You could write something along the lines of Die Hard, Terminator or Waterworld. But if you want your movie to be made, think low-budget. One location, two actors, no children, no pets. Your script adviser: Denis Edwards.
TRULY MADLY CHEAPLY
Sitting down to write your film script and
hoping it will sweep you from Grey Lynn or the Aro Valley to a life of having
to decide whether or not you want to get out of your Malibu pool? Then it’s
worth making a start on learning the rules for writing a low-budget feature
film, because unless you happen to be Peter Jackson, the chances are you won’t
be writing anything else.
There is nothing wrong or sinful or
embarrassing about this. Low-budget films can be massive successes. Once Were Warriors, Truly Madly Deeply, Strictly
Ballroom, Sex, Lies and Videotapes
and Dead Man Walking were all low- or
comparatively low-budget films. All of them made a lot of money, with the
latter two winning at Cannes or on Oscar night.
What they had in common was that they were
about people and their relationships. Not a massive “boom boom” action sequence
or a “blow them away” set of special effects in any of them.
That left the burden falling on the
writers’ talent and knowledge of the craft, the Hero’s Journey, the three-act
structure, dramatic throughlines and, above all, an understanding of people and
the ways they interact.
Dead
Man Walking is a textbook example of low-budget
film writing. It has only a few locations, and only one big outdoors scene,
going into the woods for the rape/ murder scene. Outside that is a series of
increasingly tense and gripping interactions between the characters.
It would be interesting to see which
lingers in a filmgoer’s memory, that moment of terrible quiet when Susan
Sarandon began her siege on Sean Penn’s last layer of denial, or the biggest
action sequence ever filmed. Bet on the former.
To thrill and excite an audience, or even
get the movie made, on a minuscule budget, means both knowing and applying the
rules.
General
Rules
1. Drama is better than comedy. Drama is
slightly more bullet-proof against miscasting, unimaginative directors, dull
photography, or even less than brilliant writing. Because expectations are
higher – that we will be made to laugh – comedy is much more exposed.
2. Contemporary drama is better than a
period piece. It is easier to get the details right, and it can be done without
all those animals. See #10 below.
3. Limit the number of lead players. Daily
players are much cheaper. Less is more.
4. One location beats two, or three or 10
locations. Less is more.
5. Exteriors are better than interiors.
They save on lighting. Actually this one tends to apply to places like India or
Southern California, where they know they are going to have reliable light. So,
in New Zealand’s unpredictable climate, interior is probably the way to go.
6. If there’s going to be location
shooting, choose locations to suit cameras rather than sound. Sound can be
dubbed in later.
7. Scenes with no talking are better than
scenes with a lot of dialogue. Less is more.
8. Talking about a bank robbery is much
better than staging a bank robbery. Quentin Tarantino did it in Reservoir Dogs. Less is more.
9. Two principals are always better than
three. Having three means having to move the camera around too much, adding to
shooting time. Shooting time is money. Less is more.
10. Adults are always preferable to
children, who are preferable, but only just, to animals.
11. If there’s a place to really go over
the top and to hell with everything, it is in story ideas. This is the one
place where more is better.
Just in case anyone happened to miss the
core point in all this – less really, really is more.
The
Producer’s Questions
The producer is the person who takes the
most meetings, scares up the money, hires the people and says “no” a lot, often
on a cellphone.
Producers have rules of their own for
deciding whether a script begins moving from the pile on their desk to
development, shooting and finally decisions as to whether it even gets
released.
1. Do I like the characters and the story
in the script (because I’m going to be stuck with it for a long time)?
2. Are the writer, director and actors up
to the work?
3. Can the writer do rewrites, or quickly
retarget the movie? That happened with Once
Were Warriors, when the focus of the story was shifted from the husband to
the wife.
4. Is this a project which could be got
going quickly if money suddenly came available? Implication: writers shouldn’t
even think of setting a low-budget movie in another country.
The
Director’s Questions
This is the person who moves the actors
around and generally has a vision as to how the movie will be when he or she
says “cut” for the final time. Directors tend to get most credit when the film
is a hit, and but will generously allow the writer a place in the limelight if
the film fails.
1. Will there be time for rehearsals to try
to get everyone involved thoroughly, understanding how they fit into the story,
preventing delays and confusion while actors struggle with their motivation and
at the same time 35 crew stand around waiting for something to happen?
2. Has a good part of the budget been set
aside for the exciting and visual stuff?
3. Do I like the story enough to be dealing
with things going wrong on the set and the constant reminders about budgets and
the need to get everything done to a precise timetable?
4. Will the writer be able to step in
quickly and help out if a rewrite is needed?
The
Great Truth All Writers Should Understand
Writers rewrite. The need for this is
finally over when the film appears on the screen in a commercial cinema.
The
Difference Between Film and Television
Time was when television was indoors and
movies were outdoors. Television, with its hi-tech gear, has caught up. The
most obvious distinction nowadays is length. Movies have got a lot, lot longer,
to the point where it is rare to get out of one without going through the
two-hour barrier.
Warning
Signs for Writers
1. “You are OK about an occasional tweaking
of a scene here and there, aren’t you?” 2. “You have a lot to gain by getting
your name on the credits of a movie, don’t you?” This is freely translated as
“You are ready to crawl over broken glass to get a career break and we know it.
This means we can get away without paying you very much and we don’t have to
give you profit participation and can ensure you a slow death by rewrite.”
3. “You are the really creative person
here. Just write whatever you feel flowing out. Don’t you worry yourself about
the budget. We’ll sort all that out later. What we want is for you to get it
all down on paper, and not to deny us any riches.”
Writers hearing this have just heard the
introduction to that feared oration, the Producer’s Speech of Wounded Reproach.
It is a variation on this: “Oh dear, dear. We [meaning the writer working
alone] will have to do a lot of work. All those locations are going to have to
go. So are all those vehicles, child actors, horses and five of the seven
leads.
“Let’s start thinking about those special
effects. Oh, and that old mansion in the Hokianga? I’m afraid it’s gone. We’re
pulling everything back to Mt Roskill. I’ve done a contra on a house there. And
we’ve only got 18 days’ shooting instead of 31, so we might have to have a
little look at a couple of those story threads.
“But hey, the basics of the script are
great.”
The
Writer’s Survival Kit
1. Be such a good writer that no one would
dream of changing a word of your script. The money for the Cracker series was raised on the quality of Jimmy McGovern’s
scripts, and they were shot as is. In the US, Elaine May, Robert Towne and William
Goldman are kept on $100,000-a-week retainers to bandage wounded scripts and to
ensure their employers get first look at any original material they might
choose to write. New Zealand writers seldom need to trouble themselves with
how they would feel about being in the McGovern, May, Towne, Goldman situation.
2. Understand that the writing of a film
script is less art than the preparation of a blueprint for an industrial
process. Blueprints get changed. Your script will be changed. It is better for
your psychological well-being if you get control of the process by,
figuratively speaking, dropping your trousers and assuming the position before
someone else does it for you. Putting it another way, be prepared to do
rewrites.
3. Make sure you are part of the process
right from the beginning, and if possible stay in the loop.
The latter, the writer being part of the
collaborative effort, is the key to success in low-budget film scripts. There
isn’t the time or the money to explore alternatives. One producer describes his
job as making sure that everyone is working on the same picture. This avoids
having one person viewing the material as a comedy while another sees it as
having considerable potential for a remake of Silence of the Lambs.
This has happened. So has success, fame and
money. Good luck.
Thanks
to Michael Brindley and his “Writing The Low-Budget Feature” workshop, the New
Zealand Writers Guild and Jonathan Dowling of Zee Films.
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