Indonesia production budgets are typically structured on a project-fee model rather than a per-day rate model — a difference that surprises foreign producers arriving with day-rate spreadsheets from other markets. This handbook covers the working cost stack for a foreign production shooting in Indonesia — the BPI industry framework, C14 filming visa route, crew project fees by role, location and pre-set expenses, equipment hire, transportation and accommodation logistics, and how our indicative service-fee layer sits on top of the working budget. All figures below are Celluloid Pact indicative supplier estimates dated July 2026, quoted primarily in USD with Indonesian Rupiah (IDR) reference at approximately IDR 15,800 to 1 USD; these are not published market tariffs and are subject to change with supplier availability, brief specifics and shoot scale. The full operational execution model sits at Line Producer Indonesia. Film fixers in Indonesia coordinate the on-ground permit, crew and equipment layers beneath that plan. A worked Jakarta case at the compact end of the curve is documented at the Majapahit Jakarta production case study. This page is the cost reference that budget conversations sit against.
Pre-production and casting costs
Pre-production for a mid-scale Indonesian documentary or commercial shoot typically runs 8 to 10 working days before principal photography. Casting screentest sessions bill around USD 30 per pack (IDR 500,000) — a mid-scale shoot with 5 casting sessions comes to roughly USD 160 (IDR 2,500,000). Recce and location scouting through the local production office runs approximately USD 255 (IDR 4,000,000) per pack for a Jakarta-Bogor footprint. Pre-production meetings (PPM) come to around USD 47 (IDR 750,000). Reading and rehearsal sessions bill approximately USD 95 (IDR 1,500,000). Fitting and test make-up run USD 127 (IDR 2,000,000). Script printing and office supply costs sit at approximately USD 63 (IDR 1,000,000).
Indonesian shoots frequently include a traditional blessing ceremony (Selametan or Tumpengan) at approximately USD 44 (IDR 700,000) — a pre-production cultural ritual that acknowledges local community and asks blessing for the shoot ahead. Foreign productions often skip this line initially and then add it back after the local counterpart flags it as culturally expected on shoots in specific regions or with community-adjacent locations. It reads on the budget as a minor line but on the shoot day carries operational weight.
Production crew fees by role
Indonesian production crew rates are typically quoted as project-fee packages rather than per-day rates. The following figures are Celluloid Pact indicative supplier estimates for the project fee on a typical 2-day shoot documentary or commercial in the Jakarta-Bogor footprint, at the mid-scale production tier. Larger feature productions or extended-schedule shoots negotiate different tiers, and figures vary by individual crew member availability and the counterpart’s standing arrangements.
| Line | Standard rate section (baseline) | Trimmed worked example (used in chart) | Worked-example amount (USD) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pre-production | Casting screentest 5-pack, extended recce, PPM, rehearsal etc. | Casting screentest 3-pack, single recce, PPM, single rehearsal day | 500 |
| Crew composition | Full crew: 2nd AD, DIT, Script Continuity, Sound Recordist, DOP + full camera team, Art department, Wardrobe + separate MUA | Two-person production team, Director + 1st AD only, DOP + 1 op + 1 focus, on-board audio (no dedicated Sound Recordist), combined Wardrobe/MUA | 3,240 |
| Location days | Studio day rate × shoot days + full pre-set day per shoot day + Bogor exterior + clean-up/security | Jakarta studio × 2 shoot days (USD 1,564) + Bogor exterior/hunting (USD 56) + 2 pre-set days at trimmed rate (USD 894) + clean-up (USD 56) | 2,570 |
| Wardrobe & accessories | Main + supporting + featured + extras styling, accessories, laundry, expendables | Main talent styling only (rent-over-buy via theatrical rental partner) | 838 |
| Make-up & hairdo | Full make-up + hair material + supporting tools + expendables across expanded cast | Make-up material only, reduced lead count | 251 |
| Art & build | Full art department: art director + team + supporting tools + crew builder | Hero props only (throne, kris ×6, amulet, palm leaves) — reduced background props | 894 |
| Camera package | Cinema body (Venice, Alexa Mini) — multi-camera option, full lighting rig (18K HMI), silent gen, full production supports | Sony FX6 or FX3 single camera (USD 391), reduced lighting kit 2× Skypanel S60 + 1× HMI 4K (USD 391), 15kVA silent gen (USD 112), on-board camera audio + 1 wireless lav (USD 112), production supplies + monitor + batteries (USD 279) | 1,285 |
