Great post and nails a lot of points. But I thought I would throw in some things I learned from shooting my first feature back in May. The film is called Layover. "Simone, a young, Parisian's connecting flight to Singapore is cancelled and she is forced to spend the night in Los Angeles. After contacting an old friend, she heads out for a night of fun only to wind up ditched at a random club. With the help of a handsome and mysterious motorcyclist, she finds her way through the LA night-life of after-parties, beautiful people and endless lights." We shot the film over the course of five weekends, for about $6000, entirely at night, on the Canon 5D and the film is almost entirely in French. Like Hudson, the ability to do this started with the script. I wrote what I knew I could shoot or steal. In the scenes I'd be stealing I didn't write long performances or dialogue scenes. I wrote them as action, allowing me to be as inconspicuous as possible and then set dialogue scenes in locations I knew I could get. It takes place over one night, so I cut down on the need for too many costumes, and as the story is a little episodic, I was able to hire actors for only a day or two. Regarding locations, this is where I differ with Hudson. I didn't totally limit myself. A lot of people think if you're doing something low budget you should only have one location but I don't believe in that. We had multiple locations through the city but because the shooting crew often consisted of me, a sound guy, a producer and no lighting setups, we were able to move quickly and efficiently. However, one thing to think about when aiming for a budget is to not write 'specific' locations. Like, set scenes in locations aren't integral to the plot, i.e. you could set this scene in an office building, a warehouse, a home, an apartment, a field, the location of the scene is only significant in what is it that you can get access to. My film is definitely not high concept, it's a character drama, but it's a feature, it's got a story and it looks great and will hopefully attract some buyers, if only because the asking price isn't super high.

Hi Scott, Hudson and Joshua, I think these are some great tips It brings me back to my own early days when I used to direct and write shorts - I have been going pretty big with concepts lately but the point about characters is a good one - a great character can carry any story no matter how big or small. thanks for this.

I think you've got a great point here.... movies are a visual medium, and great visuals matter, even if you do have a low budget movie. To do this cheaply, I'd point to a movie like Drive and to Breaking Bad as a tv show that looks fantastic, primarily due to its unique locations set in Albuquerque. And while you might not like his movies, Andy Sidaris was the king of the low-cost, glossy almost glamorous looking 80's style of filmmaking. I'm curious, though, how you guys planned your shoots in LA, presuming you didn't go and bother the LA filming permit office.

[…] If you write a script that costs $100M or more to produce, there are basically six buyers who can af… […]

[…] Low-Budget-Filmmaking: How To Do It Right […]

"Let’s say you want to write a movie about the apocalypse, the end of the world. You could make 2012 and show how this phenomenon effects the entire world, or you could limit yourself to show how it effects one person." What you are describing is, exactly, Before The Fall (original Spanish title, "Tres días", which means three days). http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0984155/ Very nice movie about a family that has to escape revenge from old acquaintance when the world learns a meteorite will hit the earth in 3 days. Sadly, it went mostly unnoticed, even here in Spain.

[…] Scott Myers posted my thoughts on low-budget screenwriting on his Black List hosted blog, Go Into The Story a few weeks ago. You can find it HERE. […]