Hard Lesson from the Front Line.

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  • Hard Lesson from the Front Line.

    Iâ€TMm still learning and relearning. If thereâ€TMs an axiom Iâ€TMd
    post on my computer itâ€TMd be this:

    BIG IDEA, small movie.

    Actually, an exec at Revolution Studios tipped me on
    this. When considering ideas for a spec, think of a
    high concept that can be made for as little money
    as possible. The small budget will help prevent you
    from making the concept too high (e.g. LORD OF THE
    RINGS parodies), yet thinking of a big idea, the
    concept will seem fresh and will hopefully detour
    around the â€too soft†ding that execs dish out like
    Halloween candy on small kitchen sink dramas.

    BIG IDEA, small movie.

    Itâ€TMs one reason comedies dominate the spec marketplace
    but not exclusively. Iâ€TMm remember when David Koeppâ€TMs
    PANIC ROOM was making the rounds. Some people
    complained it read like a USA Network TV movie.
    Exactly! Thatâ€TMs why it sold for four million dollars
    (believe me when I tell you, not all prosâ€TM specs sell).
    Taotropics310â€TMs script PRIME GIG broke down doors
    partly because he wrote it as a movie he could make for
    sixty thousands dollars. Soderbergh and Tarantino
    played the same card on their first films. Keeping the
    movie down to earth but unique in its take on life pays dividends.

    One of the intangibles Iâ€TMve noticed in sold specs is
    during the read they feel like TV movies in that they
    have limited locations (eighty percent takes place at a
    centralized location), they have no major (if any)
    special effects, and the story takes place over a couple
    of days. These scripts almost read as if youâ€TMd could film
    it yourself around your town during a long weekend.
    These are what the powers that be want from specs.
    Simple, realistic stories with universal themes presented
    with a fresh element we havenâ€TMt seen too recently. Of
    course the fresh element is the hard part and that's why
    they pay top dollar for those clever scribes who find them.

    BIG IDEA, small movie.

    Your spec will do better if you are realistic about its
    budget. Beware, you must be honest with yourself (I
    havenâ€-t been). The spec should read like it could be
    done for TV movie prices, three million dollars tops.
    Yes, I said, three million dollars, $3 million (I may post
    that on my computer or better yet, stamp it on my
    head). Execs reading ANY script will factor in ten to
    twenty million buckaroos for the potential name star so
    you can consider yourself already in the hole after
    typing your name on the title page. Gene Roddenberry
    once scolded Harlan Ellison for writing â€big ideas, big
    budget.†Ellison would write lavish scenes for the
    original â€Star Trek†without considering the cost of
    special effects. Wrong. In J. Michael Stracynskiâ€TMs book
    on screenwriting he notes the evaluation TV executive
    producers use when evaluating scripts, one for the
    quality of the story, one for the ease of the budget:
    Good/Producible, No Good/Producible, Good/Not
    Producible and No Good/Not Producible. The â€no
    good/producibles†got made while the â€good/not
    producibles†got trashed.

    Not all production companies and studios ask readers
    to evaluate the budget of a spec script but believe me,
    the junior execs will weigh potential production costs
    and it could be a make or break point when considering
    whether or not to send your script â€upstairs.†Make it
    easy on â€-em. Make it cheap and obvious.

    Go 'head and finish whatever you're working on but
    when brainstorming your next idea for a spec, remember:

    BIG IDEA, small movie.

    Itâ€TMs the easiest way in.

    Rx

  • #2
    Great advice Dr. Stiggers. I personally know about 8 writers who have been optioned (some more than once), a few of whom currently have projects in the development stage, and every one of them won their option with a low-budget script.

    Comment


    • #3
      Yep. Big idea and small movie is always the best way to go. I see so many stories that involve ten million soldiers and planes and nuclear bombs (that's just page one of the script) when they should be thinking more like Splash or Big or Sixth Sense. Even Speed as a script is very contained and small scale.

      Comment


      • #4
        You're dead right. Thanks for putting it so succinctly. Pay attention, people.

        Comment


        • #5
          High Concept/Medium Budget

          You want a few good examples?

          SPEED - there's a bomb on a bus that will explode if the bus goes below 55mph... and rush hour has just begun.

          TERMINATOR - a killing machine from the future comes back to kill the woman who will give birth to the man who will save the world.

          DEVIL'S ADVOCATE - hot young lawyer discovers the big law firm that hired him is run by, perhaps, Satan?

          WESTWORLD - android amusement park shorts out, sending cowboy robot after three vacationing businessmen.

          ROSEMARY'S BABY - nice young NY couple is having Satan's spawn.

          STEPFORD WIVES - the perfect small town, the perfect passive wives... hey, they're androids like those Terminator & Westworld fellas!

