Screenwriting : The Budgetary Trials and Tribulations of Writers Who Just Want to...Write... by Mike Childress

Mike Childress if you're writing to submit your work to a competition, budget doesn't matter. Just write a kickass script. (Why would anyone write a script just to submit to a competition?)

If you want your script to get made, that's a valid consideration. Can you go through and find ways for it to cost less, so you have a better chance of getting a yes?

Either way, I would say to focus on writing a kickass script.

Maureen Mahon Thank you for being part of my echo chamber (Exactly what I wanted to "hear")! Re: writing just for a competition I might argue that most people who enter contests are in fact writing scripts just to submit to a competition... Thousands of entries and very few even make the first cut. How many of those submissions are eventually produced down the line, or even read in their entirety? It would be a superb data point to have alas...

When I write a micro-budget feature script that I'll pitch to indie producers and directors, I focus on the budget a lot, Mike Childress. When I write a low-budget feature script or mid-budget feature, I keep the budget in mind, but I don't focus on it as much. I don't think about the budget when I write a big-budget feature, and I wouldn't think about the budget if I wrote a feature to enter a competition.

I don't see a micro-budget feature script in your list, so maybe write one as your next project.

Hi Mike,

My opinion -- you are right to consider budget.

First of all, the chances of anyone selling a spec to a major production company these days are close to zero. If you've vetted your script with multiple pros from these producers here at Stage32 through their affordable consult opportunities, and get good feedback, then you know you have something marketable.

You can use a couple great specs to pursue getting a manager, but my advice is write something fantastic and get it made. There are lots of producers making films in the under-$200K space. And the scripts for a lot of those films are not good. So finding a producer like that with your good script, is doing you both a favor. And showing off a produced screenplay puts you in an entirely different league from a guy with some scripts. Plus, it's hella fun to actually make a movie.

The SAG Ultra Low Budget tier is up to $300K, and allows you to have both SAG and non-SAG actors working side-by-side with no Taft-Hartley restrictions, and you can use non-union background actors (get volunteers). If you can afford financing something in the $100K - $300K range, you can partner with a more experienced producer, and make the film how you envision it. Getting even one or two good SAG actors for your leads, working for scale will only cost you on the order of $1,500 each, per week (not including any travel/housing costs).

The key to making a movie in this budget range, and having it look like a multimillion dollar film, is Virtual Production. Have you studied this? Just like Marvel movies shoot tons of their scenes just in a studio, with a few practical elements, and green screen backgrounds, you can have all kinds of great locations just by using static background art, or even better, use Unreal Engine with a camera tracking app like LiteCraft Jetset, and a photorealistic set purchased from the Unreal Engine Marketplace. This is where the industry is ever-increasingly headed.

A quick video on YouTube ("How we made a Comedy Series for the BBC using Virtual Production") will give you a basic idea of the concept, if you're not familiar. Note that their stuff doesn't look amazingly cinematic, and they didn't have Jetset back then, so look at it for the concept. Go to the Litecraft Jetset website for an idea of a better-looking result. The crazy thing is, you could shoot an entire sci-fi movie in a spaceship, in a green screen studio, for vastly cheaper than going all over town finding practical locations and moving cast and crew around to shoot a standard-looking indie film..

Anyway, this is getting long... I am using virtual production to make a "normal" movie way cheaper by using virtual sets. It doesn't have to be for sci-fi. Some of your big-budget scripts might actually be produceable for vastly less than you think.

If you want to make something, but don't have the $100K+ probably needed for a feature, the same thing applies to a short film. If you can make a proof-of-concept for a sci-fi movie with virtual production for $5K - $10K, if you can afford that, that would be great, or make just a self-contained short. I feel that a short is much more important to showcase a director's talent, than a writer's though. Yes, you can impress with a great 5 or 10 pages, but it doesn't prove you can keep it up for 100 more pages.

Maurice Vaughan I am still reeling from learning of the Primer cost of production... I THINK the first Short could potentially be "micro-budget" except...it takes place in the Scottish Highlands... Part of the problem for some writers like me, who were driven to write screenplays primarily as film fanatics, is we think in big budget film productions. We know what we consume! I try and force myself to be cognizant of this like I remind myself not to JUST write for Mike...

