Speaker 1: When you're a writer, you're writing creatively, you're not thinking about production necessarily. For the most part, you want it to be something that producers go, wow, this is something I would want to see. But you have to get the most out of the dollar amount you have, because we want to have a triumphant experience with this film. Hey everyone, my name's SC, I'm a writer and producer here at StudioBinder. So about a year ago, I came up with the idea for a single-camera sitcom. A young woman who inherits the CEO-ship of a mental health empire from her father has to find a new chief of medicine, because hers is caught up in this big PR scandal. So she heads to the nearest clinic to poach their head of medicine, and in turn gets confused and ends up running into a doctor who she then hires, and then later it finds out that he's actually a schizophrenic man. He's not a doctor, he's a patient. Some of the shows I might compare it to are 30 Rock, or you could compare it to Arrested Development. You said he was alright. Yes, he's lost his left hand, so he's going to be alright. You son of a bitch. The script's 23 pages, there's a number of different characters, there's a father character, a mother character. The assistant character I'm very excited to write for, she's got a lot of comedy opportunity. We've got something like four or five locations in it. And when I came to work at StudioBinder, I brought the idea with me and I pitched it to the CEO. And he actually proposed a really great idea. We do the proof of concept and film a short film. Mark. And they do a behind-the-scenes making of. Yes, exactly. This is how I dress every day. It's going to start with budgeting the film, getting locations, hiring crew, casting, auditions. This whole documentary is essentially step-by-step taking you through the filmmaking process. And you're going to see it all right here. Okay, so I'm going to start by breaking down my script. Let's talk about breakdowns. So what a breakdown is, is it's where you take your script and you actually go over all the needs of your production. The report of all the elements of your scene, elements are things like props, wardrobe, set dressing, special effects, whatever it is that you might need on the day. So I need to make sure that I mark this scotch not only as a glass for the day, but also as some sort of liquid that we're going to want to bring. In my experience, both at school and just in the production world generally, creative people don't do breakdowns. But the breakdown really sharpens you both as a writer and as a director, because now that you're writing, you're going to be able to do a lot more. You're going to be able to do a lot more. But the breakdown really sharpens you both as a writer and as a director, because now you're being thoughtful about every little piece of your script. For instance, with our project, we had a situation where one of our characters throws paint on another character. And we sat there and we thought, do we need paint? Could we have him slap him in the face? And the reason that we landed on the paint was because we needed to force him to have to change his clothes so that it would be motivated as to why he transforms into this doctor character. You know, that is invaluable, that process. Not only do you gain perspective on how the production has to physically take place, it makes you a much more whole filmmaker. So we're going to mark the group of journalists as extras. You do this report so that you have those things on the day, but also so that you can get an idea of the budget for your project.

Speaker 2: Today I am working on the budget for mental mistakes.

Speaker 1: Herman's our producer and another writer here at StudioBinder. He's a good friend of mine. He is the most cartoonish and wonderful human being you will ever meet in your entire life.

Speaker 2: That's where I come in. Are you going to ruin every take? So what do you need to begin creating a budget? First and foremost, you need to understand the parameters of the production that you are about to attempt. Is it a pilot? Is it a series? Am I working on a million dollar film or a $5,000 proof of concept? It's very important to know this number up front so that you don't get grandiose dreams with, let's just say, smaller and less grandiose projects. After reading the initial full script, I have come to the conclusion that we could bring this in if I had everything going my way for about $15,000, just a little bit over. However, I'm going to try to cut that down as much as possible in anticipation of our budget actually being cut as much as possible. There are a few things in every budget. Whether you're an independent filmmaker or a studio producer, there are certain unavoidable costs that come with every film production. Everything from craft services to your camera. You know you're going to need insurance and permits. Also, talent fees and crew fees. All of these are inescapable. For my lead cast, I have them at $125 day rate. The next big cost is our location, our site, where we're going to film everything. Because right now I have in my budget $2,000. I want to go through my budget line by line and see where I can get it down because I know we don't have $15,000 to spend. I have a few red flags right from the get-go. We have more than 30 characters, 15 speaking roles, 16 extras. We have 7 locations in 23 pages. We're going to have to cut this way down. So, the great news is you got a great script. It's really funny. I think it's really, really doable. The bad news is I would love to get it all in the can for about $5,000.

Speaker 1: Herman's coming from a place of caring about the production. He wants us to be able to do this and he wants us to be able to do it correctly and he wants to be able to pay the crew correctly and he wants to be able to get the right camera. But when you hear that sort of number, you start thinking, okay, something's going to have to get cut.

Speaker 2: The biggest way we can cut down on our expenses right now is going to be in our talent.

Speaker 1: By talent, you mean cutting out characters of the entire thing or do you mean not having them come two days in a row?

Speaker 2: If there are characters that you do not need to introduce, let us know right now. Another thing is location. It would be great if we could do it all in one place and for the smallest amount of money. The last thing I want to do is curtail any creative freedom and any of those elements that attracted me to this story and this script in the first place.

Speaker 1: If it's getting it down to two locations, that's a little easier but your ask is that I need to get it or that it would be easiest budgetarily to get it down to one because what it means is cut a critical part of the script.

Speaker 2: But as a filmmaker and a producer, I know that we have a very strict budget. We want to make sure that what we're filming is only the elements we need to get the point of the proof of concept across and nothing else. We can't afford it, our budget can't afford it. I guess it's important for us to sort of back up here then and say how long do we want this proof of concept to be? Right. And what is essential? We have three characters right now.

Speaker 1: I knew he was taking it seriously. I knew he was going about it in the most professional way possible but that's never a great feeling at first especially if you've devoted real good hard work and sweat into a script. So you need me to cut actors? Yes. And you need me to cut locations? Yes. Yeah. No, I understand. The feeling can be scary at first but it sharpens you as a writer because you're now forced to actually consider what actually does matter, which characters do matter. You're strengthening those characters because you only have the money to pay five actors rather than nine. There's an opportunity to get to write the script a second time and to get it right. Failure is not an option. You just buckle down and figure it out. So then we go down. This is going to be this super fucking loud conference call bullshit while she sits there and everyone goes, Hey, this is Tim. Tim's on the line. Hey everyone. Do you have a great idea for a film or a television show? Want someone to help you produce it? We're looking for writers and directors for season two so if you have a script that you want to direct, click the link in the description and submit your project to StudioBinder today. Thanks for watching and we'll see you in the next video.