How to establish the production value of your script?
Making movies is a very expensive art. There’s many costs associated to it, each film is like creating a small (or big) business; you have to pay everyone who works on them for the period of time they’re on the project, which can be months or extend to years (depending on the magnitude of the production), you have to make sure you have in place all the structural elements that will allow you realize this project: from the production offices, to the studios where you’re going to shoot, to the catering services who are going to feed your crew, down to the cleaning services which will allow you to not have to worry about any of that while you work on your film…all of that is going to make your budget grow. We know it is complicated to go from writing a story to quantifying it into numbers and real value. Nevertheless, we are going to try to establish in a simple and basic way that production value of a given script, in terms of having to pitch your idea to possible financiers. We’re not talking about having the knowledge of numbers and money a production manager has, but to have an idea of the value of things.
There are various key production values when establishing the economic value of a film:
- Genre
- Directing
- Casting
- Locations
Genre:
The type of story that we are going to tell will mark the type of film we want to make. For example, if we want to make a historical drama or a sci-fi film, our budget will probably end in the “big budget” type of films, as these usually require higher expenses due to the materials and special effects needed:
- Period Wardrobe: usually this can be rented or has to be made, which is not cheap.
- Period Hair Styling & Make-up: as with the wardrobe, it will require experts who will know to prepare the actor’s appearance to be as faithful as possible to the period represented.
- Locations: in many cases, if you want to shoot in famous historic spots, it will cost you quite a bit of money to rent (depends on the place), or you might get lucky and get a really cool place for free.
- Setting: the art direction’s team work to transform the chosen locations into real looking places where people in the film live and interact with each other, takes a lot of work, time and money.
- Erasing digitally modern elements: in many occasions, there will have to be a digital erasing of any modern elements that can’t be eliminated when shooting a scene: semaphores, street cabling, billboards…whatever symbol of modern age which doesn’t correspond to the period we’re shooting in.
- Special effects: it is known that special effects are very expensive to make. A second of a screenshot costs hundreds of dollars/euros, so, if we write a script set in space or in a fantasy world, we need to take into account it will, generally, cost us much more to produce.
This doesn’t mean that we can’t make a period drama or a sci-fi film on a low-budget. You can, but you will have to be extremely clever in the way you write your story so that you manage to have a low budget on such terms and limitations (i.e. “Monsters” or the recent “Lady Macbeth”).
On the other hand, if we write an intimate family drama, with 5 or 6 characters, without any extras, few locations, and a 90-minute standard length, our budget will probably get drastically reduced, as we will be recurring to elements, which can be found easily and cheaply. We probably won’t have to ask for a lot of permits, our locations will probably be easy to get and our wardrobe, make-up and setting will be relatively simple.
Directing
When we talk about the directing department, we’re not only talking about the director, who’s always one of the figures who receives a higher wage, but everything that has to do with the planning of a film shooting.
Depending on the genre of the film, we will plan a way of shooting our scenes. What does this mean? It means that the style of filming, won’t only be determined by the personal style of the director, but by the type of film and story we are trying to tell. If we are trying to make a period drama (to continue with the same example), with a war amongst the plot, we know we will probably have to shoot big epical scenes, with hundreds of extras, panoramic framings, aerial shots, zooms and complex settings, which will require, not only special cameras and artifacts to shoot them, but also professionals who will know how to use them, so, again, a higher budget.
On the contrary, a simpler film, like the intimate family drama, will probably have a more simple shooting planning, with sequences and camera framings that will require less cameras, fewer lighting professionals and, therefore, a smaller budget.
Another thing to take into account is the scenes with a lot of extras. This means wardrobe, make-up and hairstyling as well as catering for a big group of people who will come a few days to shoot a couple of scenes (or maybe more than a couple). If we’re talking about a period film or a fantasy genre movie, we will have to dress all this people with the wardrobe of the period, and this won’t be the same as if we shoot a film set in the present day, where the wardrobe can be easily found, you can even ask extras to bring their own stuff if you’re working on a low budget film. This takes us to our next step: the casting.
Casting
One of the highest items in any production budget of a film, is the one related to casting. The main and supporting actors are the ones who will usually be paid higher wages, as we all know (depending on the fame and supposed profitability they are associated with).
If we’re talking about an independent film, with a small budget, but with a brilliant script, with good roles etc. the actor might be open to work for little money, as he will value more the exposure he or she might get with that well written part, than getting a high wage. But it all depends of what point in his career the actor is; if he’s just starting and not very well known or at the peak of success. If we go for unknown actors, they’ll probably adapt to anything, as being able to make a film will give them an exposure that they haven’t received before. If we want to aim higher, go for famous faces, we need to take into account the following:
1. Having such a good script that we will stand out from the rest of offers they get.
2. Negotiate with their agent a contract deal that won’t eat out all our budget (if it’s small). In other words, we will have to convince them to make the film for what is the minimum for them and what is the maximum for us, within our budget.
The main idea is that being the casting one of our most visible values, it will tend to be an important item of our budget, unless everyone sacrifices their economic preferences to get a symbolic pay, if the film requires it.
Locations
To end, we’re going to talk about locations, those external spots and places, where more and more movies are being shot. This is something about which we usually don’t know the technical and bureaucratic details of, until we face its complex reality.
Where do we want to shoot our film? In a studio or a real location? Taking into account the type of project we are making, going back to the subject of genre, if it’s a period film, what will be more cost effective and, at the same time, to the liking of the director and producer? A Real location or recreating something in a studio?
In case we want to shoot in real locations, we will have to take into account the following:
- Establishing contact with the local film commission (if we’re talking about Europe) to manage the different shooting permits in public spaces.
- If it is a house or building, we will have to contact the owners or agency that represents them, to negotiate a price for renting the space for the shooting.
- If we need to cut streets, we will need to talk to the local police so we arrange when we can do the cuts, without disturbing the city traffic and so the police can control it and redirect traffic during these cuts.
All of this adds up when calculating our production value and, consequently, our budget. In the end, the thing you need to understand clearly is that, the more complex is our story in terms of production value, the more money you will need.
That is why we can find lots of first feature films that follow a similar pattern:
- Few characters
- Few locations, many times limited to the interior of a house or a flat, a place in which you can develop a whole story without having to move too much. Other times, for example like here in Spain, exterior locations won’t cost a thing, you will only need the local permit; so, that’s another option too.
- In the end, simple stories on a planning and shooting level.
Some examples of this:
- Summer, 1993
- Marrowbone
- The fury of a patient man
- The Orfanage
- Blair Witch Project
- Once
- Monsters
- REC
- The Florida Project
Next time, we will go through a practical example to analyse how it is done from the production point of view.