          THE BOYS FROM BRAZIL - remember that Hitler guy? They cloned a half dozen of him, and an aging Nazi hunter has to find those kids and kill 'em.

          THE OMEN - You know the guy that killed all of those boys from Brazil? His adopted son is Satan's spawn... and everyone who tries to stop the brat gets killed in a freak accident.

          Even THE MATRIX isn't an expensive idea - the main FX are when we go outside the matrix... inside it looks just like any other city.

          Anything involving time travel to the present is cheap. Most scripts with ghosts or androids or vampires or clones or Satan is probably going to be cheap - those are ACTORS.

          Usually, the higher the concept - the more simple and imaginative the idea - the less FX required. THE SIXTH DAY (not a good movie - but a kick ass high concept) has a military guy coming home to find his wife in the arms of another man... his clone! That's about as high concept as you can get - and it's just the same actor playing 2 roles.

          It's when the concept isn't so high, like "The Alamo on an aircraft carrier", that you get in trouble. That's an expensive film, because it isn't the IDEA that's cool, it's all of the battle stuff you need to make the idea work. Unfortunately, I also wrote that script. Got me lots of meetings were they told me it was too expensive. That's why I'm writing a really high concept script about reincarnation - the idea is the star, not the FX. If a character says they are the reincarnation of someone else, itls still just an actor. No FX needed - the idea supplies the cool stuff.

          - Bill

          Comment


          • #6
            Re: High Concept/Medium Budget

            Stiggers, great post.

            A recent example of 'big idea small movie' would be SIGNS - take out the name actors, you have a simple story told around one central location, next to zero special effects, no set-pieces, but high on concept.

            Food for thought, thanks.

            Comment


            • #7
              Re: High Concept/Medium Budget

              Great post, Stiggers! The realities of film production dictate the sense of what you are writing.

              Looking at the script's I've written, I find that I have at times made things unnecessarily tough for myself. I have two historical epics that will cost a fortune to make - and producers are interested, but still profess that it's going to be hard to get the money together for these.

              My thriller is written to exploit a particular CGI effect that has been newly developed, and may end up being made because of this, since the producers see the novelty of doing that... but this effect also makes the movie expensive.

              My first feature cost twice the average budget for a Scandinavian feature, and got made - but financing has tightened up now, and I wonder whether I would have been able to find the money for it today.

              The script I'm working on now is much more in accordance with your post, and I know that I will get it made - because the budget required to get it made will give me many options for financing.

              M. Night's Sixth Sense is an excellent example of "low" budget, great results. Interestingly, at the same time de Bont came out with The Haunting - which was a mess of special effects and cost a fortune to make. There isn't a single effect in Sixth Sense that's not "in the camera" - even the reflection of Cole in the doorknow is done in the camera, and not in post...

              Comment


              • #8
                Re: Scenes with Extras, Outdoor urban locations

                I agree, of course, with the wisdom of the post.

                My problem isn't avoiding expensive special efx or sets or having too many speaking parts, or some of the others. . .

                My problem is I always find a scene here and there that almost needs to be in a place where there are lots of people.

                Like in one script I'm working on there just needs to be a a couple basketball game scenes. The last one I finished is practically a stage play, . . . except there's one damn scene at Disneyland and it's crucial. (Obviously a 3 million budget would cover this but maybe not a $60,000 DV budget.)

                It's probably a good idea to avoid these scenes, right? Even one or two will put the potential budget over the top? When you're talking about indy budget you need to stick to the "Friends and Neighbors", "Brothers MacMullen" formula?

                It's funny, because I made a number of short films in college. . . made a six minute b&w film last summer for $600. . . but I have no idea what costs what (aside from the obvious) when it comes to making a real film. Like if you've only got a couple locations you don't need a second unit, I wouldn't think, and yet in a number of "only a couple locations" movies I see heaps and heaps of people in the credits.

                Comment


                • #9
                  Re: Scenes with Extras, Outdoor urban locations

                  That's something different - an indie script is going to be produced-directed-written by YOU, so you have to write to fit the amount of $ you can raise. In cases like that crowd scenes and basketball games are expensive - and you're paying for them.

                  If you're writing a script to sell - that basketball game is probably okay. But Disneyland screws you - that means you can only sell the script to Disney and they probably won't buy it if what happens at their park won't attract tourists to spend their life savings on a weekend there.

                  If you're writing a script to sell that "practically a stage play" thing is going to work against you, too. Look at genres that sell - rom-com, action, thriller, horror, sci-fi - not exactly static talk-fests. And a script really needs some big idea (high concept) that's going to attract a large enough audience to offset the $78.1 million is costs to make & market the AVERAGE movie. If your story is something like SIGNS or THE ASTRONAUT'S WIFE or even CUBE you're okay. If it's more like CLERKS - that's an indie story and you should be prepared to find the funding yourself (the way Kevin Smith found the money to make CLERKS, Ed Burns found the money to make BROTHERS, etc).