| Crew transport | 9 crew cars over 2 days + talent + artistic (4 days) + 3 trucks | 5 crew cars × 2 days (USD 335) + talent car (USD 67) + artistic car reduced to 3 days (USD 101) + prod/equipment/artistic trucks (USD 380) | 883 |
| Talent mix | 10 mains + 2 supporting + 15 featured + 30 extras | 5 mains @ 6M IDR (USD 1,676) + 5 supporting @ 2.5M (USD 698) + 6 featured @ 1.5M (USD 503) + 15 extras @ 500k (USD 419) | 3,296 |
| F&B | 80 pax crew meals + 100 pax supper + full craft services | 35 pax crew meals × 2 days (USD 274) + 20 pax talent × 2 days (USD 156) + reduced craft (USD 84) + 55 pax supper × 2 days (USD 123) + supporting logistic (USD 28) | 665 |
| Data storage | 2 × 12M IDR LaCie units (over-spec) | 1 × 10TB LaCie at retail (~USD 280) + studio backup, plus data delivery | 587 |
| Sub-total (line items) | Standard commercial build lands materially higher | USD 15,009 (IDR 268,650,000) | 15,009 |
| Agency fee (10%) | Varies by scope | 10% on trimmed sub-total | 1,501 |
| Grand total (all-in) | — | Sum of trimmed sub-total + 10% agency fee | 16,509 |
Total crew line for a mid-scale documentary/commercial shoot in this envelope lands around USD 4,850 (IDR 76,500,000) across the standard department heads. This does not include talent fees, which sit in a separate budget line, and does not include additional camera operators or specialist crew — drone operators, gimbal/steadicam specialists, underwater rigs, specialty camera crews — that individual briefs occasionally require. Larger feature-tier productions scale the crew envelope substantially and typically source dedicated grip, lighting and post-production teams through Jakarta or Bangkok specialist houses.
Permit landscape — BPI, C14 filming visa and location-specific approvals
Indonesia’s foreign-production permit framework is not a fixed universal chain. It is a set of coordinated approvals that vary with shoot location, subject matter and government-agency touchpoints. Badan Perfilman Indonesia (BPI) is an industry body that may assist with film-production facilitation, coordinating where appropriate with relevant government agencies including the Ministry of Communication and Information Technology (Kominfo) for content-adjacent shoots and the Film Censorship Institute (LSF) for the completed-visuals review on films entering domestic distribution. The specific agency-touchpoint chain depends on the shoot brief.
C14 filming visa
The C14 visa is Indonesia’s standard filming visa for foreign crew. Per the Directorate General of Immigration guidance, C14 applicants need a local sponsor (typically the local production services counterpart) and permission from the relevant government agency governing the filming location. The agency touchpoint varies with the shoot — cultural-heritage locations, national parks, government buildings and religious sites each carry distinct approval requirements. Productions should not assume a universal permit route; the counterpart’s job at pre-production stage is to map the specific agency chain for the shoot’s location list before applying for the C14. Equipment brought in from outside Indonesia typically routes through KADIN (Kamar Dagang dan Industri Indonesia) under ATA Carnet. Permit lead time varies substantially with brief complexity — factor 4 to 8 weeks minimum, longer for shoots involving multiple government-agency touchpoints or sensitive-site coordination.
Compared with the wider region — where Vietnam, Thailand and Cambodia each operate on sharply different single-window versus multi-agency permit models — Indonesia sits in the middle complexity band. Producers weighing an Indonesian shoot against a neighbouring Southeast Asian territory should read the comparative permit and cost detail atSoutheast Asia filming cost and permitsbefore committing on lead-time assumptions.
Location expenses and Jakarta production incentive landscape
Location rental and pre-set costs
Location expenses are frequently the biggest single line after talent fees on Indonesian shoots. A 2-day shoot with primary location rental at USD 950 per day (IDR 15,000,000) totals USD 1,900 for the location itself. Pre-set fees — the day before principal photography when art and lighting teams dress the location — bill approximately USD 950 per pre-set day, and mid-scale shoots typically require one pre-set day per shoot day. Location hunting through the counterpart’s location team bills approximately USD 32 per hunting day. Clean-up, maintenance and on-location security run around USD 32 per shoot day.
