How Art Directors and Copywriters Can Cut Costs Without Killing the Concept 📔🎥
Many agency teams make the same mistake. They don’t see the big difference between real-life documentation and producing fictional concept films. Fiction often requires extra time, careful planning, and a larger budget. That’s why I created this article, to help teams reduce costs while still keeping their core idea strong in fiction film production.
[Read more about the difference between fiction and real life here: LINK]
Headlines:
1️⃣ 4 Questions to Help You Cut Film Production Costs
2️⃣ Why the Mona Lisa Proves Constraints Make Better Concepts 🖼️💰
3️⃣ Personal Example - My Mona Lisa Approach to Umeå’s 400-Year Film
4 Questions to Help You Cut Film Production Costs
1. Characters
How many characters are in the script?
Can you tell the same story, with the same punch, using fewer actors?
Can the same actors play different roles by using costumes, makeup, or styling tricks?
2. Locations
How many different locations are there?
Can the story and message still work if you use just one place, or fewer locations?
3. Scenes or Stories
How many scenes or different stories are in your concept?
Which one is the most important? If you could only make one, which one would it be?
Could you create shorter versions or cut-downs from that one main film, instead of making three totally different ones?
4. Client Resources
Does the client have any in-house resources that could be used?
In your script or concept, can anything be sourced from the client?
Think about things like:
Props
Locations
Extras
Even actors
Using what the client already has is a powerful way to stretch the budget. It saves money, saves time, and makes the whole production easier for everyone.
Why the Mona Lisa Proves Constraints Make Better Concepts
— and Cheaper Productions 🖼️💰
The Mona Lisa is a tiny painting (77 cm × 53 cm / 30 in × 21 in) that leaves a big impression. In the same way, small concepts can feel big - if you use your space wisely.
One of my favorite tricks for lowering the budget and making the final film better is to purposefully make the idea smaller, limit the space of the story, and then do something great within that space.
Viewers will believe in the world you create, as long as it’s consistent in its concept.
Here’s what I mean.
Think about the Epic Split ad with Jean-Claude Van Damme. It’s just two trucks and one man doing an (epic) split in one location, in one take. That’s it. No showing off extra features on the Volvo trucks, no montage of the truck or Van Damme in different locations.
It’s simple, and it works.
Imagine having what we’ll assume is a handsome budget.
Could they have added more scenes with action stunts, maybe ending with the final epic split?
If they wanted to? Sure! But that would have cost more to produce and probably would have ruined the punch of the film that became the epic split.
My Mona Lisa Approach to Umeå’s 400-Year Film
When I got the agency treatment for this project, the script had lots of scenes and most importantly, new actors with new ideas in each scene.
It was originally a series of random scenes with different amount of people arguing through key moments in a specific town’s history.
At first, I had to simplify everything to stay within the budget. But that also helped me find a clearer story that was easier to tell. So, I used my “Mona Lisa” approach: I shrunk the story down to just two actors, playing a couple traveling and arguing through time.
Good luck with your next production!
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