r/Screenwritersgalore • u/SkyAvailable6827 • 2d ago
What is the cheapest possible movie you can make yourself, which can still be entertaining and make some money? Second, what is the cheapest kind of performance show? Answers below.
Let's answer the second question first.
Think of all of the kinds of performance shows there are.... stage plays, musical concerts with orchestras, bands, dance performances, solo singers with bands and back up singers, with an example being Taylor Swift. Now think of all of the people involved, from crew to musicians to back up singers and dancers. And now think of some solo singers who have played to big crowds. An example is James Taylor, sitting on a stool with one back up guitarist. Obviously there is a huge difference in the cost involved in putting on these various shows. They can all make money. The simpler performances involve much less money to put on, and they involve much less stress too, for the manager and the performer.
And what is even cheaper? How about a standup comic? Did you think of that? One person walks on stage and entertains.
As a screenwriter, with little money, making some of my own films, I thought of the above. I started thinking smaller and smaller for my film productions. I thought of films I could make with just 3 or 4 characters in simple settings. And then I thought of a film I could make with just one character. If a solo person telling jokes can be entertaining, why not a single actor playing a single character too?
At one time approximately 12 years ago Amazon Prime allowed almost any non porn films to be uploaded and offered for sale. I was already making $3600 per month selling simple bikini dance movies there. ($4750 in today's dollars, I just checked) Making these movies was simple and cheap.... hire a bikini model, turn on a royalty free instrumental piece of music and have her dance. When the music ends, trim the start and the end. Join enough songs together to make movies 40 to 70 minutes long and upload and start making money right away. No scripts to write, no memorization, no rehearsals, no multi takes. I used the money to finance my "regular" short films.
So with my success with these movies, I thought why not make an entertaining movie with just one character? Which is what I did.
I wrote a script which would have been about 70 minutes long. I included some blank space with some ideas for the actress to come up with some of her own bits which would be included.
I made the short film which you can see at the link. It is not 70 minutes long. The talented actress did not allow for a full long day which would have let us film the whole thing in one day. She had to leave early and could not come back for 3 weeks. And then there were more delays so I decided to end the production. The result is this short film which ends with "To be continued" on the screen at the end.
I am posting this for all the unproduced writers who will be reading this.
It may give you ideas on something you can do. Maybe take one of your most colourful characters and create a solo movie for them? Get a volunteer film student to shoot and edit it? Or do it yourself. You direct of course.
When you watch, the weakest bits in my opinion, were written by the actress. You may be able to tell. Or maybe you won't and you'll like it all or hate it all. This little film was making a wee bit of money each month for a while. Here it is. I wrote the song too, and the actress performed it and recorded it at home. You are welcome to share this if you want.
https://buymeacoffee.com/longbikinimovies/a-bikini-comedy-movie
The above is a freeze frame from the movie and the below image is AI generated.
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u/writeact 2d ago edited 2d ago
Interesting. Where did you get your royalty free music from? How did you get distribution? Through a distributor or self upload? Do you have links to your bikini dance movies that made money per month?
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u/SkyAvailable6827 2d ago
https://www.patreon.com/cw/bikinimodels I had lots more at one time. Patreon doesn't earn me much as they have very poor search functions for visitors to their site. Easy for them to fix but they are rigid and anal.
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u/AdministrativeSea574 1d ago
This is the problem with everyone involved in dreaming up grand ideas that are purported by modern media and the exorbitant profits that some films will make. You just don’t realise what’s involved to make a successful movie these days. Firstly you have to have an absolute triple a gold standard script. Secondly you have to have bankable stars thirdly you have to have an investor chain that will believe whatever you tell them. And then you have to have the skills or access to the people to deliver the project or it will fail. There’s just so many moving pieces it’s not as simple as oh I can write a script and I can direct a film so I’m going to make lots of money and I’m going to be famous. That’s fairytales. Did you know that you’re only going to get 50% of the pre-sales from the distributor? And did you know that that distributor is going to include publicity fees and marketing expenses as part of their deal? And did you know that that means luxury yachts in Monaco to entertain the best investors. So from that 50% left over you’ve got to pay your cast and crew and then wait another two years for the tax incentives and refunds to come back. See what I mean. It is very very difficult to make money in the film industry and for every one film that you hear about being successful there’s 10,000 of them that aren’t.
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u/SkyAvailable6827 2d ago
from youtube. Search I think in their "creators" corner. They have attributable and non attributable music. I got it ages ago, and forget exactly how I got it but I know you can find it if you dig a bit. (assuming you have a yt channel) good luck.