Writing the low budget film
A guest post from Tom Benedek, long-time Hollywood screenwriter (Cocoon) and co-founder of Screenwriting Master Class:
I am in the middle of writing a very low budget script. I have been struggling to engineer it as a DIY film, something that I shoot myself for a minimal budget. I came out to Hollywood as a filmmaker, with my student film under my arm, and ended up a screenwriter. No complaints. I keep picking up a camera and shooting, but not making a film. Actually, I have been doing a lot of photography and would really like to make a film again.
Developing my DIY script has been a struggle. Life, jobs, other projects have intervened. But now I am determined. Onward…
As far as logistics and the necessary practicalities of DIY, I had it all in one location until I decided that there were scenes in India that belonged in the story. One of my class members these days is a great cinematographer-filmmaker who lives in Bangkok. Perhaps he could do some ad hoc second unit for me over there if I limit those scenes. Hmmmm.
Getting back to the basics of storytelling is an essential in the low budget-dig realm, of course. Looking through the prism of this mandate is a great exercise for all screenwriters. To that point, I will be teaching a Writing the Low Budget Film class next week at Screenwritingmasterclass.com. One of the great things about this class is being able to savor the points of view of some hero writer-filmmakers before they caught fire. Darren Aronofsky pre Pi. Chirstopher Nolan before he made his first film, Following. On and on. Where they were at that point in their lives resonates with where we all are before we write any script. And they were dealing with serious, self-imposed aesthetic constraints which they turned into virtues. That is the key. Smaller really can be better.
Disciplining our writing for budget forces focus on character and plot — where it should have been in the first place. The last spec script I wrote got me a wonderful manager. He loved the script. AND he refused to send it out to market. Because it was too expensive — oh, my poor hundred fifty million dollar sci fi epic. His perception — there are two people in Hollywood who can make a project like it that is not based on prominent, preexisting material (reboot, famous book, sequel, etc.) so it is a waste of time to try to sell this. His directive — write the same kind of thing much smaller. One protagonist on screen most if not all the time and much more limited locations and effects. A movie that might cost 60 million with a star attached but that could be made for 5–9 million or even less perhaps. That script could be sent to 20 or more potential buyers.
Do consider taking this class. Lots of inspiration and words of wisdom to channel from the greats. We will workshop loglines and stories for everybody’s low budget ideas. There will be an interview and live on line Q and A text chat with United Talent Agency Indie Specialist Jenny Maryasis. The class starts Monday, May 5 at Screenwritingmasterclass.com.
For more information about Tom’s upcoming Writing the Low Budget Film class, go here.
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