The Jakarta Provincial Government incentive
The Jakarta Provincial Government announced a national-film-industry-support package covering two specific reductions rather than a foreign-production cash rebate. First, a 50% reduction in Pajak Barang dan Jasa Tertentu (PBJT) — the local entertainment tax on cinema-ticket sales — for national films screening in Jakarta cinemas. Second, a 50% discount on location fees when shooting at Jakarta provincial government properties or Jakarta municipal state-owned enterprise (BUMD) assets. Neither measure is a refund on production costs. The published announcement does not establish foreign-production or co-production access to either measure. Foreign productions structured through a local co-production entity should confirm eligibility with the relevant Jakarta asset owner when filming on qualifying government-owned locations; direct foreign-production access to the PBJT-side incentive is not established in the current announcement. Productions weighing Indonesia’s evolving incentive landscape against the wider regional context can reference our tax incentive and rebate consulting for cross-jurisdiction comparison.
Equipment, transportation and catering logistics
Camera, lighting and sound equipment
Equipment hire on a mid-scale Indonesian shoot typically bills per pack per day. Standard camera package runs USD 380 per day (IDR 6,000,000). Lighting and grip package runs USD 315 per day (IDR 5,000,000). Generator rental and truck for on-location power bills USD 95 per day. Production supplies and consumables run USD 127 per day. Sound equipment package bills USD 95 per day, and support equipment (miscellaneous rigging, safety, monitors) runs approximately USD 63 per day. Total equipment line for a 2-day shoot with standard package coverage lands around USD 2,150 (approximately IDR 34,000,000) — figures vary with specific gear selections and specialist rig requirements.
Vehicles and transportation
Ground transportation for a Jakarta-Bogor mid-scale shoot typically uses a 14-vehicle envelope for the standard 2-day production — 9 crew cars, 1 talent car, 1 artistic car and 3 trucks (production, equipment, artistic). Crew cars bill USD 38 per unit per day including fuel (BBM) and toll (tol) charges. Talent car runs the same USD 38 per day. Trucks for production, equipment and artistic haul bill approximately USD 54 per unit per day, again including fuel and toll. Total ground-transport line for a 2-day shoot at this envelope sits around USD 1,080 (approximately IDR 17,100,000).
Catering and F&B
F&B for a mid-scale Indonesian shoot bills per person per shoot day. Crew F&B runs USD 4.40 per pax per day, and mid-scale shoots typically feed 80 pax across the crew envelope (department heads, assistants, drivers, security, unit personnel). Talent and extras F&B runs the same USD 4.40 per pax per day for approximately 25 pax. Craft services and snack line comes to USD 127 per shoot day. Supper for late-shoot crew runs USD 1.25 per pax with roughly 100 pax on typical shoots. Total F&B line sits around USD 1,435 (approximately IDR 22,700,000) for a 2-day mid-scale shoot.
Talent fees and Celluloid Pact indicative service-fee structure
Talent fees are frequently the largest single budget line on Indonesian productions. A mid-scale documentary or commercial with 10 main talents at USD 445 each and 2 supporting talents at USD 220 each totals around USD 4,880 for the core cast. Extended-cast productions with expendables (extras, background) reach approximately USD 7,250 (IDR 114,500,000) on the total talent line — around 27% of the working subtotal on a typical mid-scale brief. Talent scale varies substantially with brief specifics — celebrity talent, established Indonesian screen names or influencer-tier talent negotiate substantially above these figures.
Celluloid Pact’s indicative production-services fee sits at 10% on top of the working-costs subtotal for the mid-scale documentary and commercial briefs this handbook models. The fee covers coordination, financial administration, agency-side project management, and the risk-buffer we carry against overruns and schedule shifts. This is our indicative structure, not an Indonesia-wide production-billing standard — scope and margin vary by supplier, brief risk-allocation, and negotiated arrangements. Foreign productions requesting alternative structures — cost-plus, fixed-fee, milestone-based — should size the working scope against the negotiated fee framework rather than assume a fixed percentage.
Total shoot budget — worked example
Consolidating the rate structure above into a Celluloid Pact indicative trimmed worked-example budget: a 60-minute YouTube documentary shooting 2 days across a Jakarta–Bogor footprint, on a trimmed crew (two-person production team, Director + 1st AD, DOP + 1 operator + 1 focus puller, combined Wardrobe/MUA, on-board audio only), single-camera Sony FX6/FX3 kit, 5 crew vehicles, and F&B for 35 crew meals plus 55 supper pax, lands at approximately USD 16,509 all-in (IDR 295,515,000). This includes our indicative 10% agency fee on the working sub-total of USD 15,008 (IDR 268,650,000) and an “Others” line of USD 587 covering data storage and delivery. It excludes international crew flights, equipment carnet fees for gear brought in from outside Indonesia, and post-production costs (which typically route through Jakarta or Bangkok post-houses). A standard full-crew commercial build using the rate sections earlier on this page lands materially higher — the trimmed sheet exists to show what a lean documentary shoot in Jakarta–Bogor can reasonably clear. Individual line-item variance of 10 to 20% either direction is normal on brief-specific quotations.
