Less is more…
You want a script that does not cost much to shoot. There are lots of ways a script can get expensive, more ways than I can outline here, but here are some basics.
- Length: The longer the script, the more expensive the shoot. Therefore, keep the script short. Indie productions usually shoot as little as 3 pages per day to as many as 10 pages per day, but shooting too many pages in a day can get a bit sloppy in terms of final results. The expense comes because each day you have to pay for equipment, food, location, etc, the costs can add up. When you’re starting off, try to keep your project to a day or two, and leave the longer projects to when you get better and when you are more apt to sell your project.
- Lot of Locations: Lots of locations might mean lots of money if you have to pay for them, but even if you get your locations for free, the hidden cost of multiple locations is that they cost time to move the cast and crew from one location to the other. This can get expensive on features, but on a short you feel it even more because time is limited as it is. I like picking scripts with one or two locations and as I am picking the script, I try to already have an idea of where I could shoot the project, or if there are a couple of locations, what locations I could select that are close to each other that could minimize the transportation time.
- Special effects: Anything involving fire, blood, car chases, explosions, etc are going to cost money. And to do greenscreen well also often costs a lot of money, so I would also rule out complicated computer generated effects unless you know how to generate them yourself and will be the one at the computer doing the work.
- Stunts – Stay away from stunts because in feature films with full budgets there is always a stunt coordinator making sure everyone knows how to do everything safely. Stunt coordinators are expensive. And you don’t want to do stunts without a professional stunt coordinator because lawsuits are even more expensive.
- Period Pieces – Unless you can create the effect with black and white in post (assuming you’re shooting on digital) and you have all the set pieces and wardrobe that you need in order to create the desired time period, you might want to stay away from period pieces. If you already have a script that is a period piece, is there a way you can modernize the story to today’s time?
- Large Cast – First of all, it’s hard enough to get together a few actors and your crew for a day when everyone is available and is willing to work for free, but when you have a large cast, it’s like herding cats! And you have to feed everyone, and make sure there is a place to hold the actors that are not on set, and get enough make up, and maybe pay expenses like gas and parking… it’s not worth it and it makes your job, as producer, a lot tougher. Better to stick with a small cast.
- Crappy material –People will work for free on projects that have good material. People will ask for compensation on projects that start off with material they feel is sub par. So find a great script. Great material will persuade the best people to work for free because they think the project might actually go somewhere big (like win awards) which will reflect positively on them and better their career (or at least make them look cool).
The reason why all of those independent features from the film festivals are very talky is because that’s what least costly to shoot. However, too much talking and not enough action can be quite boring, so it’s important to achieve a delicate balance. But if you can achieve that balance you will end up with an interesting project that doesn’t cost too much to produce.
