Software Review: Movie Magic Budgeting
Movie Magic
The Magic is back.
Shelving their own eponymous software, Entertainment Partners has resurrected Movie Magic. And whether you’ve stayed with the standard or updated to EP Budgeting, this version is designed to make you feel perfectly at home. And there lies both the good news and the bad.
There are several new features, but the newly introduced MMB v7 is more about incorporating the past than advancing the future. The renamed “Movie Magic Classic” and EP Budgeting have been well integrated, delivering a brute of a program that can handle virtually any production it faces, any variations, any anything in film.
If your filmmaking grew up on Movie Magic, you’ll be pleased to find the functionality of the original. The navigation ball is back, the original MMB keyboard shortcuts have returned and it’s possible, once again, to import scheduling elements (like cast or props) from the schedule into the budget.
EP’s newest features are included too. Notes can be added to budget lines. Work can be calculated down to 4th level minutia. Disparate budgets can be compared and new columns can be added. Nice features, welcome and well integrated.
For a program that screams “serious” to its core, newly whimsical icons seem frivolous. But beyond that singular splash of eye-candy, this version gets down to business with more accurate totals from Groups. And the introduction of a new entry form to calculate incentive rebates or tax credits.
What You See
By any name, this is a budgeting program for the business end of the show. It delivers budgets on paper or as PDFs. It exports data for every possible accounting system, plus EP v6.7 and v5.x of Movie Magic.
It retains its singularly frivolous Formula Maker, allowing users to create complex calculations based on Globals and simple math. Handy, but readily duplicated in Globals and even by line item data entry.
The essentials of a budgeting program are all here – Fringes, Groups, Globals, Currencies, etc. The Library – a Movie Magic holdover – has been retained, still useful for storing movable information, like an entire grip department or the detailed list of every electrical purchase.
The view of the budget can be sparse, listing only the description, the amount of time, the rate and total.
Or it can be expanded to include percentages of applied fringes, Fringes, Currency, Groups, Locations, Sets, an additional multiplier and three separate units. When essential, the data can be very interesting.
Nonetheless, a single multiplier sorely limits the functionality of these added units. While providing many options, the columns can’t be rearranged. Nor can fonts or type styles be changed to suit specific jobs.
What’s New
Acknowledging the current reality of production, Movie Magic has added an Applied Credits function to tally the impact of tax credits and budget rebates. Any number of rates and percentages can be applied to one (or more) line items, then discounted from the budget total. This provides information to include with the budget (showing the amount needed to complete the film) or isolated in its own sub-budget (giving valuable documentation to investors).
Nicely, credits can be modified to track any income to the production, even crew deferments or sponsorship income, tasks that usually get consigned to spreadsheets or sub-budgets.
While it’s always been possible to add this information to individual accounts through calculations with negative numbers, the new Applied Credits form aggregates information from everywhere in the budget, delivers it on one basic form and adds it as a TopSheet line item.
The Help files seem to have been adjusted slightly, increasing font size and bolding the chapters so information can be read as well as found. Unfortunately, there are still no entries for simple terms like “import” or “credit” nor is there notification when searched items can’t be found.
What’s Wrong
While Movie Magic was being resurrected, the original has grown long in tooth. That imposes an oddly antique look and feel to this update. The screen is boxy and flat. And some usability and functionality seems to have been missed.
Simple tasks like cut-and-paste are difficult at best, with a tendency to stop working between moves. There’s no option to paste from other programs. Single words can’t be copied, and full lines can’t be pasted from one account to another. Drag-and-drop is non-existent.
There’s no F1 context-sensitive help, though it would have made this complex program easier to use. Items like Fringes and Groups are still created in one window and applied in another, adding unnecessary steps.
The Budgeting program consistently wants to save changes, even when none have been made. The Scheduling program can export elements (like cast or props), but it takes a separate step to import that information into a Budget. Delete an actor from one program, the other remains oblivious to the change.
There’s no rate card, despite its need at almost every step of the budget. Of course there are separate rate cards/sheets/books to be bought. But none can be integrated, as they were back in Movie Magic 3.x. Nor is there any ability to create new rate cards based on user preferences or needs. There’s no ability to actualize real costs against estimates, though that may be asking for too much.
If Account numbers are changed at the top level, no information is transmitted down through the budget, requiring manual line-by-line revisions for a simple update. Nor is there a simple utility to convert one chart of accounts to another.
And then there’s Axium. When EP acquired the program, there were hopes that its more outstanding features would appear in this update. Known for its ease of use, graphical interface and information-packed home page, there’s no doubt that its best features are needed here. They remain absent.
Who’s It For
This huge, complex program is designed for industry pros. Although it can work for any show, it may be overkill on simpler projects or smaller documentaries. Still, despite few concessions to indie filmmakers, Movie Magic remains the Holy Grail of budgeting programs, an enormous powerhouse of a program that continues to set the bar.
Since this new program marks the update path for future versions of Movie Magic (and EP) Budgeting, there’s little question that the upgrade is essential. While far from perfect, Movie Magic v7.0 clearly marks the latest round in an ongoing battle to dominate its competitors and improve the category. In that, every user is a winner.
Entertainment Partners
www.entertainmentpartners.com
MM Budgeting v7.0 : $498
Upgrade: $299