Steve St. Peter No worries I am The King of Verbosity! EXCELLENT stuff. I have actually previously pondered on here just how many writers are turning to self-production after banging at the castle doors for eons. I mean the stuff people can produce on their cellphones alone makes 90s big studio productions look like shadow puppet theater! I harbor no false pretenses re: the odds of selling a spec script. My goal has never been solely to sell spec scripts. I want to be a staff writer absent a miracle where I can just write features unencumbered, in perpetuity! Great point re: "five or ten pages" vice "100 or more". Ideation or textualizing have never been my problems. I can story/world-build. Now that I am more adept in the screenplay writing format I am concentrating more on next steps so I think that's where the film economy ruminations spawned from... That stated I am also one of those writers who really just wants to write. I have no grand designs on production-level incursions. I want to sit in front of my keyboards and bleed until nothing remains to exsanguinate...

you are absolutely right, the budget of the film is the first thing a screenwriter who wants to sell his script should think about. Of course, you need to start with cheap plots for sitcoms, medical dramas and procedural detectives. of all that I have written, the only thing that aroused interest in Russia was the project of a legal drama, which in the end I was unable to sell. nothing else has aroused the interest of the Russian film business.

Arthur Charpentier I think the budget aspect is part of a multi-faceted strategy conversation a spec script writer should have with him/herself right off-the-bat. Is my idea marketable to the mainstream? Can it be shot economically? Is there a hook to draw the reader in? How exactly am I going to attempt to hawk my works? Can I razzle dazzle in the first few pages? Is my idea too much like other productions already being churned out? Are my characters interesting, and do they develop throughout the course of the script? Does my story flow well?

Personally the most important part, initially, was just a purge of ideas from my head. I wrote purely (well mostly) for myself and myself alone. I regret nothing. Now (well henceforth) I am thinking more like a salesman who is attempting to offload his goods (how artistic...). In a perfect world us creators wouldn't have to deal with the money or (groan) legal side of the industry alas here we are. An army of the masses assaulting a superbly well-fortified bastion. So how do you breach the walls? Always the Trojan Horse.

For a simple screenwriter, how accurate can he be when estimating. Sure, locations, the number and whereabouts, characters, special effects, all come into this, but it still needs a lot of experience to estimate the cost. Look up the internet, that is what I have to rely on. But it's only a quick and dirty guideline. Any more robust systems? And no, I don't intend to ask any expert unless they tell me "I am interested in your script," so I am permanently in the dark. Ideally, it could be a script of a lonely person talking to his dog explaining his problem... then you will have a good idea of cost.

Charles V Abela I think as a mostly big box sci-fi and fantasy guy there's just this expectation of significant SFX cost, even though CGI is way more affordable than it was. Also, like with my current feature script, lots of characters (whom I believe are all integral to the story) which means $$$$ too of course. Creativity and reality appear to be at odds, perpetually, in this industry. So I know some people find it weird, but some stuff I am going to write to hawk, and some will be, primarily, for me. This allows me to make creative sacrifices in one existence whilst going full-on devil-may-care in the other (also includes novels). I enjoy writing so no biggie. I was writing for pleasure for eons before writing the first script. I also play guitar for enjoyment, but not pursuing record deals. Does that fact make it a waste of time?

I think it's better to write fantasy and science fiction than cheap projects. you can always make a book out of fantasy and science fiction, and cheap projects will only go to the trash.

Hi Mike Childress - Many awesome responses/opinions here! Someone in the business once said (I don't recall who) it's OK to write big budget, but if you really want to pursue this as a career, also have a lower budget writing example ready to pitch. Makes sense to me, so I follow that bit of advice: I have 3 high budget sci-fi features and a lower budget feature/pilot completed. I try to keep in mind that the writer of The Creator was an unproduced spec writer until his script stumbled into a bidding war, but in the end, it's about enjoying what I'm writing :-)

I believe that if you're writing without caring for budget, you might as well write it in a 'novel' form. Otherwise, I think you should be conscious at all times if writing it as a script, whether for enjoyment or hopefully with business intents... to sell the script or get known amongst the more influential circles.

Hey Matthew Kelcourse ! Yes, I also think, ultimately, as a new spec cog in the machine a decent range of work in the portfolio to shower upon producers at a moment's notice is a no-brainer, but I definitely did not think about budget diversity initially. I am loath to think about it now haha. I was myopically-focused on genre. There are indeed some great spec script success stories; however, I am not waiting with bated breath for that particular miracle to occur! I think I need to remind myself I am also "competing" against people who have been writing screenplays for way longer than I have, some for DECADES! Film school graduates. Nepotism-driven consideration. Oh my! Focus on your strengths though right? So my powers of ideation (and the ability to cogently express said ideas) will have to drive my campaign to breach the walls. The literal battering rams if you will. So, yes, at least lads like us enjoy the craft regardless!

Charles V Abela If I can manage to figure out Scrivener look out world! When I first started writing my nonfiction manuscript, a thousand years ago, it was legitimately the most freeing thing ever. I was like, "I can write...whatever I want!" I think, even if I defy the odds and become a professional screenwriter, I will always be more suited to the novel life. My brain does not like compacting its ideas.

