Writing Low — Aiming Higher
Tom Benedek isa longtime friend, fellow screenwriter and co-founder of Screenwriting Master Class. He has been working in Hollywood for over three decades, so he’s sort of like those old E.F. Hutton ads: “When Tom Benedek talks, people listen.”
Here Tom weighs in on the value of writing scripts with budget in mind, specifically low-budget.
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).
In order to school myself further in these endeavors, 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. Christopher 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.
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. And I am working on a guest appearance from Beasts of the Southern Wild screenwriter Lucy Alibar and more. The class starts Monday, May 13 at ScreenwritingMasterClass.com.
I can echo Tom’s wisdom. If you write a script with a $100M budget, you’re basically looking at a handful of buyers. If you write a script that can be made for $10–25M, you can still go the major studios, but you also open possibilities with a slew of financiers out there hungry for original material. Plus the script can be a great calling card and writing sample. And finally, if you have aspirations to direct, the smaller the budget, the lower the threshold in terms of hitting a funding entity’s comfort level.
The class is called Writing the Low-Budget Script and you can find out more about it here.
As always, Tom and I look forward to the opportunity to work with you!