Writing a screenplay for a budget?

[RaymondLeggs]

Is it better to write, a screenplay specifically for a low budget, or just write the script and scale it down?
Its an action oriented story and there are some VFX, but not as many as most.



I don't know my budget since I haven't started my indigogo campaign. I forged kick starter because you don't get to keep the money you made unless you reach your entire goal.

I wont ask for more than $30,000.

on another note I feel like I'm getting tired of attempting to write this particular script. Or at least a treatment with NO plot holes or it feels like I'm gluing all kinds of movies together.

I started on a treatment for something else. Finished another one before that. One of them is called "Solace" which is about the struggles of an inter-sexed woman, who is involved with both her best friend, and her boyfriend who is the son of a Old school gangster. Secretly the boyfrind is having an affair with her male best freind. I am trying to lighten up the story, I am renaming it after the main charachter. Marley.

The one I am writing now is called "The fame" and it has a Bret easton Ellis influence, Its about a mainstream electro pop Band who fights for artistic independence, and they share the same woman, there is a subplot about a serial killer who sells teenage girls and young women to rich men, he kills the undesirables. He gets his comeuppance by the way of a vampire.

 

[Lucky Hardwood]

If you know that you will be shooting it yourself, you have to write what you can actually get/do. Be realistic. Get creative. You don't want your film be a giant series of compromises because it will look like it if it is. Don't have the budget for that epic car chase scene? Don't write it. Get your tension from another plot device, like a foot chase that can be shot as series of bits and edited together to give the look of a chase that goes for miles. Don't get caught up on the vehicle that moves the plot forward, focus on the movement.

 

[PaulGriffith]

If you know that you will be shooting it yourself, you have to write what you can actually get/do. Be realistic. Get creative.

That's the way to do it! Don't write VFX if you don't know how to pull them off. Don't write it where the location has to be a penthouse with a view when you can only use your living room. Don't write for 18 actors when less will do.

The stuff you know how to do well, do it! Make the most of that and the production will be better for it.

$30k is a chunk of crowd sourced change. Do you have a pretty big network or a fundraising marketing plan in place?

 

[GuerrillaAngel]

Open your wallet, then start typing. Each time you write something that will cost money to film, take some money out of your wallet and burn it. Eventually you'll have a script that you can film for practically nothing.

 

[CraigL]

Or, write the big script, then take pieces out of it, or back stories that relate to it, and make some shorts with lo/no budget from those. Get practise, build up a pitch reel for the big project.

Don't NOT write something just cause you think you can't do it right now. You can find a dozen ideas in or around the script to make simple shorts with and then take it from there.

District 9 is a prime example, a simple short was enough to garner interest in the full feature...

CraigL

 

[Alcove Audio]

there is a subplot about a serial killer who sells teenage girls and young women to rich men, he kills the undesirables. He gets his comeuppance by the way of a vampire.

That's a film in itself - the vampire is a PI or cop looking into the disappearances. You can adapt it for most any budget.

an inter-sexed woman, who is involved with both her best friend, and her boyfriend...
... the boyfrind is having an affair with her male best friend...

a mainstream electro pop Band ... share the same woman

You seem to like the love triangle story....

 

[RaymondLeggs]

That's a film in itself - the vampire is a PI or cop looking into the disappearances. You can adapt it for most any budget.



You seem to like the love triangle story....

Its meant to be to be 3 different but connected storylines that intersect at the end.

Band members are just now starting out as a band, yet the lable wants them to change thier sound to be more like the killers. Meanwhile they spend most of thier times with one of the band members girlfreind, Jezebel.

Band members girlfriend is a raging sex addict. Band manager hates her.

Sub-story 2 The most conservative of the band members finds company in a georgous pale woman named riley, he founds out soom that she is a daywalker, but he doesent care

sub story 3- Even more twisted than Dexter fletcher serial killer, kidnaps young women, and sells them to rich people. The ones who dont pass the test are murdered brutally. He Bites off more than he can chew when he kidnaps riley, and it also turns out the band manager is the one sending him the girls.

 

[ItDonnedOnMe]

Is it better to write, a screenplay specifically for a low budget, or just write the script and scale it down? [...]
I don't know my budget since I haven't started my indigogo campaign.

I think you're going about this all wrong.

Start with figuring out how much you can realistically expect to raise through crowdfunding - then see if you can write your script to fit within that budget. If you can't then you need to figure out a way to raise more money.

If you can't already figure out what you can realistically crowdfund, then you probably aren't ready for crowdfunding.

 

[FantasySciFi]

While all of the suggestions are valid, my experience is that it's best to write the story first. With that in hand, you can get a better idea what your budget will be when you plan your crowd funding and then make changes accordingly. It is often far easier to remove effects/locations/characters from a well developed story than to film an impoverished story. I am often surprised how creative one can become on a shoestring budget. And with AfterEffects and CG, there is a lot more than can be done by the indie filmmaker.

As a writer, I stay mindful of the budget--keeping the characters, locations, and effects minimal to telling a good story. The danger of writing specifically to a budget is that it limits the creativity of the director/producer. Write the story as it needs to be told, then cut away the superfluous. Even if you are the director, don't limit your vision until after you get it onto the paper. Be ruthless in your re-writes, not in the initial script drafts. I am sometimes amazed how an art director, DP or director can totally re-envision a scene that makes it cost effective. And once a production starts, it is amazing how sometimes resources materialize that were unexpected. (Of course, sometimes cost more than one expects too.)

I like your story idea. I wish you the best with your production!