Mike Childress So true. You're always very expressive. With Scrivener however, maybe you can free yourself of the formatting while composing the Script in WORD. and once all done, export it into Scrivener. I tried it with Script Studio, but it did not work, unfortunately, it got messy, so I had to get used to Script software.

Charles V Abela I am so sick of Word I would write on a stone tablet before returning to it!

Agree to disagree Charles V Abela. An exciting, well executed, high budget sci-fi also serves as a writing sample for many production houses and managers on the lookout for impressive writers that can be hired onto other projects, which is not the case in the publishing world. For me, "Caring about budget" will always be somewhere in the grey area and never in the forefront of creativity in my writing. Write on!

Matthew Kelcourse Charles and I are quantum travelers stepping betwixt the film and book worlds. A good amount of our discourse to-date has involved adaptations and whether the impetus of a screenplay should be a book or vice-versa. I never had designs on writing screenplays before March of this year. I always wanted to be a novelist, or novella-ist, or short story curator. Now I see Hollywood wanting to hoover up novel rights or novelist-helmed screenplay adaptations like me at an all-you-can-eat shellfish buffet. So I will continue to write big-budget (sci-fi especially) scripts, but the sweet siren song of budget-indifferent novel manuscripts doth call to me both as a creator and as a screenwriter who looks to employ irregular warfare tactics to beak in the film industry, potentially by adapting my own novel(s) to screenplays.

Understood Mike Childress and no offense intended. My post above was based on a statement that anyone who doesn't care about budget should write novels (paraphrased) ;-)

if the story is good, it can be told in a movie with any budget. we all know examples of films that were not saved by action and computer graphics.

Arthur Charpentier Indeed; however, in order for someone to see the story magic you have to get someone to read it/them! If you have a 90-100-120-page script even the Noob-iest of readers might triage yours well before even being able to determine what the potential budget is...

Years ago, I wrote a "fuck it" spec. Hundreds of bad guys, jet planes, cities destroyed... didnt care about budget, page count, formatting do's & donts. My focus was on storytelling, executing the idea with a clear goal & theme from page 1 to end. The script got me an agent & won me future favors from peers.

Dan MaxXx Yessss.

Congratulations, Dan MaxXx! I'm writing a "fuck it" spec right now.

Maurice Vaughan YESSSSS!

Let's all do it! Wait, I am an FNG...

unfortunately, this does not work in Russia.

Arthur Charpentier Any market outside of your country?

Mike Childress, I didn't quite understand your question. Please write in more detail, what do you mean?

Arthur Charpentier Meaning, like with Russian literature, is there demand for screenplays/productions from Russian writers anywhere outside of Russia? Streaming platforms like Netflix are rife with non-US-based content now. Acorn has tons of foreign, i.e. non-US programming.

Mike Childress, I think the language barrier is a serious obstacle to the promotion of Russian authors abroad. High-quality text translation is expensive, most people cannot afford it.

I encourage familiar writers and screenwriters to visit the Stage32 website, but for some reason they do not come. Perhaps most people do not believe that they can succeed abroad, because it is very difficult to do it in Russia.

Arthur Charpentier What I figured as I have seen a bunch of posts from English as a Second Language individuals re: using AI for translation... I suppose the odds of breaking into the industry are better in the US/west, but seemingly not by much! Unfortunate enough in America, but just think how many good scripts/stories are likely created outside of this country, but never even read...

Mike Childress How many $ signs against the drama?

Charles V Abela I feel like pure drama can be 'micro-budgeted' more easily than other genres? That emotive magic could potentially just involve two people in a room together...hell there's a great Brit production with one guy in a room! Dialogue over visuals.

Drama is boring. comedy is better. if you use a video diary, an interview or an interrogation, then in this form you can tell a story in almost any genre.

"Comedy is tragedy plus time." Drama rules the roost in Best Picture wins at that particular awards show everyone talks about, if that is the standard by which to judge genres. I love stand-up comedy, but avoid comedy series and movies like the plague.

I am the boring type. Unless it's old British Comedy, smart and witty. Most of which has now been banned. Political Correctness. ... Back on track... What I am referring to is something similar to the feature film "The Lincoln Lawyer" - not the series. Do you classify that movie as specifically drama. Legal Drama, Action Drama, Legal Thriller. And how many dollar signs? $50 mil? More, less? So I can compare even though I am a billion miles away from that galaxy. I checked on IMDB, maybe I was in a rush.

Charles V Abela A DC public station used to show "Are You Being Served?" I THINK I saw that movie. There is so much Venn Diagram intersection with film I would think marketers could use any number of genre combos. I tend to think of something like "Michael Clayton" as a "legal thriller". Or basically any John Grisham adaptation. I would think fifty million is a lot even for something like that helmed by an expensive cast...