This is a pretty common question I see hitting screenwriters on social media: “Should screenwriters consider budget when writing?”

The answer is also a common one, so much so that the answer is also somewhat ubiquitous. I also happen to think the common answer is wrong!

More to the point, I think the question is often being asked incorrectly. While I am not here to ruffle feathers, I see a lot of peers I respect telling up-and-comers that they should be writing their story first and that costs are a thing that will be addressed by people like line producers down the road.

In a perfect world, this is true. And regardless of everything, even what I am about to elaborate on, you should always be true to your story. The problem is, right here and now—and likely for the next few years—we are not in a perfect world.

The Right Question to Ask

Screenwriters, both established and up-and-coming, have to understand that the industry is in a period of contraction due to economic factors, endless mergers, and a recent strike that made for a wealth of spec material. This means the parties who are on the lookout for scripts are not interested in development for the most part.

Any time spent working a script over costs money, and, in a time when no one wants to spend money and barely pay more than the minimum even if they love a script unless it has an A-lister attached to it, they won’t want to spend a time.

Everyone has a post-strike slushpile and they are going to simply push deeper into the pile to find something that they feel is ready to go.

So the question “When writing your spec script, should you be worried about budget?” is not a complete question.

Should a screenwriter worry about the budget for a spec script they plan to submit to competitions, want to have read as a sample, or otherwise is an exercise in growing their skills?

No.

Should a screenwriter who wants to sell their spec script, or otherwise be hired on a writer assignment be conscious of budget?

Yes. Especially right now.

This does not mean you have to become an expert on budgeting films. I’m trying to make one of my own scripts and when asked how much it would cost I have to admit I don’t fully know. I’m not a line producer—which is the person who can break down a script to a dollar amount. This is not the skill I am saying writers need.

On the feature side of things, I know how to hit a budget mark simply by thinking about scope. I’ve often told students in the past that once your script is in a good place, you should put it away and play producer for a pass. Not to time out, not to nickel and dime, but just to get an idea of worth, which is easier than it sounds.

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The Truth About Your Screenplay’s Budget

The golden truth of filmmaking at any level, is that time equals money. The more complex a scene is, the more it costs. This is how you think of budget as you write.

One person, in a room, doing an activity is your baseline. This is the simplest form of a scene. If you could shoot it right now with your phone, you know it’s on the inexpensive side of things.

Of course, it’s not going to be super dramatic, so let’s think of two people having a conversation in a room. Still feels simple, right?

But what are the details? A married couple, in their bed, talking next to each other—feels cheap and easy to shoot.

Two people, shouting at each other in a noisy nightclub, specifically in Hong Kong, with three levels of dancers behind them, everyone dressed in high fashion, a complex light show, and a cameo for a famous DJ. Now you’re spending serious money.

For every person you add to a scene, you potentially need another camera set up. Another camera setup means adding time to light and set-up. Coverage for four people literally doubles the time to shoot two people. A half-day shoot turns into a full day. Everyone gets paid by the day. How LONG is the scene? Two pages? Again, half a day for basic coverage of two people. Six pages, you may need all day, especially if they start moving around. Add two people? Double it. Add stunts? Triple it. Effects work? Keep adding time.

The point is, when a producer reads your script, this is how they are thinking. Even before your pages would get to prep and a line producer times it out and fixes dollar amounts to every detail, a more general producer is going to just read and get a feel for the price tag.

So if you want to game that read, which, if you want to sell, you should be doing, learn to think in terms of production time for your scenes.

Now granted—you don’t know how a director will want to shoot it or get their coverage, so you just stick to key elements: scene length, amount of characters, scope/scale, stunts, and effects work. You don’t have to know the price tags of these things to know that if your script is full of them, it’s going to read as expensive.

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How to Write and Think About the Budget

The response this general question usually gets is that you shouldn’t be limiting your imagination by worrying about a film’s budget. But if you want to work, and work again and again, you need to strike a balance. Make YOUR first drafts whatever you want to get the ideas on the page, but if those pages are apt to be read by somebody who could buy or fund the script, you have to think about these things.

Filmmaking has always been, and likely always will be, an ongoing negotiation between commerce and creativity. To be part of that process, you can’t have your foot fully on one side of it. It’s about balance. On the actual page, that balance is struck by keeping things even.

Balance Story and Budget on the Page

I’m not saying all your scenes need to just be two people in a room, talking for two pages, but those sorts of scenes should make up a lot of your script. If most of your script doesn’t seem to have a runaway budget, that then earns you to get bigger toward the end.

Pick and choose where you want to get big. If a scene can be placed in a more controlled, or smaller, location—do it. Save your set pieces and larger locations for moments when the plot makes more significant changes, by doing this you are effectively earning money to be spent.

Finding balance on the page can be considered literal as well. How much white space is on your pages? Long blocks of description, paragraphs of dialogue—again, these feel like they take extra time to produce, and therefore money. Keep descriptions to four to five lines max.

Use Formatting to Your Advantage

If you need to do more, break it up with dialogue or some clever line-breaking. If your characters really need that long speech, same idea—three to four lines max, break it up with action. Yes, the content is the same, it’s just about creating visual balance on the page. This makes the script feel like it flows, and scripts that flow are easier to shoot by producer logic.

This also means page count is important. The golden rule in most older screenwriting tomes is 120 pages. In reality, unless you have IP or some sort of awards bait attached, you want to shoot for 90 pages.

I’ve found that producers LOVE 88-89 pages. Just UNDER an hour and a half feels like it’s cheaper to produce, but it’s still long enough to be considered a movie.

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Are these rules kind of arbitrary and silly? Yes. But this is how production thinks/reads/works.

If you keep these things in mind, you will churn out pages that are producible, which is the number one goal to hit if you want to sell or get paid to write.

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