If you’ve spent any time studying the Hollywood film scene, you know that there are fewer ‘big budget’ films getting made these days. Despite the studio-funded gargantu-budget movies you read about in the trades, most producers have positioned themselves to make films that will (hopefully) make money. Enter the glut of low- and micro-budge films that get sold to t.v. networks or go straight to DVD. They’re made on a dime, but still seem to squeak out enough of a profit to keep their moms and pops afloat and in the business.

And if you can write a script–a good script–that a producer can make without risking a one-way ticket to the poorhouse, your chances that the script will actually get bought, (and you’ll get not only a produced credit but a paycheck) shoot skyward.

I’ve made a living writing these kinds of scripts. My films have been produced for as low as $300,000 - just under $1M. A good way to keep yourself in check, is to be in control of your locations. Choose them wisely. Here are three location-based tips to ensure your budgets don’t price you right out of the game:

1. Locations — limit them.
Use the same one for multiple scenes. Utilize both interiors and exteriors. As a general rule, if you want to be a better screenwriter, learn how scheduling works. Every time a crew has to pack up and move to a new location, it costs the production money and time. For a million dollar budget, consider an 18 day shoot. Smaller budget = fewer days. If you can spend three of eighteen days at a single location and move on the third day, tha’s cheaper than moving three times in three days.

My suggestion: for a budget of $1 Mil, write for no more than 14 locations total, on a micro-budge of $300,000 or less, no more than six. Don’t sacrifice scope completely– lots of scenes shot in small rooms feels claustrophobic and cheap, so keep a couple “ambitious” locations so that you can have a few nice sweeping establishing shots, but focus on limiting and maximizing locations as a general rule.

2. Pick locations that are cheap.
Creating one scene in a very expensive location (like an airport for example) when it could just as easily take in a car on the ride home from the airport smells of inexperienced writing. An establishing stock shot of an airplane landing on a runway, coupled with the scene of your characters in a car costs significantly less than renting a portion of an airport for a day and paying for the necessary extras to make that airport look real.

You�re not expected to know how much a restaurant in downtown L.A. would rent for in comparison to one in Brentwood, but let logic be your guide. Renting a low-end neighborhood bar on a Tuesday night (when it is typically closed anyway) will obviously be much cheaper than renting an upscale sports bar on a Monday night during football season.

3. Double �em up.
If you have three characters that live in three different houses, and House #3 is the location for only one scene, double it with House #1 or 2. Or at least give the producers the option to. Don�t write three scenes taking place in three kitchens when you could have two kitchens and a bedroom. If dressed to look like a different house, the audience will assume that it is, indeed, a third house, when really one location is serving as two different houses. Do that, and you�ve just saved the cost of a third location and a crew move, and maximized your existing locations on the schedule.

One clarification� and this is important. No one expects you to get so hung up on �rules� that you sacrifice creativity. Don�t initially write your script to fit a shooting schedule. Those changes can be made in your rewrite. And if your particular story calls for a scene in a hot air balloon over Prague, and that� for whatever reason�is integral to your story, then it must stay. But know that when a producer looks at a script, he/she is looking for a reason to pass yours up and go on to the next one. Don�t let locations work against you. Simply be mindful of them. They are more than just details.