Write With An Indie Budget, But A Studio Mindset
How to write your script and produce your movie in six months.
I wanted to write and make movies since I was eight-years-old. I read every book I could on writing and filmmaking. This was back in the nineties when the independent filmmaking revolution was taking place. Robert Rodriguez and Kevin Smith had inspired millions of aspiring filmmakers with the $7,000 El Mariachi and the $23,000 Clerks, respectively.
I spent my teens and early 20s trying to think of a way to break into the movie business. I compared myself to others far too often, which I’ve already written is a terrible idea.
When I was 25, I wrote and directed a web series that I thought would launch me into filmmaking. Once it came out, it fizzled, and I was left wondering if filmmaking was right for me. I took a year off from writing and then wrote a script that almost got made. Then another two years went by without me writing a script, and I wondered whether this business was impossible for me.
But then, in 2016, a millionaire real estate investor took an interest in one of my scripts, and I thought we had our big break. We hired line producers and made budgets, schedules, and location scouting in Georgia. Then the day before Thanksgiving, when he was supposed to sign the check…
