Is the villain in your screenplay reaching his or her fullest, most extraordinary villain self? Or is your villain limited by mundane, mealy-mouthed tropes or other half-baked screenwriting mistakes? It’s time to take charge of your villains, screenwriters! I’m here to help you unlock your villains’ potential, and unleash your … Read more
The difference between mediocre screenwriting and solid screenwriting often comes down to the screenwriter knowing the difference between what’s working in her script and what’s not. Beyond the various euphemisms for cutting your favorite moments (e.g. “Killing your darlings, ” or its less popular counterpart, “Drowning your puppies/kittens”), there comes … Read more
Budgeting for SAG actors on your film can make the difference between a good film and a bad one. Here are our tips on how to begin when using SAG actors. Read more
Film investors aren’t a dime a dozen, for one very good reason: putting money into a film is one of the biggest, most risky investments someone can ever make. The typical film investor is one who does it for a living, either packaging films or putting together slates or is … Read more
When budgeting a film, there are certain categories filmmakers can afford to slash the budget on, or “skimp on,” if you prefer. Here are our film budget line items you can go a little light on, and our advice for what budget items you probably shouldn’t cheap out on. Read more
Hey Clyde, Is it me or has the docuseries just exploded overnight? Ever since Making a Murderer caused an uproar on the digital platform medium there has been nothing but a consistent wave of excellent documentary series coming through the trenches. There have always been documentary series that have existed … Read more
Hello Bruno, I just finished watching the entire run of “The West Wing.” I wouldn’t argue about its status as classic modern television. It’s fast, intelligent, classy, and features some of the best dialogue, performances and camera movement in television history (however, I really loathed the score, especially the credits … Read more
Script Studio isn’t a screenwriting app. It’s more like a suite of screenwriting apps, all bundled together and, with its full array of powerful writing, editing, planning, outlining, and polishing tools, clearly capable of taking on newbie screenwriters and pro screenwriters alike, and everything in between. Upon first launch, it’s … Read more
Film budgets can be daunting. Any good filmmaker knows what it takes to get her film made, and knows how to put together a simple budget for their project, but most new filmmakers aren’t intimately familiar with the vast amount of categories and line items found in a typical professional … Read more
If you’re serious about raising film money from serious film investors (or at least film investors who don’t laugh you out of their office), you’re going to need to own up to at least one simple fact: Hoping your film gets into a film festival and gets sold is not, … Read more
Well, okay, the title of this post is pretty harsh. There’s technically nothing wrong with product placement in any film, unless it’s blatant and gross and, well, product-ish. But here’s three things to watch out for when accepting a company’s product placement offer. 1) Know that no company is going … Read more
In every film business plan, it’s always good to include a list of films similar to yours, which have already made it out into the world and become a success either financially or critically. The idea is that you want to show potential film investors a business plan that shows … Read more
When budgeting a film crew for a union picture, the rates and work hour limits and thresholds are set by the union and you pay them. End of story. But for non-union films, it’s a bit different. Read more
At Roger Corman’s Concorde-New Horizons Studios in 1997, I opened a script file using Final Draft for the first time. It was on a “Macintosh” because I didn’t call them “Macs” back then. In short, with all due praise to John Hodgman, I was a “PC.” A different kind of … Read more
Hands down, the most important element of a successful small film is your crew. Without the right people in the right crew positions, even a large film can hit the skids, get bogged down, swell with cost overruns, and sometimes even implode. When crewing for a film, especially a smaller … Read more
A few years ago, my company and I produced two feature films, from script to screen. We had no money and no significant investors, despite garnering interest (and even a few Letters of Intent) from a handful of name actors. The road to production on both films was a long one, … Read more
Budgeting a film is a pretty heavy chore, especially if you’ve never budgeted a film before. And especially if you’re planning on shooting a low-budget film or no-budget film. If you don’t know what you don’t know when putting together your budget, your film could be a spectacular explosion of … Read more
Film budgeting? But they didn’t teach me that in film school! Neither was it one of those skills I was able to pick up when I started in the film business, such as reading and covering scripts, getting coffee, loading cameras, holding a boom mic, picking up the studio head’s dry … Read more
Your Film Details Section The next section is your Film Section, where you detail what your film is about. This includes a brief summary of your film, maybe the film’s logline, synopsis; whatever you think best conveys your film to potential investors. Keep it brief and don’t overwhelm them. You … Read more
I’ve been raising money for films for almost 25 years now and am always asked about what goes into a film business plan, or worse, am asked to write one for a fellow filmmaker. So here’s the skinny on how to write your own film business plan. It’s a general … Read more
If you’re setting out to produce a feature film, and you’re serious about finding film investors and making money with the film, you’re going to probably want to set your film company up as an official, you know, company. But first, before you start researching all the different directions you … Read more
The “ideal” screenwriter. Is it an impossible thing to aspire to? I argue such aspiration is not only possible, but mandatory. Being great as a screen scribe isn’t easy, but the path has been clearly illuminated by not only the words and worlds of the great screenwriters who came before … Read more
