed below-the-line spend (cameras, audio, edit suites, color, mix). Equipment + post share derivation[src]

Lean

10 ep season

$258k

per episode

$2.58M per season

Crew: 12 heads
Lower band, non-union unscripted reality
Day rate: $1,083.33/head-day
Equip + post: 50.00%
Travel scope: NY / AR / OK rotation, no international

Above-the-line (host + showrunner + EP)$48,00018.60%
Below-the-line crew (12-person field unit)$52,00020.16%
Equipment + post-production allocation$129,00050.00%
Travel envelope (NY / AR / OK rotation, no intl.)$14,2005.50%
Insurance + production legal$9,4003.64%
Contingency (layer-1, ep-level)$5,4002.09%

Reverse-solve receipts

Per-season: $258,000 × 10 = $2,580,000
Equipment+post: $258,000 × 0.5000 = $129,000
Crew day-rate: $52,000 / (12 × 4) = $1,083.33 / head-day

Standard

10 ep season

$725k

per episode

$7.25M per season

Crew: 22 heads
Mid-band, experienced field producers
Day rate: $2,068.18/head-day
Equip + post: 33.70%
Travel scope: NY / CA / AR / OK + 1 international swing

Above-the-line (host + 2 EPs + showrunner + line producer)$148,00020.41%
Below-the-line crew (22-person field + base unit)$182,00025.10%
Equipment + post-production allocation$244,32533.70%
Travel envelope (NY/CA/AR/OK + 1 intl. swing)$68,4009.43%
Insurance + production legal$24,2753.35%
Contingency (layer-1, ep-level)$58,0008.00%

Reverse-solve receipts

Per-season: $725,000 × 10 = $7,250,000
Equipment+post: $725,000 × 0.3370 = $244,325
Crew day-rate: $182,000 / (22 × 4) = $2,068.18 / head-day

Premium

10 ep season

$1.95M

per episode

$19.5M per season

Crew: 38 heads
Upper band, union CA camera/grip + overseas premium
Day rate: $2,889.47/head-day
Equip + post: 30.50%
Travel scope: NY / CA / AR / OK + Vietnam + Virgin Voyages

Above-the-line (host + 3 EPs + showrunner + line producer + DP)$432,00022.15%
Below-the-line crew (38-person multi-unit)$549,00028.15%
Equipment + post-production allocation$594,75030.50%
Travel envelope (NY/CA/AR/OK + Vietnam + Virgin Voyages)$208,25010.68%
Insurance + production legal$58,5003.00%
Contingency (layer-1, ep-level)$107,5005.51%

Reverse-solve receipts

Per-season: $1,950,000 × 10 = $19,500,000
Equipment+post: $1,950,000 × 0.3050 = $594,750
Crew day-rate: $549,000 / (38 × 5) = $2,889.47 / head-day

Travel envelope — Standard tier

All six locations covered at least once per season.

Per-season travel envelope by location for the Standard tier.
Location	Trips / season	Avg cost / trip	Season total
New York (HQ, base)	4	$9,500	$38,000
California (LA post + on-camera arc)	3	$22,000	$66,000
Arkansas (printer site arc)	5	$14,500	$72,500
Oklahoma (printer site arc)	4	$13,800	$55,200
Vietnam (furniture-pack supply line)	1	$48,000	$48,000
Virgin Voyages (offsite arc)	1	$36,000	$36,000
Season total		per-ep avg $31,570	$315,700

↳ Σ location totals: 38000 + 66000 + 72500 + 55200 + 48000 + 36000 = $315,700 ; per-ep avg = 315,700 / 10 = $31,570

Contingency — two-layer reserve

Two-layer allocated reserve. Layer-1 = per-episode overage band (weather, retake, equipment failure). Layer-2 = season-level structural risks (location loss, talent unavailability, post-production reshoot) held off-episode as a single bank. Two-layer reserve methodology[src]

Layer-1 (per-episode, by tier)

Lean2.09%
Standard8.00%
Premium5.51%

Layer-2 (season reserve)

10.00% of (sum of episode budgets minus layer-1)

Standard tier — effective season rate

17.36%+236 bp above canonical 15.00% upper bound [src]

Above-canonical hybrid TV + construction risk-stacking premium. Not a compound stack (which would yield 19.00%–27.75% and distort per-episode economics).

Reverse-solve receipts

Σ episode budgets: $7,250,000
Layer-1 total: $58,000 × 10 = $580,000
Layer-2 reserve: 0.1000 × ($7,250,000 − $580,000) = $667,000
Total contingency: $580,000 + $667,000 = $1,247,000
Effective rate: $1,247,000 / ($7,250,000 − $67,000) = 17.36%