The value of low-budget filmmaking

Last week I posted this from Tom Benedek:

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, pre-existing 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. Well, I went off and wrote a novel instead.

Now, finally, I am working on a script that can be made for a price — DIY. But it is not easy. I had it all in one location until I decided (really) that there were scenes in India that belonged in the story. Actually, I’m thinking of getting rid of those scenes on a far off continent (OR will figure out a way to shoot them remote. Stage them via Skype and have a cameraman with an Iphone on location. We will see).

That post resulted in this email from filmmaker Shane Weisfeld:

Tom,

I just read about your upcoming master class about every screenwriter needing a low-budget script in their drawer.

I wanted to let you know about my first produced credit “Freezer”, which just wrapped post-production and has been picked up by Anchor Bay for North American and English-speaking distribution rights.

“Freezer” is a one-location action thriller about a man kidnapped and thrown into a walk-in freezer where he fights for his life to come up with $8 million a mob family is convinced he stole. The film stars Dylan McDermott, Peter Facinelli and Yuliya Snigir, the budget was $2.5 million, and it filmed over 17 days in Edmonton, AB and then one day of filming in L.A.

I can honestly tell you that after spending many years writing scripts and trying to break in, things didn’t start happening for me until I wrote this script — because I wrote it (with a friend of mine) with budget in mind and we wanted to write a script as a business model. The whole point was to write a script that a producer could read and see this getting made, low budget, to be shot in 20 days or less, in any city, with minimal characters.

This has changed things for me in so many ways. Not that I was writing big budget scripts before, but this was the first time I wrote a script with (low) budget in mind, but also something that could attract all the right elements needed to get a movie made, and not just have it as a writing sample and never get produced. It was also the script that got me representation, after many years of trying.

I started a blog last November — “Unsolicited: A Screenwriter’s 15-Year Journey Into The Film Industry” — and it’s all about my struggles over the years, mistakes I’ve made, things I’ve learned and observed, and a lot of the blog is devoted to the path “Freezer” took from conception to production.

I would love to share my story about this on Scott’s ‘Go Into The Story’ or any outlet you guys are involved in or know about, because although it took me 15 years to become a produced writer, the journey to become a working writer in the business is still ongoing, at the age of 38.

- Shane Weisfeld

Toronto, Canada

Representation: Mike Kuciak, Samurai MK, Los Angeles

Great story. And speaks to the value of low-budget filmmaking including writing scripts with budgetary constraints in mind. Some keys: Minimal characters, one location. That’s a good start.

Tom is offering a brand new 1-week online class called Writing the Low-Budget Script and you can find out more about it here.

Congratulations, Shane. Best of luck with all your creative endeavors!