Writing for No / Low Budget Feature Films

Course details

Now we all have access to the technology to make a feature film but can you get the script in shape to work well without a budget?

Need to write something that can be made with little or no funds? This course aims to get your screenplay or idea into shape to work as a no or low budget production. In addition to reviewing the essential elements of all screen writing this course will focus on areas of screenwriting within your control as a writer that cost little or no money.

This course is ideal for students actively working on, or exploring, feature film scriptwriting. Students are invited to bring along their pitches for scripts to receive feedback.

Course Content

• The dramatic unities of time, place and action within the context of a low budget.
• Telling a story to satisfy the target audience.
• Honing the concept to work as a no/low budget feature film.
• Using the realities of casting on a low budget to inform your character choices and how they are written. Focus on characterization and dialogue.
• Managing the second act. Ensuring that the scenes that are at the core of your story will work well without a budget.
• Considering locations, time-frame, continuity, special effects on the page before production. Developing the idea to make it work better, rewriting to reduce the budget and exploiting the possibilities of no/low budget.