Screenwriting : Budgets by Teresa Barber

Don't. Just write a great script and leave that to the producers. If you think about the budget it will harm the art.

You will be surprised how fast money disappears. You can use constraints as a challenge. If two characters are having a talk. Can it be in a room rather than a food court. Crowds are huge extras bills.

Think in terms like that. What is in each frame.

I have a single room, three actor script, still a million.

I think just a ballpark figure is the best way to start. Some of the people giving pitch sessions here are looking for features that can be made for under $10,000,000. If you got a story that needs lots of people and CGI you're looking at something higher than that. If you have family drama or a rom-com that would be the kind of person you pitch too.

Thank you, everyone. Craig D Griffiths, this particular script is sci-fi and I am consciously trying to keep the characters out of space travel to avoid the higher budget. THAT part has been difficult. Shawn M Decker, you have a very good point. When the story is speaking to me, I cringe when I must stop and tell myself, no. Too expensive. Try another route.

This helps me as well. Thanks for asking on this topic Teresa and thanks for sharing some guidance Bill and Craig. I've heard some creatives go this route as well Shawn

Aim for $5M or less. That's what my Agent keeps telling me. Employers wanna see what you do first with cheap stuff before they give you a blank check.

Chances are a writer can't accurately estimate a budget, and especially when they don't even know the whole spectrum of costs. That's what professional line producers and budget personnel do. You can't even estimate a preliminary budget. What you can estimate, though, is a budget "range", and probably accurately.

It's good that you are thinking of promoting your story to the right people. What's the sense in marketing a high-budget script to a low-budget or ULB producer or filmmaker? So it's good that you're thinking about it, and it might help guide you when writing your stories, too, like it guides me. Like, I don't write big-budget stories because I know that my target is producers and filmmakers who make films that cost under $5 million. I could even write a story with a budget under $1 million; under $100,000; and even with no budget - as long as I knew what resources the producer or filmmaker had available for the project, and felt comfortable with it.

For your files, here is a link to a website that provides budget planning templates and other forms. You have to join to get them, and other websites also offer them. Again, if you don't know the costs, though...it's fruitless to try to make an estimate, but at least you can learn a bit about the process.

https://www.studiobinder.com/blog/the-essential-guide-for-crafting-film-...

Best fortunes in your creative endeavors, and in estimating your budget ranges and marketing strategies, Teresa!

Imo Wimana Chadband - you are welcome. :) Dan MaxXx This seems a good rule of thumb to follow. Bill Costantini , I appreciate your input on this.

I realize, budgeting is not in "my job description", as a screenwriter, but it does help point me in the right direction.

Teresa,

It will be interesting and challenging for you to come up with a Sci-Fi story that can elude the big-budget category. There was a whole slew of them in the early-mid 2000's, but as of late, most have been big-budget SFX creations with over 100 credits to the SFX teams. Traditional Sci-Fi audiences are a challenge, since they've been conditioned to expect "bigger and better" SFX every year, and especially with the franchise and major studio Sci-Fi films. Even the SYFY network kinda stays away from them for the most part. You should check out the website for The Asylum production company, which makes a lot of profitable lower-budget Sci-Fi films that, for the most part, aren't "space-based.".

Best wishes to you in your challenge, Teresa!

Agree with @Craig The tighter the purse string for a film, the more constraints have to come into play, with regards executing the screenplay. Yet benefits can be reaped if you face the challenge with a passion. Some years back I was desperate to make a low budget horror teaser trailer, but the location needed to be in a mansion, but budget only covered technical stuff. I got around it by asking local people permission to shoot actors outside their mansion, and in their garden. Lucky this was ok, and apart from the few minutes free location, the rest of the project was shot inside another house. Budgeting is STILL daunting to me, and one must never simply assume, cos to assume is the mother of all disasters. Great input as usual from @Bill.

Look up the budgets of produced movies that are similar in scale to what you wrote on IMDB/Box Office Mojo.

https://www.the-numbers.com/ is also a good resource.

Frankie, "...on IMDB/Box Office Mojo."

I appreciate all of the replies, and especially the post for inspiring the discussion! It’s something I wonder about as well. I know a lot of stuff that isn’t writing isn’t supposed to be our responsibility, but I’ve found myself asked in pitch sessions, etc., what I estimated my budget to be on a project. And then was utterly clueless. I know for my own work that a very stripped down version of my pilot was quoted at 10k, thrice. Four actors, and all but one scene set in an apartment. I imagine my horror script, even the short version would be pretty well up there.

Get an Excel spreadsheet, put all the categories and costs that you can think of, do a total and then just take a lucky guess.

Phillip E. Hardy, "The Pro From Dover" Ha! that sounds like the equivalent of balance my checkbook, then fly by the seat of my pants! Works for me! Seriously though, it seems to be the direction I am leaning. Or, at the very least - a good starting point.

Tony S. Thank you for the link. Quality information.

Dan Guardino - another great site! Everyone, I truly appreciate the information. A goldmine for someone learning.