4 areas to focus writing spect scripts
Last weekend, I reviewed spec script sales for the last three years. I read through some analysis about the indie film world. And I do what I’ve done for two decades: Determine where I think the best opportunities are for writing an original spec screenplay. Here are four areas:
* Micro-budget movies ($500K and under): If you write a script with a strong concept per strict production guidelines limiting costs, you might opt to make a micro-budget movie. Once produced, you can go the festival route and hope to get lucky, but even if you don’t, you can take a DIY approach to distribution, something that continues to emerge and broaden. In other words, if you make a movie cheaply enough, there are alternate ways of distributing it — largely self-promotional — where you can (hopefully) make back your money. One upside: If you direct the movie or have a good relationship with the director, this tack provides you the most creative control.
* Low budget movies ($5M and under): Although with the lack of indie distributors out there, I’d feel more comfortable with a $2M budget. Ironically with the decrease of indie films, that can work to the benefit of a filmmaker in one respect: more name actors available. There are plenty of actors who like to bounce between mainstream Hollywood movies (for a big paycheck) and smaller indie films which offer them interesting roles to play, which they are sometimes willing to do at or near scale. A $2M movie with some strong talent / names involved still has a good chance of finding a home — assuming it’s a good movie, of course. Key here is a strong concept with great characters to lure actors who have a name that means something in the indie and international market.
* Moderate budget major studio genre story ($50M and under): A strong high-concept movie in one of the three big genres — action, comedy, thriller — with great roles that can be cast from a large pool of actors, not A-list talent. Movies like Takers ($32M budget), Date Night ($55M), and Get Him to the Greek ($40M) are good examples, each of them a profitable movie. In my view, this is the sweet spot for spec scripts just now, and the prime area of interest for original material — and frankly that hasn’t changed much in 20 years (apart from the escalating budgets).
* High budget major studio franchise story ($100M and up): Heavy CGI and big movie concept like “Lightspeed”, a pitch from writers Terry Rossio and Bill Marsilii that sold for seven figures in May of this year:
The “story centers on a young pilot who makes the Earth Interstellar Racing Team and must take his ship on a perilous journey across the galaxy on the brink of war.”
If you come up with a huge concept… something similar but different… that has tentpole written all over it… with four quadrant potential, then that’s the gold mine.
Of course, a great script is a great script no matter the particulars that may fly in the face of conventional wisdom. But if there’s one thing I would not be doing right now is writing movies in the $20M range, unless they are genre projects with an insanely cool concept and reek of major upside. That is too expensive for the indie market and too small for the major studios to get hot and bothered about.
How about you? Where are you focusing your spec script energy now?
Comment Archive