Movie Blog: How To Make a Career Out of Nothing #lgm

A couple of weeks back I asked the question "Why do filmmakers still make movies?"

I asked the question because I believe that screenwriters and independent film-makers are too focused on trying to break into the film industry, which is an industry that has a dreadful reputation for shattering the hopes, dreams and minds of anyone who enters it. From my perspective, the TV industry offers more hope of an actual career than trying to make money from films.

However, I also asked that question for another reason... I genuinely wanted to see what responses my regular readers would have to it. I wanted to see if other people had come to the same conclusions I had. Because, actually, there is and always has been an incredibly good reason for making micro-budget (no budget) movies. This is what I want to talk about this week.

The basic reason screenwriters should write for micro (no) budget and filmmakers should make them, is because there are important lessons to be learnt from the repeated attempt to create something out of nothing. However, I believe the pay off for all that work doesn't come in the way most people expect it to.

For the past four months I have been writing the pilot show for a new TV series. I completed it at 11.47pm Friday night... which ironically was the deadline I'd been given. Funny how that works, isn't it. As a writer I respond well to real deadlines. The writing has gone very well and I've already had very, very good feedback from the guy I'm developing this for, who has been consuming it in sections, as it was written.

This project is slightly different from anything I've written before, simply because I went into this script with the promise of a producer's job and production finance for the pilot... all I had to do, was deliver a script that lived up to promise of the pitch and the pitch was: I can deliver a densely plotted, action based historical costume drama on a production budget of less than £350K an hour ($550K). Which, let me tell you, is a tough act to pull off. 

This is where my years of experience of trying write for cinema and also of trying to create movies with little or no money has really paid off.

One of the first things I figured out, when I first started making independent movies, is that budgets are irrelevant to movie making. I looked at the movies flowing from Hollywood, into the cinemas and I realised that it is possible to spend $35M on a movie and that it will stink out the theatre. Money doesn't buy a great script, good acting or a compelling story... all money provides is a huge list of resources. So, regardless of whether a movie costs $35M or is just built on the good will and hard work of friends, fundamentally the heart of movie making is knowing how to use those resources well.

Micro-budget movie making is about understanding how to make something cinematic out of the resources that you have. Just the same as the people in the industry, the only difference is they have a larger list of resources.  As a writer, the one challenge I have repeatedly set myself, is to write a script that is cinematic, capable of commercial success, that can be shot on an almost non-existent budget. It's been my personal holy grail for about the last fourteen years... and, if I'm honest, I have yet to find the perfect solution to the problem I set myself.

However, in the process of trying to create something out of nothing, I have learnt, as a writer, how to get the most out of the resources I have to work with. Or, in other words, how to squeeze the most out of a budget. 

This is a different learning experience, than the one afforded to writers who enter the TV industry early in their careers and who are guided by people in the industry as to how things are done. This is because TV production in the UK tends to follow a limited number of production patterns. A studio sit-com is constructed in a particular way, a soap-opera is made the way they are made... and single camera drama, as the most expensive area of production, is reserved for writers and production teams who have proved themselves in other, cheaper, formats.

The end result of all this, is that single camera drama, which ought to be the most cinematic of the TV output, often looks like overpriced soap opera. The scripts often sound that way, as well.

All of which brings me to my point for this week.

It is harder to write and make something incredible out of nothing, than it is to write soap opera scripts to a formula. If you are dedicated to it, you will come up with writing techniques and production ideas that no one who is involved in regular TV production would ever consider. By chasing the holy grail of "an incredible movie made for nothing" you accidentally acquire the skills, that enable you to make £300K look like £1M. As the TV industry becomes more competitive, that is a skill-set that is starting to be recognised as valuable.

For years now I have encouraged writers to attempt to write scripts that they could make with their friends, for next to nothing. I've encouraged that, because I genuinely believe that it is in learning how to do that well, that real careers are built. This is the reason screenwriters should write micro-budget, the reason that film-makers should spend weekends with mates making experimental movies.

In the meantime, although we haven't had the phone call, we have had an email about the phone call... basically, we should have an answer this coming week. Although a yes at this point would be a life-changing experience, what I do know, is that regardless of whether this specific door opens or not, what we have now is a very strong pilot for a TV series. That's there regardless of how this next week goes.

keep writing, viva la revolution

Posted via email from Filmutopia's Sunday Morning Movie Blog