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, 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.
