It’s a beautiful Sunday morning here in Southern California. I’m outlining my new project which I can’t wait to share later in the year.
Of course it’s another Horror piece. It’s half inspired by the Lights Out story I shared a couple weeks ago.
Last night I was in talks with a filmmaker buddy. He was telling me about his period piece Drama he’s writing.
First off, I don’t have anything against Dramas or the people that make those films. Some of my favorite films are Dramas. At the end of the day it’s about preference and what you are attracted to.
But sometimes us filmmakers and writers forget that we are in Show Business.
My buddy has had some decent success in the industry. He sold a couple contained Psychological Thriller projects. I was a little surprised when he was telling me about his new Drama script.
From the short pitch he told me, I’m thinking his new project will be fifty times more expensive to produce.
With a limited network, what do you think has a better chance of realistically getting made into a film? An 1800’s period piece Drama where the characters speak in Victorian English, or a contained one-location thriller about a group of college kids that get stuck in a haunted hotel?
I hope you said the latter.
Especially if you are attempting to break in the industry or hustling on your own without representation.
Producers will take a chance on your genre project that can be made for less than a million dollars.
A period piece drama we’re looking at $60 million minimum to produce.
For some odd reason, people have a fascination of things that creep them out.
You could even make a teaser poster or a short fifteen second trailer about your project. There are a ton of buyers in the Horror market. If you have some decent new hook I bet you can find a home for your property.
One of the projects I’ve written is a creature-feature. Its had some decent buzz around town. We did a good job of coming up with a new hook and setting that audiences most likely haven’t seen before.
We wrote it so it can have a flexible budget. The film can probably be shot in less then 30 days. No need for a six month shoot.
It’s all about the niche. I bet right now if you went on Craigslist you would find a variety of people looking to produce or direct a Horror film. Maybe even a ten minute short.
I don’t have a big studio resume, but a producer will take a chance on the creature-feature. Audiences don’t go to see a film like that because of who wrote it.
They see it for the cool animatronics, special effects, and action sequences etc.
Maybe one day I’ll write a Drama, but definitely not in the foreseeable future.
I’d love to hear what you think. Please drop me a comment below.
Shant Y.