Tuesday, June 24, 2008

The Script

Writing a script is a difficult task. I've written 8 feature length spec scripts where budget and logistics are two issues that go largely ignored.

With a script you're going to shoot, these two issues become paramount. So much so, that it borders on paralyzing.

As soon as an idea enters your creative mind, your critical mind is asking questions:
  • How am I going to find <impossibly difficult to find location or prop>?
  • Who is going to play that character?
  • What's it going to cost to buy/rent <ridiculously expensive equipment just because it's for film>?
These questions invade the writing process to the point that it can take longer to write a single scene.

The script for Psychasm suffered from this barrage of questions.

The last 120 page script I wrote took me 14 consecutive days. The 20+ page script for Psychasm took 14 days over 4 months.

The limitations for the script were:
  • Locations I could get for free, or own, or could steal without getting caught.
  • Actors I know, that are good, dedicated and available.
  • Budget of less than $1000
These limitations made me miss writing spec scripts. But as anyone who knows how difficult it is to sell a spec script, most never get made.

The problem is that I don't just want to write scripts, I want them to get made into movies. Movies that I can be proud of. The only way to do that is to aim smaller and make them yourself.

That's what we intended to do with Psycham.