Hi, I’ve been asked to provide a quote to write a short film - and the idea is really good. I’m suggesting the script should be eight minutes long, and am not sure what to quote for this work. Any ideas?
I’ve looked on WGA and can’t see anything regarding writing short films there, also I did a search here and found suggestions for $4,000 or 2.5/3% of production budget - whichever is greater.
Would appreciate some guidance here. Thanks!
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It's your call. There is no money in shorts - only expense so there is no back end money available. If there is production money in place - it's likely not much. It is likely that your quote may over reach the budget ceiling and nix the project entirely. Realistically, a pretty good (festival quality) short script can be written, rewritten a couple of times, polished and delivered with a solid week's worh - what's a week worth to you? A lot of shorts are passion projects - are you passionate about the subject?
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What Doug said, there's no money in shorts and so many are written for free because of this. Why don't you ask them what their budget is for writing and go from there?
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The reason I did an 8-minute short was because I want to direct my best script someday and was told to tell a story thru film to prove I can to any reluctant producer or studio.
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You didn't mention any pertinent information like "what are the plans for the finished short?", "do the producers have a track record of getting short films made/marketed/placed somewhere?", "is this an amateur team that doesn't know what they are doing or getting themselves into?"...etc...etc.
In a scenario where I felt that the producers were really able to do this....I as an unsold writer trying to break into the business would do it for free. I would let the producers know that I am doing it for free because I want them to spend their money on making the actual film at the highest quality-level that they can; and so they can enter it into as many festivals as they can; and so they can market it in other ways at the highest level that they can.
I would use this opportunity to be a part of as much of the process as I could; to learn and to grow my knowledge in the filmmaking process; and to make more connections and impress as many people as I could.
This is a great opportunity for writers who are trying to be a part of an industry where there are probably hundreds of qualified people for any potential opportunity, and where even at the highest level (being a WGA member)...thousands of professionals don't make a dime in any given year, according to the WGA Annual Reports.
Thousands. Thousands. Thousands.
Eight minutes? That's Freebie Land with a lot of opportunity and potential.