Screenwriting for Micro-Budget Films

Tips, Tricks and Hacks for Reverse Engineering Your Screenplay

David Greenberg

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2021
• ISBN:
  9781000508901
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Media & Performing Arts
• Subtopic: Film & Video

Screenwriting for micro-budget films can present its own challenges and this book takes the reader through all the considerations that need to be made to write an effective screenplay for a low-budget film.

Drawing on his own experience, case studies from films such as Primer, Coherence and Reservoir Dogs, as well as the perspectives of working screenwriters such as Joe Swanberg and Alex Ross-Perry, Greenberg explores common pitfalls screenwriters face and suggests practical solutions. This book lays the groundworks of the realities of low-budget filmmaking and also talks through the practical aspects, such as story structure and genre considerations. Greenberg makes the process of writing a screenplay for a low-budget film accessible and creative, allowing student and independent filmmakers to tailor their writing for their films.

This book is ideal for aspiring screenwriters, independent filmmakers and students of screenwriting.

1
Know your limitations

DOI: 10.4324/9781003138969-2

Orson Welles once said, “The enemy of art is the absence of limitations.”

Not long ago, someone asked me “What do you call a person who makes a film all by himself?”

My answer: “Resourceful.”

When my daughters were younger, they were really into doing original plays for the family. These productions usually consisted of them playing the major roles and their dolls taking on all of the supporting parts on makeshift sets that were meant to represent elaborate luxurious or fantastical worlds. After one of their shows, in a case of what might be considered questionable parenting, I congratulated them but suggested that they try to come up with a show that did not require casting inanimate objects or using unrealistic sets. What they came up with kind of blew me away. For their next show, they had a total of four characters and the story was set in the contemporary, everyday world. In the first act, the two of them played two characters and, in the next act, they played two different characters, but all of them drove the narrative and related to each other in a coherent way. They really pulled it off; it was inventive, ambitious, successful and, most importantly, resourceful. They took stock of their assets and crafted a play that was brilliantly designed to work with what was available to them, within their constraints, not against them. They even composed and performed the music. Over 15 years later, the memory of that experience has never faded and, in fact, moved to the forefront of my mind as I wrote this book.

When I spoke with director, writer, producer and actress Meosha Bean, she had just been asked to make a $100,000 film for a distributor who already had a screenplay. I asked about what she looks for in a screenplay for a film that will be produced on such a small budget.

Meosha Bean:

I look for a lot of things. One, if I liked the script and it spoke to me, was it something that I really wanted to do. Number two, what is it, what are we trying to say, what are we talking about, what message are we trying to put across for the audience? Sure, of course, I’m trying to do the whole Jordan Peele thing, where it is like, you watch a horror movie, but you’re like, “Oh, wow, that was creepy. But also, it made me think.” I got a script recently and it takes place in this house and I like the challenges of having three people in one location. It’s not “use the space I need”, it is “Let’s use the whole house, let’s use everything, the backyard, the front yard, the driveway.”

This distributor reached out to a filmmaker friend of mine and they basically gave him $100,000 to make this feature. And so, he calls me because I’ve done so many independent films. It is fun location scouting and looking for places where we want to make this happen. And of course, Los Angeles is very expensive. So it goes back to asking for favors, friends that say “Hey, I have a friend that has a really nice house, and I’m like, ‘this could be this is doable.” He’s like, “Use my place.”

Lawrence Michael Levine is a screenwriter, a director, a producer and an actor who frequently collaborates with his wife, screenwriter, director, producer, actress and editor Sophia Takal. We spoke just before the release of his film Black Bear (2020), which at times, feels like a fictional account of the production of Takal’s micro-budget delight Always Shine (2016).

When I was in college, I watched Cassavetes, I watched all of it. But I think Faces (1968) was the first one I watched. And I was like, “Oh wait, you can make movies about real life that feel really real and depict people as they actually behave and act and comment on that?” And I thought, “Okay, well I can’t do this.” Like bullshit movies that seem too big. Like I can’t make, I don’t know, whatever was popular at the time, like The Matrix (1999). I don’t see myself making that kind of movie. It’s just kind of knowing your limits. But in my case, there was like, actually no desire to do anything bigger. Look, this movie is holding my interest. And it’s just people in very everyday situations and places and outfits. And I could maybe do something like this. And then I was desperate to learn how to do it because I didn’t know how to. I knew there was some kind of approach. I knew this stuff was really interesting that was going on in Faces but I didn’t really know how to accomplish effects like that.

