Free Filmmaker Resource
Independent Film
Folder Setup
A practical one-page guide for organizing the business, legal, creative, production, marketing, and administrative files behind an independent film.
What’s Inside
A simple structure you can adapt to your production.
The guide includes a recommended 20-folder master structure covering areas such as formation and governance, finance, legal and chain of title, script development, cast, crew, locations, insurance, production accounting, music, marketing, festivals, sponsorships, impact work, and final archives.
It also highlights useful subfolders for legal and chain of title, script development, and contracts and deal memos, along with a consistent file-naming system and a final archive checklist.
Why It Helps
Give every production file a place to live.
Independent productions create contracts, budgets, releases, insurance documents, payroll records, accounting files, music licenses, marketing assets, festival materials, and countless working files. A clear folder structure makes it easier to find what you need, preserve versions, and build a clean final archive.
The guide is intentionally simple. Use it as a starting point and customize the folder names to fit your project.
From Skopos Films
Built while building a film.
These resources grow out of the practical systems Skopos Films develops while producing independent work in the Midwest. They are shared as starting points that filmmakers can adapt to their own productions.