                  If you go back to Doc's original post - it's all about having a big idea that isn't going to cost $200 million to make.

                  - Bill

                  Comment


                  • #10
                    WCM

                    Wise words as always, Bill. But I'm not talking
                    just about $200 million dollar monsters, I'm
                    talking $40-50 million movies. Studios, especially
                    minis like New Line and Dimension, are NOT looking
                    for specs with budgets of average studio fare.
                    The majors and the minis want EASY, high concept
                    material that can be produced for $20 million or
                    less. THE SIXTH SENSE cost $20 million to produce
                    but was originally scheduled for about $10 mil. When
                    Bruce Willis sign on, the production budget doubled
                    and Bruce got his fee so the total budget rounded
                    out to $40 million. If the elements of the script
                    alone could only be produced for $40 million (not
                    including a star's fee) the script would have been
                    far less attractive.

                    Writing a low-budget, character driven, big idea
                    movie is easy for jr. execs to pitch to sr. execs.

                    It's not enough for a script to be clever and
                    well written, it also needs to be easy.

                    Rx

                    Comment


                    • #11
                      Re: Scenes with Extras, Outdoor urban locations

                      I agree with Bill. It isn't about writing for a shoe string budget. It's about writing a story with a concept that can be done regardless of the budget. You could make Sixth Sense for 100 million or 20 million or 20 thousand and the concept would remain exactly the same and work just as well.

                      If your idea depends on a big budget effect or big location like the Super Bowl or an Aircraft Carrier, you missed the point of the original post.

                      Comment


                      • #12
                        Re: Scenes with Extras, Outdoor urban locations

                        I pretty much disgaree with Dr. (reluctantly) because I've found your advice to be mostly solid here. BUT you can have a spec that's a calling card and the budget is irrelevant. The thing of it is, I have never, ever had anyone say this to me about specs...at least not yet.
                        (our spec floating around now is quite expensive and it never came up as an issue.)
                        I think it depends on what you're going for in terms of genre, etc.
                        Like you said, for the New Lines out there etc. smaller's probably better.
                        But I've found most agents WANT to send to the big studios and are looking for high-concept.
                        Obviously if you're doing a RomCom -- they are usually around $50 mil. and a writer should keep that in mind.
                        I think if you're writing a good story that's all that matters because even if it's loaded with F/X and it's great - and no one wants to buy it - it can be a good calling card.
                        Also -- no matter how you look at it THE MATRIX is high budget.
                        that's just mho, 2 cents.

                        Comment


                        • #13
                          Writerly

                          I think what the Dr. is talking about are spec SALES. Sure, budget doesn't come into play when talking about writing samples.

                          He's just giving us an insight into the present market of what people are buying. Getting meetings and heat from a calling card script is completely different from what Dr. Stiggers is talking about.

                          The studios are BUYING big idea/small movie specs, they are MEETING with the writers of other specs. I'm generalizing but you know what I mean.

                          Comment


                          • #14
                            Easy vs. Hard

                            My analysis refers to NOW. Not 1999, not 1995.
                            Now. Nobody writes a script just to have a
                            calling card. Unsold writers may get assignments,
                            may set up pitches but this is rarely achieved.

                            I'm also talking about perception. Not very many
                            execs will tell you your spec is too expensive,
                            after all, a studio makes big films all the time. But
                            the execs do discuss producible feasiblity amongst
                            themselves. If they perceive your story is going to
                            be both a physical and fiscal challenge, they'll
                            pass and wait for the easy one to come along,
                            especially if you are new. Why should they stick
                            their neck out? The town runs on fear.

                            Name specs sold without elements (director,
                            star) in the last three years produced with a
                            budget of $60 million. Compare them to those
                            produced with budgets under $60 mil (ignoring
                            direct to video features). The latter dominate.
                            PANIC ROOM cost about $60 million to lens but
                            the script read like an under $10 million potboiler.
                            Note: anecdotal exceptions like THE MATRIX are
                            anomalies -- besides, its directors came attached.

                            Rx

                            Comment


                            • #15
                              Re: Easy vs. Hard

                              True, ok, ok. I get what you're saying about selling but I still think a good story will sell, regardless. But your points are good and may have me convinced.

                              On another note,
                              I was going to say that I really like Koepp. PANIC ROOM (which I liked) was very similar to WAIT UNTIL DARK with Audrey Hepburn.
                              (gotta go and try to get my rewrite done)

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