Should one give it primary consideration and address it in the course of rewriting his/her screenplay? What factors/elements of production incur the most? :rolleyes
The budget isn't your concern, but if you're writing a "small" story with a huge expensive scene you may have a problem. If you write something like DINER but have a scene where the tallest building in Baltimore is blown up by terrorists that scene not only is too big for the budget, it really doesn't fit the story (common sense part).
If you are writing an Indie movie - well, you're prtobably going to find the funds yourself, so you'll remove the expensive scenes anyway.
If you're writing for TV or cable you DO have to consider budget... but if you've studied other films like what you're writing you'll know what to do.
If you are writing a big summer movie - the sky's the limit! The bigger the better!
Basically, you can find all of the answers by watching movies. If you're writing a romantic comedy and watching romantic comedies, you'll have a good feel for what makes sense in a romantic comedy (very few things blow up, not a whole lot of space ship battles, very few big FX scenes).
When considering which project is most likely to be produced budget should be a concern. I have a period piece with large scale warfare, many production companies like my script but are afraid they won't be able to place a high budget film. Many are looking for the mid range contemporary stuff. Just some thoughts.
An Indie producer/director/well known cinematographer (he directed TRAVELLER with Mark Walberg and Bill Paxton, to give you an idea of the budget he works within) that I sent a script to about two years ago told my connection to him (not me) that my script would be "too expensive to film"... And it was a pretty small story, too - the most "indie" script I have with the lowest "potential" budget ... (of course "too expensive to film" could have been a nice way to say he thought it sucked - and YES, for those of you who know who I'm talking about, I blew a potentially large contact, which is appropriate because I was pretty "green" at the time... :lol )
It's a crazy business. Martell's advice seems to be pretty spot on, though...
You may have been "green" at the time, but at least you know jack...
When you're dealing with limited budgets a lot of things that don't seem expensive are "too expensive". The Showtime thing I wrote had a $2 million budget - so I could only have 15 speaking roles and about ten locations. And it was an airplane warfare movie!
Right now I'm doing a re-write on something that could be either very costly or go the way of the *original* Night of the living Dead or Ravenous (which were both great movies, even w/out cgi geek-crap, due to the writing and the direction).
Of course the flipside is that old equation that's been mentioned here many times RE how the budget equates to the writer's fee. Something to ponder...
I had a big budget action/sci-fi script and found a couple guys in LA who got hot to produce it. The drawbacks and brick walls were a little different than what's been mentioned thus far.
First time writer...
It's hard, nay, nearly impossible for a first time writer to sell a spec script. The Hollywood of today is more about affixing blame than making good movies. (I.E. Producer, "Hey, I got the best director, actor and writer! It's not my fault it bombed") Rarely will studio execs take a chance on a first time writer especially with a big budget.
Out of town....
"What do you mean the writer's in Ohio?!" screams the exec, because the studio machine wants to have you close to bleed you for every bit of creativity you have before greenlighting your film, then they hire someone else to rewrite the spirit out of it.
Too expensive...
mainly in light of the two previous reasons.
However, independents (not indie branches of major studios) sometimes take the chance when the script is so good it warrants the expense.
My screenplay basically covers three lifetime periods of three main characters: adolescence, young adulthood, and mid-life.
In rewriting, should one try to fashion the story in such a way that any two life periods of a character may be able to be portrayed by the same actor (in consideration of casting/costs)?
you do have a very fertile imagination, blue. small wonder you downed four screenplays in a month.
anyway, mine's about a love triangle that lasts a lifetime where we witness their innocence, adventurism, then search for ultimate meaning of their lives (mid-life crisis?)
If you are going to film it Mariachi style then expense is a big consideration.
"What factors/elements of production incur the most?"
The absolute need for a really, really top notch actor/actress
A large cast
Lots of locations and/or elaborate sets
A long shooting schedule
Stunts
Special effects that cannot be done on a computer
Blowing up the largest building in Baltimore is not that hard to do on a computer.
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