ASK & DISCUSS INDEX

7 years, 4 months ago - Paddy Robinson-Griffin

I cannot unreccommend MMB enough. It's had no active development in a decade, and is overpriced and with a lot less integration than you'd imagine for the price. I've been pretty vocal about this with other line producers and many only put up with how awful it is through inertia. If you're coming in cold, try Showbiz Budgeting instead - it has everything MMB has plus best of all - phases - a temporal element which allows a different way to group than just subgroups, plus the ability to track VAT, plus actualise (do your own accounting), plus PO's and petty cash envelopes, and more. And it's cheaper. And you can get a deal if you ask their sales people to get it even cheaper. And the development is active, and if you hit a bug (I hit a really obscure one), you get it actively fixed urgently - I had a workaround in 2 hours and a hotfix same day which was rolled out in the next version. And a couple of enhancement requests in a couple of months. Compare that with MMB who have made no functional changes in almost a decade, and barely supports copy/paste.

And as for scheduling, you might want to look at studiobinder (online, has a free tier) which will let you combine the stripboarding capability with a managed system for callsheets reducing overhead during production.

Or buy MMS/MMB, but being "industry standard" is only an indication that people in the industry have had few decent choices previously.

7 years, 4 months ago - Aaron Wheeler

That is very interesting... I may leave MMB for now then as I'm working with extremely complex budgets anyways. Thanks for the info!

7 years, 4 months ago - Vasco de Sousa

Another word on MMB. There are jobs at Netflix and Amazon advertised for people who can use it.

"Industry standard" doesn't make as much of a difference if you're working on your own, but if you're part of a team, it makes sense that you share files in a compatible format. So, if you're looking for a job at a studio, it may be worthwhile.

A word on shared software licenses. Advertising that you want this in a public forum is risky enough, but asking strangers for codes is downright silly. Anyone who can hack these codes can probably also create mini viruses and other malware. (You normally can't sell software second hand anymore either, if you read the user agreements. Most second hand software I've seen is actually pirated, and often contains malware.)

I'd suggest instead crowdfunding your purchase, and offering to budget someone's script as a reward/perk. I'm normally skeptical of crowdfunding, but as long as you're realistic about it, it could work.

You could also buy gorilla http://www.junglesoftware.com/home/ and a few of the other competitors. (Gorilla needs a big screen, and make sure you have the right set up.)

7 years, 4 months ago - Paddy Robinson-Griffin

If you're doing shorts and music vids you probably won't need many of the things some tools like MMB and SB can do. It's unusual to be requiring much in the way of reporting by phase/subgroup or dealing with complex fringes or tax credits for either of those.

I'd suggest downloading a freebie 10-day demo of SB and seeing how it feels for you on a short/music promo vid. It feels a bit 2006 in places, but considering MMB feels quite 1997, it's a big step up, and it's cheaper.

The "two license" thing is intended so you have a copy on your laptop and one on your desktop, and only use one at a time. They can work at the same time, and a company can have 2 licenses that are used by 2 ppl at the same time, for instance, so I wouldn't worry too much. That said, I asked for 2 licenses of SB for the price of 1, and got them.

7 years, 3 months ago - Richard Anthony Dunford

I used MMB as part of my NFTS course in Production Accountancy. I found it quite easy to learn and a decent program although I've not used others so have nothing to compare it too and it's pretty expensive.

Probably overkill for short films and music videos to be fair...

If you do end up buying and can find a student to go halves with you I think you can get a student discount.

7 years, 3 months ago - Franz von Habsburg FBKS MSc

I use MMB and MMS as does my line producer and German co-producer and I keep my files in Dropbox so easy to share from my iPhone and am happy to discuss both and am at franz@imperialfilmproductions.com

7 years, 3 months ago - Vinca .

Hi,
I'm in the midst of pre-production for my feature length directorial debut and use StudioBinder. It's easy to learn/navigate and the site is full of tutorials. My Assistant Director uses MM for the scheduling/shooting plan etc.., but I've done almost everything else with my team on StudioBinder. I've recommend it for shorts and video clips. You can inport your Final Draft script if it's short on a free plan I think, it might not be necessary to pay for a plan but it very much depends on how you work/size of your team etc.., I also wouldn't recommend sharing a license.

7 years, 3 months ago - Stephan Burn

I'd recommend StudioBinder as well.