So I was desperate to learn how to learn everything that Cassavetes seemed to know. So he was an actor. He started out as an actor. I read everything I could get my hands on, Ray Carney’s books, for example. And whatever was available at the time about him. And, and that turned me on to other people like Mike Leigh. So, I got really into Mike Leigh, who similarly makes all that stuff that is pretty simple in terms of setting and, and there’s nothing fancy there.

You know, these were people who were making films that were drawing energy from different sources than your typical Hollywood action film. You know, it was very obvious to me that something rich was happening going on here. I just didn’t understand how to do it, but I felt like I could get there. So, I got into Mike Leigh, and then another guy that Ray Carney was writing about, Tom Noonan. So, I watched Tom Noonan films, and I really liked them. And I was just really looking for guidance, and I was looking for a mentor and I had no idea that Tom Noonan, at that time, was this remote figure as Mike Leigh is to me now. I had no idea that Tom Noonan would ever be somebody that I would meet or anything but one day, I was walking around the village, and I came across a sign in front of a building that said, Tom Noonan actually teaches acting, writing, directing, I don’t know exactly the time said, and I was like, “Holy shit, this is crazy. Tom Noonan teaches classes, and I could take them.” And, you know, Tom Noonan made these two movies where it’s just people sitting around, you know, talking and I think they work brilliantly. So, I got into his class. And it really set me on the path that I’m still on today, because I learned the specific kind of techniques and approaches to writing, writing drama, really.

Back to my earlier point, do it for fun. I would never tell you to not write out your ideas. I feel that anytime we sit down to write, we have the potential to become better writers by practicing our craft. Also, it is just so much fun to create these worlds and think about them. To me, there are few better feelings than that of looking forward to writing, the feeling you get when you’re so in love with an idea that you think about even when you’re not writing.

Now, if you have written a really great screenplay that’s been calibrated to be produced with a modest budget, you might have a better chance. I had a very low-budget screenplay optioned by a production company that was looking to make a feature after years in the business of producing commercials, reality TV, music videos and so on.

Step 1, painful as it might be, is to be conscious of the kinds of films that are problematic to produce on a low budget. Shifting to the right mindset is the most important part of the job. Start small. Do your research.

Noam Kroll is a filmmaker whose 2020 film Psychosynthesis was made on a modest budget. On his podcast Show, Don’t Tell, he regularly offers filmmaking advice based on his own experiences. He takes a philosophical approach to having limitations.

When it comes to writing, everyone sort of says minimal locations, minimal cast, there’s all these rules. And, and there’s obviously a reason that people say that and, and all those parameters can certainly help you on your way to making your film more feasible. However, the way that I like to approach it is I like to think about what’s something that you can do on a smaller budget that you wouldn’t be able to do on a bigger budget. So sort of looking at ways to embrace the limitations. So for example, a certain subject matters, certain points of view, certain characters that you want to explore might not really be feasible on a larger canvas, because if you have a bunch of investors putting $8 million into your indie movie, they’re going to obviously want to have a say, they’re going to want to make sure that it’s as marketable as possible and rightfully so when you’re dealing with $20,000 or $50,000, that you sort of cobbled together to make your movie that opens up the door for a lot of the creative exploration that you literally wouldn’t be able to do, if you had more money, unless you were just independently wealthy. So I think that’s sort of always my biggest point that I try to get across to filmmakers is, look for the thing. What’s the unique advantage that you actually have by not having money? What’s the story that you could tell on a smaller budget that you wouldn’t be able to, if you had more money. You could take more risks.

Here is the thing, screenwriting is not rocket science. Anyone can learn the basics of structure and formatting. That does not necessarily mean that their screenplays will be good. What is more important is that screenplays are not just good (well, okay, better than good), but they are producible and, in a relatively perfect world, if produced, stand a chance of breaking even financially if not providing a return on investment.

In the early 1990s, I was a few years out of film school, reading everything I could get my hands on about making low-budget independent films. I kept seeing film magazine ads for Dov S-S Simens’ 2-Film School, a weekend seminar that promised to unlock the mysteries of how to make a feature for next to nothing. Simens worked for Roger Corman, one of the undisputed titans of low-budget, independent films that countless filmmakers cite as an inspiration. So, I took the workshop in early 1992 and hung on every word. I still remember that one of Simens’ parting lines was “Rent a house in the woods, hire a bunch of kids, chop ‘em up and you’ve got a movie.” It is a model that has endured for generations and even spawned some good movies.

