Does it matter if my first spec screenplay is high budget????

WhereDreamsAreBorn said:
Wow big surprise i didn't get an answer to my question again, as on most screenwriting boards.

Firstly let me just say i am appreciative of the advice you have given me. I really am.

But i am sick to death of people on this forum, and other screenwriting forums, who may be writers, but seem to have a complete inability to READ.

Instead they answer a question that they 'wished' somebody had asked them. Instead of the 'actual' question that was asked.

I never said this is the first time i have written a script.

I re-inforced this when the first guy asked me that, and i said, quite CLEARLY, that i didn't, at this present time, want any information about 'how to write'.

I asked about an unknown writer (which is what i am) and advice about the types of spec scripts, etc.




I once asked on a directors board about the specific differences between two directors viewfinders on the market. They answered everything but that.

"Hey kid, you need one of them."
"Forget that, focus on storytelling"
"Just look through the camera"
"make a square with your fingers"

Do you see my point?
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If one day you ran for president, I would vote for you.
 
BTW, I recall reading about how a lightly disguised version of "Casablanca" was sent out to Hollywood studio readers some years ago as a test of these sorts of odds. It was rejected by the overwhelming majority of them who didn't catch on to the trick...
 
Ok, yea I read some of the other stuff... do take it easy please. But I feel your frustration. People are not going to change, so we gotta work with what we got.
 
And I really should add that it is not my intent to come across as though it's hopeless, and the OP should just forget about it. I just think the budget question on a first-time spec is about as close to irrelevant as is imaginable. Otherwise, I certainly hope he *does* become one of the very few who succeed with it...
 
WhereDreamsAreBorn said:
I could go off and write a film with only three characters, set in one location, etc that would be very low budget (I imagine) but i have no real ideas for that right now. And i am already of tol a good start with writing this bigger budget one.
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Whoah, this is the exact type of script I'm writing right now. :Drogar-Shock(DBG):
 
Ted Spencer said:
And I really should add that it is not my intent to come across as though it's hopeless, and the OP should just forget about it. I just think the budget question on a first-time spec is about as close to irrelevant as is imaginable. Otherwise, I certainly hope he *does* become one of the very few who succeed with it...
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Especially since all of this is irrelevant to his question.

If I was writing a spec script it's something I'd consider. Why the hell wouldn't you want to consider something that if you some how pulled off the 1 in a million chance you could sell?

OPTION A: Work very, very hard on something that is the type of thing that's sellable in a market and industry where selling anything is against all odds, and writing something good on your first time out is also very unlikely. Chance of success less than 1%.

OPTION B: Work very, very hard on something you can't sell no matter what the odds are because it's just not the type of thing that's bought regardless of how good it is. Chance of success 0%.

If high budget specs are just not appropriate and will get the door slammed in your face before you even have a chance to get chewed up and spit out by the usual obstacles - why not consider it and why not ask?

You're probably right in that it won't matter because of the odds. But for Pete's sake that ain't what he asked and just because it PROBABLY won't matter doesn't mean it's a stupid question. In fact, again, because writing a screenplay is a lot of work, why wouldn't you want to spend your time on something that, if amazing, and if you can get it through the gauntlet, you could actually sell it? It's just a little bit more motivation to set down at your keyboard daily and do this hard work. It's gonna be that much harder if you can't, on some level, delude yourself that you're gonna be another Rocky, at least for the time it takes you to sit down and write each day. So yeah - "is this TYPE of material appropriate for the very unlikely thing I want to do?" - is a 100% non stupid, legit question IMHO.

OP is wrong about how he went about how he reacted but I think he has a point about how all this odds stuff was not part of his question. And he way over reacted. All IMHO of course.
 
Sort of.

First - there is a lot of possibilities between a big budget sci-fi script and 2 or 3 people in a room yakking.

Second - what you want is a script with a value higher than the cost to produce. Usually that begins with an amazing high concept idea - something that blows people away when they hear *the idea*. Then, that idea must be not insanely expensive to make. Here are three examples: THE SIXTH SENSE, GHOST, and THE MATRIX.

SIXTH SENSE - boy sees dead people in Philly. All locations are easy to get (more or less), those dead people the boy sees? Just actors.

GHOST - dead guy tries to save woman he loves. All of the locations are easy to get (more or less), the ghost is just an actor. A couple of special effects here and there, but 95% of the time just an actor. By the way, this is one of the most popular films of all time.

THE MATRIX - guy discovers the real world isn't real at all. Script was written to be shot in Chicago - basic city locations. There are some special effects - the "real world" where a small portion of the film takes place is a hovercraft set and some CGI stuff, plus we get that bullet-time stuff (that's cheaper than you think). The big action scenes cost money - but the film would have worked without them. Shot in Australia to save money and because it's close to all of those kung fu folks in Hong Kong.

With a spec (for sale) screenplay what you want is the most amazing and exciting screenplay possible - but you want to use common sense and make sure that the film can be made for a reasonable amount of money. Best thing is if you have a great idea where the *idea* is what is cool, not all of the crap they need to make that idea work.

If you can come up with an amazing idea like "the world we think is real is not real" so that they can shoot the movie for the same cost as some disposable action film with a "cops chase bank robbers" plot or something, you have just opened the doors for a sale. If they have the choice between making two films - one is a standard action film and one is a wild story - and both cost the same, guess which one they pick?