The Jakarta–Bogor trimmed model below does not carry the Bali sub-territory. Bali runs a distinct crew pool, its own site-owner and local-authority approvals, and separate island-transfer logistics — a rate structure that does not read across from the Jakarta sheet. Producers layering a Bali unit onto an Indonesia footprint should work off the model documented at Film Fixers In Bali and treat it as an additional cost package rather than a variation of the numbers below.
The chart below is a trimmed working budget for a 60-minute YouTube documentary — not a full commercial rate build. It uses the reduced inputs listed in the assumptions table (single-camera Sony FX6/FX3 kit, on-board audio only, a smaller crew, one pre-set day, four crew cars, and a trimmed talent mix). Applied against the standard rate sections earlier on this page, a full-crew commercial build would land materially higher; the trimmed sheet exists to show what a lean documentary shoot in Jakarta–Bogor can reasonably clear. The assumptions table below makes the reduction explicit so the model is reproducible.
| Line | Standard rate section (baseline) | Trimmed worked example (used in chart) |
|---|---|---|
| Crew composition | Full crew: 2nd AD, DIT, Script Continuity, Sound Recordist, DOP + full camera team, Art department, Wardrobe + separate MUA | Two-person production team, Director + 1st AD only, DOP + 1 op + 1 focus, on-board audio (no dedicated Sound Recordist), combined Wardrobe/MUA |
| Camera package | Cinema body (Venice, Alexa Mini) — multi-camera option | Sony FX6 or FX3, single camera |
| Location days | Studio day rate × shoot days + full pre-set day per shoot day + Bogor exterior | Jakarta studio × 2 shoot days + Bogor exterior + one pre-set day (reuse dressing) |
| Crew transport | 9 crew cars over 2 days | 4 crew cars over 2 days (matches trimmed crew count) |
| Talent mix | 10 mains + 2 supporting + 15 featured + 30 extras | 5 mains + 5 supporting + 6 featured + 15 extras (multi-role casting) |
| F&B | 80 pax crew meals + 100 pax supper | 35 pax crew meals + 55 pax supper |
| Data storage | 2 × 12M IDR LaCie units | 1 × 10TB LaCie at retail (~USD 280) + studio backup |
| Sub-total (line items) | Standard commercial build lands materially higher | USD 15,008 (IDR 268,650,000) |
| Agency fee | Varies by scope | 10% — USD 1,501 (IDR 26,865,000) |
| Grand total (all-in) | — | USD 16,509 (IDR 295,515,000) |
Scale bands for reference at Celluloid Pact indicative rates: short-form commercials and social-content shoots at similar crew depth typically run USD 19,000 to USD 38,000 (IDR 300M to 600M). Mid-scale TV drama or feature-supporting units run USD 63,000 to USD 158,000 (IDR 1B to 2.5B). Feature-tier productions running Jakarta-plus-Bali-plus-Yogyakarta footprints with dedicated department leads run USD 190,000 and up (IDR 3B+). Multi-region shoots layering Bali and Yogyakarta on top of Jakarta add flight logistics, additional accommodation nights, and regional-permit coordination on top of the Jakarta base.
Indonesia permit and pre-production timeline
The permit and pre-production timeline below is Celluloid Pact indicative — actual windows shift with brief specifics, government-agency responsiveness, and the counterpart’s standing filer status. Use as a planning heuristic rather than a fixed schedule.
The permit-lead-time envelope compresses when the rate model is scoped against the brief at script-breakdown stage rather than after location lock. Standing supplier arrangements with camera and lighting rental houses, F&B suppliers and location owners across Jakarta, Bogor, Bali and Yogyakarta sit within the trimmed working budget above; a first-time filer engaging vendors cold typically ends up outside these bands.
An experienced local counterpart avoids preventable filing delays with BPI and the C14-visa chain, and their mapping of the specific agency chain for a brief’s location list is where the pre-production time is either saved or lost. The working budget assumes that mapping has been done in advance, not discovered mid-shoot — which is what pulls a documentary shoot into the trimmed band rather than the full commercial band.