At this point, the model for micro-budget filmmaking is nothing new and fairly well-known: few locations and few characters, no exterior shots at night if possible, minimal special effects or stunts. Frequently, this approach leaves us with films about people talking to each other. There are few cheaper ways to make a film than just shooting people talking to each other. The problem that many filmmakers attempting this kind of shoot is that scenes are often longer and “talkier” than average and, unfortunately, more static and stagy. No matter how ingenious the plot is and how sparkling the dialogue might be, there is great danger of the film becoming visually dull. So, one of the primary goals of this book is to look for ways to keep micro-budget films genuinely cinematic (which comes from the root kinetic, meaning motion), visually active by building activity into the project at the screenplay level.

Sure, you say, what about My Dinner With Andre (1981), that was just two guys talking? If you can write something on the level of My Dinner With Andre, please do, I would love to see it. Sure, you say, we can just do an Aaron Sorkin walk-and-talk to keep things active visually. Well, can you? Do you, as a writer, know what goes into producing a walk-and-talk, how much time, effort and expense of your resources will be required? If you do and you think it is the right way to go, then go for it. Filmmaking is 90% problem-solving, figuring out how to tell a good story with a camera.

Remember, when we talk about cinema, movies, we are talking about motion pictures. Cameras can both capture motion and move themselves, so it is critically important to keep these elements of cinema in mind. Orson Welles really understood the power of the camera and his films are filled with stunning compositions of characters in motion as well as camera movement back and forth, up and down the frame and, of course, as famously seen in the opening sequence to Touch Of Evil (1958), a frame that can move with action. No, on a micro-budget film, you might not be able to afford dollies and cranes, but there are many ways to move a camera and, when appropriate for the film, a production should remember to utilize them.

When I spoke with writer-director Alex Ross Perry, the topic of writing for your limitations came up,

When you’re writing the script, how much do you already know? I’m not going to write a location that can take me all this time and money to find. I wrote a movie for this location. I don’t need to go find it. And I wrote a scene right for this aesthetic decision. I’m not going to have to think of that later. And a lot of the work as a writer is just solving every production problem and every question while you are writing.

• DG: But on this level, you have to reverse engineer and say “What do I have access to? You know, my parents own a laundromat,” and you set a movie in a laundromat instead of the other way around where you think of locations while you’re writing.
• ARP: “That’s always been my method, at least on those earlier films. And still, no matter what I’m aiming for, on whatever script or project I’m currently attempting to unlock. That’s my background, that’s my education that I gave myself, I cannot detach myself from that, because every attempt I’ve ever made, to just shoot for the moon in terms of locations or resources, those end up being the scripts that do not get made or get changed the most, to the point that it’s not the thing anymore. And those are hard-earned lessons, but they just came about by making two movies, both for under $25,000. And this still again, from those two movies. I remember I was outlining Her Smell (2018). And I called both the wardrobe designer and the makeup designer that I’d worked with on my three previous films, and said, ‘If I’m writing scenes that have seven women completely styled from head to toe, how bad is that logjam going to be at the start of the day?’ What they both said was, ‘Here’s the budget we’re going to need to be able to get that size of a cast looking the way you want this movie to look out of wardrobe, hair and makeup in about 90 minutes every day, so that you have a full day to shoot. If you can provide us with this budget, and this many hands in our department, then there’s nothing to worry about.’ So I then had the freedom to continue writing as I wanted, and then telling everybody I already checked with these department heads, they asked for a department of seven instead of department of three, and we need to give it to them or else we’re never going to make our days. And everybody was very amazed that that problem had been solved before it ever became a problem. And that is a lesson you only get if you’re writing a movie you’re going to make for $20,000 and calling people while writing it and saying, will you be in a movie? If I write a character right now? I want to do a scene with this car, you have that car? Can we borrow it? And then you just solve this stuff while you’re sitting by yourself.”

If I would also make a movie the size of Queen of Earth (2015). If we were saying, post pandemic, our only option to make a movie is going to be making something in one location where the actors wear their own clothes. I would be writing that movie, but I did not, Her Smell was not that story. So therefore, everything had to be thought of while writing. And again, that’s a movie that far outpaces the parameters of what you’re discussing, the blessing is it was only possible because of how I made my earlier movies.

So, it is critical to be aware of your limitations and your resources.

I spoke with writer-producer-director, fellow screenwriting professor and host of the Scriptcake podcast Lovinder Gill on the topic and he said,

So whenever you’re shooting a movie, you’re gonna have some limitations. Whenever you’re writing a movie, even if you want to write something in a particular genre, that genre co...