Writing the Low Budget Screenplay

Last week, I announced that I was accepting submissions from paid subscribers for the low-budget Lifetime thrillers that I’ll be producing later this year. So far, I’ve received a lot of interest which is fantastic!

One of my subscribers asked if I’d be willing to write a Substack article about what you can and can’t do (as a writer) when writing at this budget level, and since so many of you are coming up with concepts right now, I figured this is the perfect time to address that subject.

Image by Freepik.com

So here are the basics that writers should writing the low budget thriller.

First of all, no one expects you to be able to figure out a feature budget the way a line producer would, so don’t think you need to read books on producing and budgeting in order to write for a lower budget. Just by following a few rules, chances are your screenplay will fit the low budget guidelines enough that a producer will recognize it as a ‘do-able’ script.

What constitutes a ‘low’ budget?

There are a l…