Writing the low budget film....more of a challenge?

[Hairy Lime]

Re: Writing the low budget film....more of a challenge?

Much good advice throughout the thread. The ultimate question though is "how low"? You could write a microbudget feature and shoot it yourself for under $50,000. See Christopher Nolan's "Following", Eric Eason's "Manito", or Ferenc Toth's "Unknown Soldier" as successful examples of the microbudget feature. Or you could be talking about writing a $5M low budget feature and target indie production companies rather than the big prodcos you'd target with your $50M project. These scripts will, by necessity, be very very different. What are you seeking to accomplish?

Personally I try to write everything in the $2-5M range and am soon going to embark on my first microbudget script so I've got something to shoot in case nobody wants to finance my first feature.

[geozero]

Re: Writing the low budget film....more of a challenge?

A good way to practice how to keep something low budget is to write a
short film and have someone produce it. This will teach you to study what
locations you have available to you, how many actors you'll be able to
afford or achieve, etc.

Short films open your eyes to the logistics of filmmaking.

This is perhaps the best advice. After deciding to do a short myself, I found that I have a much better understanding not just of logistics and cost, but also of the writing as well. The making of the short forced me to consider locations, or alternate scenes, and even changing the screenplay.

My $5k budget ballooned to over $15k (and still counting as we are in post) as we went to Super 16mm film, SAG actors, expensive props, full production insurance, etc. If you want to make a micro budget feature consider filming in Mexico and definitely consider non-union actors and crew.

[Juno Styles]

Re: Writing the low budget film....more of a challenge?

A good way to practice how to keep something low budget is to write a
short film and have someone produce it. This will teach you to study what
locations you have available to you, how many actors you'll be able to
afford or achieve, etc.

Short films open your eyes to the logistics of filmmaking.

i agree. and it also helps your writing when actors are actually speaking and performing the lines you can easily see what works and what doesnt work and how what you had in your head may not be the best option for the particular scene.

[wcmartell]

Saw my name, thought I'd stop by...

Well, you still need to write a good script... but you need to write a good script that can be made cheap... and still be good. That's more of a challenge than writing a script where budget doesn't matter.

By the way, RESERVOIR DOGS was written to be shot for $60k on Fred Ray's 16mm camera. It was still made cheap - as a $1.5 direct to video movie. Went theatrical.

Some of that wiki stuff is just plain wrong. When you don't have the money to pay an actor their quote, you need to have the most interesting lead character you can come up with... not some 2D cartoon.

First - You need a great high concept. High concept is not the same as high budget - SIXTH SENSE is high concept but not high budget. RESERVOIR DOGS is *not* high concept at all - there's no *unique* factor in that story. What you want is an idea that's cool on its own, not cool because of stuff you need to make the idea work. Think of INVASION OF THE BODYSNATCHERS - aliens take over your friends! TERMINATOR - a killer android that looks human (there's this great Philip K. Dick story called SECOND VARIETY about killer androids who pass as human to get past security - you never know who is one!). PRIMER has some great limited time travel and multiple versions of the protagonists... and was made for what's in my checking account right now. Find the wild idea where the *idea* is what's cool. I'm writing big budget script next year about people who can *instantly* change location with a pocket sized device. It's a chase thriller.

Second - limit and centralized locations. Every new location means a crew move, where time and money is spent that does *not* show up on screen. Think CASABLANCA rather than a road trip. Maybe 4-6 locations *total*. And you want to mix up the locations - too much time spent in the same room will drive the audience crazy. You need EXTs. and INTs. You're probably going to have around 40-45 scenes in your 90 page script, so you want to alternate locations to keep things moving. A *variety* of locations. DOGS uses different rooms in the warehouse, nd different *times* in the warehouse - like the planning of the crime. Use common sense with locations - nothing expensive.

Third - limit your characters to 10-15 speaking roles. And you want interesting characters, because you don't have the money to entertain the audience with all kinds of big FX and explosions - so the people have to be interesting. You're going to use *dramatic explostions* - even if you're writing an action flick. And you need "actor proof" dialogue - stuff that will sound great even when the worst actor you can imagine is cast (they will be). A big budget film can depend on the actor to make the character work, in a low budget film it's all in the script. Any characterization is through actions and situations - not *acting*. We can't depend on great delivery of a line, the *line itself* has to be great.

Fourth - No kids, no weather, no animals... nothing you can not control. You want ext-day instead of ext-night (lighting is expensive and time consuming).

Sixth - one extras location... but you can thread it through the script. Another trick is "confined cameos" - have good roles that are confined to one location with many scenes in the script - and you can cast a "star" in that role and make it look like he's in the whole movie.

Seven - an okay movie, but I think it's over rated.

Eight - I prefer the sequel, 8 AND ONE HALF.

Nine - FX, Stunts, Etc. A car chase is more expensive than a space ship battle! I know that's hard to believe, but a car chase is done for real - you close down a street, have stunt men, and crash cars. A space ship battle can be done with CGI or models - and the world is full of FX geeks who want a break. Easier to get some kid in Kansas to play around on his laptop for cheap, than it is to get stunt men to risk their lives for cheap. Plus, you have to pay for all those cars you wreck. One thing to consider - if you're writing an action film, the action is the *star* - so make sure you have enough action to sell the script. I'd come up with one amazing stunt or FX bit that the producer can put in the trailer. Think of this as the high concept action scene - make sure it's unusual and cool.

Ten - Have you seen Bo Derek lately? Her *face* is beaded.

Eleven - As far as action is concerned - think PERSONAL. Fist fights, foot chases, shoot outs. Person on person violence. That's the great thing about low budget action - you remove the buffers and have action scenes that are more personal. Think about what makes this fist fight unique. Without all that money, you have to use *imagination* and *creativity* to make the action scenes interesting. I like to put on my Jackie Chan hat and find weird weapons in every day life.

Twelve - Dog Juice: because you don't have stars or big FX or any of the other things you'd find in the average $100 million Hollywood film, you need to take things to the limit. Faster pacing. Bigger stakes. Bigger emotions and actions and everything else.

Hope that helps...

Here's more:
http://www.scriptsecrets.net/articles/blockb1.htm
http://www.scriptsecrets.net/articles/blockb2.htm
http://www.scriptsecrets.net/articles/indcormn.htm
http://www.scriptsecrets.net/articles/dogjuice.htm
http://www.scriptsecrets.net/articles/highcon.htm
http://www.scriptsecrets.net/articles/highcon2.htm

- Bill

PS: And think genre. The movies that sold big at Toronto Film Fest this year were *horror* movies. Weinsteins paid millions, not for dramas, but for MANDY LANE and BLACK SHEEP. Even the indie distribs want *genre* films.