Screenwriting : Film budget by Thom Reese

I'm not an expert on budget, Thom Reese, but I do know that a lot of characters, a lot of locations, big crowds, a lot of CGI, kids, animals, and big stunts run up a budget, so I avoid writing those things in my micro-budget and low-budget scripts.

Hey Thom Reese - I recommend this Stage 32 webinar on how to estimate your film’s budget - I found this super helpful: https://www.stage32.com/education/search?term=Budget&h=how-to-estimate-your-films-budget

You are a screenwriter so I have to ask why you want to determine what the projected budget should be.

Dan Guardino, my understanding is that screenwriters are often asked this question when pitching a script. Am I incorrect in this?

not an expert either but some useful tips on student films we did were to list all the elements that will cost money (like locations and actors) and look up their typical costs and was suggested to us account for other costs in case!

Thom Reese They probably just want to know if it is a low-budget film which is generally under $2 million. Mid-budget ones usually range between $2 million to $20 million. High-budget ones are usually over $20 million.

There are lots of different factors that go into a budget. Such as the amount of locations, actors, visual effects, practical effects, etc. required. A story about 5 friends at a cabin in the woods can be filmed relatively cheaply. Whereas a story about a globe-trotting sci-fi action hero with lots of explosions and sci-fi weaponry/elements will cost precipitously more, thanks to the vfx, locations, actor, and travel requirements. As a writer, it's good to develop a loose scale for your writing, in terms of being able to properly pitch and frame the achievability of your projects. Like, is your project grounded (meaning small, utilizing more natural elements and nothing too big or cost-heavy to shoot)? Or is your script a blockbuster (no concern for costs)? There is a lot of room in between as well. Understanding the inherent-financial meaning of every sentence you write in terms of "how achievable is this shot and what will it cost" can be very useful to a skilled writer. Should it be in your mind at all times and effect your writing? No.

If you ever want to look at a real Hollywood budget, the one for M. Night Shymalan's "The Village" is available online: (https://www.thesmokinggun.com/file/71682975-village-movie-budget)

Thats just laziness by employers, making writers do free developmenet work.

Doing budgets is a specialized job & top secret, not for outsiders to know what it really cost.

The movie, "Call Me By Your Name", the original writer-director wanted $12-$18M to make it and he got turned down and he's an Oscar winner. Producers hired someone else and did it for under $4M and the movie was a box offce success.

Thom Reese Certain topics and locations just require more money. I love my story White Lily, about the two deadliest female fighter pilots who ever lived, but I'm not going to pitch that to an indie producer. World War 2 period piece with fighter planes, tanks, and Stalingrad's not going to be doable for less than $15M by my rough estimate.

Now, a horror story taking place in a single house, on the other hand...

Anyone who writes screenplays can look up and see how much they had to spend to produce a similar movie. I don’t think any producer would expect a screenwriter to know much more if that. All you are doing is trying to get them to read your screenplay.

Thank you, everyone! There are some great thoughts here.

You're welcome, Thom Reese.

Hey Thom! I think it would be best to look up comparable projects, or what some refer to as "comps." It works similarly to how it does in real estate, where you would look at how much was spent on comparable project and use that as a basis for estimation. Hope that helps!

How do you do a budget with no talent & crew attached, no paid salaries development, no schedule, no casting, no locations scouted, no props, unknown state/country to film...?

There are folks here on S32 that can help you with that Thom Reese

Hey Thom Reese, it's very conscientious that you are thinking along those lines, i applaud you for that. Yes, screenwriting is a creative endeavor, 100%, but to turn one into an actual feature film is a logistical enterprise involving time, money and people. As mentioned in this thread above, looking at comps certainly would help. And within your script itself, be cognizant of things like scenes with large amounts of background actors, VFX elements, how many speaking roles there are, your location count, if it's period you have to think about wardrobe, picture cars, props and so on. I can look at a script and fairly easily give you an estimate of it's budget range based on the scope of the script and which budget tier it would fall under. All producers should have this skill set, they should be able to speak to both the creative development elements of the script as well as the physical production requirements, and I think to some extent screenwriters should have this same ability. It will provide you with more agency over your own writing and level the playing field in your interactions with the producers once it goes into their hands to actually go and make.

If planning on directing/producing it, you should, and for that you might need some advisor...otherwise don't burn extra cells by overthinking a budget for just words on paper...fantasy's free my friend...at least until they got us all strapped on AI googles...

Sam makes a good point. There are ways you can educate yourself on what sort of budget your script may fall between. There are articles where you can find out film budgets and IMDb includes budgets in a project's production information page (take some of these with a pinch of salt though).

If someone asks you what the budget is they probably want to know what the below-the-line budget might be because you wouldn't possibly know who they would hire to direct it or act in it.