Now, all of that being said - the hot type of spec right now seems to be stunt contained thrillers - like, maybe Ryan Reynolds buried alive. One man in a box.

- Bill

PS: According to a WGA survey a few years back the average pro writer wrote 9 screenplays before making a dime.
 
Hey I was just asking :)

I haven't seen Crank, but I get the premise that he has to keep his heart rate up or something or he'll die. How is this different from Speed where you have to keep the speed of the bus up? Or are they both "stunt based thrillers"
 
Shane Black sold "Lethal Weapon" as his first spec script. That was his second attempt at a feature screenplay. So yes, if your script is good* enough a high budget is not an obstacle. Then of course Shane Black has some serious talent in cooking up rollercoaster type stories chok'ful of cool one liners that even Ah-nuld can't bungle.

Ted Spencer said:
BTW, I recall reading about how a lightly disguised version of "Casablanca" was sent out to Hollywood studio readers some years ago as a test of these sorts of odds. It was rejected by the overwhelming majority of them who didn't catch on to the trick...
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Equally I don't think many at the studio caught on that the 1996 Golden Raspberry Award Worst Picture Nominee Barb Wire was a very thinly disguised remake of Casablanca until the critics pointed it out. I think they were too busy imagining a very thinly dressed Pamela Andersson :evil:

*good in this context mean primarily a high commercial potential, not necessarily of great artistic merit.
 
I hope the original op was just having a bad day and I wish him luck.
I've worked with or know of several writers who sold/had optioned the first screenplay they ever wrote. (major actors, producers)
They came from other writing disciplines novelists/ playwrights/poets. At least one had made a name before writing the first screenplay but the others hadn't.
Do I think that someone who only writes a screenplay without working in another discipline is likely to hit it out of the ballpark the first time? Not likely. The writers I'm talkng about were not kids, they were in their late 30's or older. Wrote for years.
 
Martti Ekstrand said:
Shane Black sold "Lethal Weapon" as his first spec script. That was his second attempt at a feature screenplay. So yes, if your script is good* enough a high budget is not an obstacle. Then of course Shane Black has some serious talent in cooking up rollercoaster type stories chok'ful of cool one liners that even Ah-nuld can't bungle.
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That's a great script, and Black is an exceptionally talented (and audacious) writer IMO. It was one of the featured studies in Dara Marks' excellent book "Inside Story" as an example of the effective use of theme (the primary focus of the book). I knew there were some good first-timers out there, but didn't realize that he was one of them.
 
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I guess my answer to the question, which I never gave, would be more personal and for a lot of you would maybe be still irrelevant.

I would say that I like to write stories that I believe or know for sure I could make one day, and don't rely upon anyone else to make them happen. In other words, if the film can be shot for between $100,000 and several million dollars, I can be sure that one day I will be able to make said script into a film, without needing to sell it to Warner Bros. or whatever. That matters to me because I enjoy the idea of writing something I could actually make in the forseeable future. That's what motivates me to write the screenplay and make it as good as possible, because I'm not sitting there facing these insurmountable odds, instead I'm thinking, "If I like this screenplay when it's done, if it really does turn out great like I think it can, I will shoot this one day and it'll be a movie." That's definitely an encouraging realization. Whereas if I were to write something I know would cost $20 million to $100 million (doesn't really matter either way, even though it's a huge difference, to me there is no difference -- need outside investor financing, big-time, for either one), I may not be able to get motivated enough to finish the project or continue to improve it at this time. I would prefer to write something like that later, perhaps as a work sample or perhaps just to have on hand in case I make it through other means. A low budget film hits, someone asks what other material I have, there, I have lots of material.

In general, though, I'd say most of my ideas can be done fairly reasonably on low budgets. The second screenplay I wrote, I admit, I don't believe I could pull off with a tiny budget. It requires extremely good performances because it's such an ambitious story and character ensemble, it has locations that I'm not sure you'd be able to get inexpensively (several baseball fields, for instance, one has to be an MLB-type of stadium, the others small-time indie league parks), and besides that because of its 4 main characters, it has just a lot of locations in general, so scheduling-wise it would also be difficult. Could you film it maybe on $2 million? Yeah you probably could. Could you do it for $100,000? No. It would be awful, haha.

Fortunately the next two scripts I'm outlining are cheap, both could be done for $100,000 to $200,000.
 
Despite the directions that this thread took, the original post is a relevant question that I've heard a lot in screenwriting classes / forums etc. and I think it definitely warrants a discussion. There is no singular answer to it, as the answer depends on specifically what that writer is looking to get out of their script, but here is my thinking. The amount of studios that can make a 50-150 million dollar blockbuster is much much smaller than the amount of studios that can make a 1-50 million dollar movie of any genre. If you are looking to flat out sell a script, you have to keep this in mind - writing something that many more studios are looking for / capable of producing increases your odds of a sale.

On the other hand, what others have said is true - if it's good - really really good - it doesn't matter what genre the script is. HOWEVER, this doesn't necessarily mean it will sell. If it's good, it will get you attention, which could lead to another one of your projects being bought, additional writing assignments, getting an agent, etc.. As getting an agent was the first stated goal of the OP, I would tell him to go right ahead as it sounds like their project is a perfectly reasonable path to that goal. In the end, it all comes down to our specific goals as writers - and these are worth taking a look at on a project by project, meeting by meeting basis.
 
Anyone here have a script that can be shot for $50K? I want to submit it as a $100M budget movie to see what happens.
 
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