Day 9 Assignments

[Eric Humble]

Eric Humble’s Budget

What I learned doing this assignment is: how many variations I can make to raise and lower the budget without fundamentally altering the story. It was really interesting how I could expand or contract the elements in the script to affect the budget, and this even gave me some ideas on how to flesh out the story while lowering the budget even further.

BUDGET LOWERED:

MAIN VARIABLES

Number of Locations: Put the clinic in the Youth Center, cut out the scenes taking place outside the buildings.

Expensive locations: Instead of the subbasement, place the heroin clinic inside one of the rooms. Make the Youth Center a simpler building, one main room – they find the various paraphernalia inside closets around the basketball court or something major like that. Instead of finding a dead body on ice, they find the body in a closet, unpreserved.

Number of characters: Cut some of the people they might call on the phone.

Special effects: No gunshots or fights – just the threat of fights. Keep Standish’s bleeding out, impromptu surgery, etc. to a minimum.

Number of pages: Keep it at 80-90 pages.

Crowd scenes: None so far – keep it that way.

Stunts, Chase scenes, and Fight scenes: Cut out any fights or physical altercations.

Special sets: The freezer/morgue scene and the subbasement heroin den can be removed and replaced with these events just being found in ordinary offices/closets.

SECONDARY VARIABLES

Rights to music, brands, books, etc.: N/A

Explosions and Firearm: Don’t have anyone fire a weapon on screen – even Robert shooting Standish occurs off-screen – we hear the shot, then see the aftermath.

Kids — shorter work days, tutor on the set: N/A

Animals – need a wrangler, more time to shoot, Humane Society: N/A

Weather — Rain, snow, wind, tornados: N/A

Water and underwater scenes: N/A

Night scenes: Keep everything interior – we don’t go outside for any of these confrontations.

Helicopters, aircraft, drone shots: Create the ambiance of the neighborhood by the tension in the characters, not by showing anything of the neighborhood itself.

Green screen work: None needed.

Extensive Make-up: Keep Standish’s medical crises to a minimum – he’s just wounded. Nothing that needs D’Quan to operate – D’Quan just says that the crises are escalating to motive Robert to keep investigating.

Archival Footage: Cut out any news stock footage of the manhunt, neighborhood environment, etc.

Anything else dangerous that increases preparation time and/or Insurance: Don’t use anything involving the unsafeness of the locations.

BUDGET INCREASED:

MAIN VARIABLES

Number of Locations: Add in the police station – both Robert and Markway interact with other cops over the phone, and we see all of that play out onscreen.

Expensive locations: The building is vast and cavernous with different workout spaces, basketball courts, locker rooms, etc. The clinic could be a hospital.

Number of characters: Add in some of the other cops and the SWAT team. Add in Robert’s girlfriend/wife at the opening introductory scenes.

Special effects: Markway sets the heroin den/tunnel on fire. Gunfight between Markway and Robert at the climax. SWAT team invades the place, starts shooting.

Number of pages: 90-120 pages to accommodate additional characters, action scenes.

Crowd scenes: Show a riot building beyond the police barricade – the neighborhood is charged and ready to rebel against the police at the perimeter.

Stunts, Chase scenes, and Fight scenes: Fight between Robert and a dark figure (Markway). Fight between Standish and D’Quan. Climactic fight between Robert and Markway.

Special sets: Elaborate subbasement morgue and heroin clinic.

SECONDARY VARIABLES

Rights to music, brands, books, etc.: Classic music soundtrack; music to fit the urban location.

Explosions and Firearm: Major gunfights. Tunnel going up in flames.

Kids — shorter work days, tutor on the set: Robert has kids at the introduction – we see him taking them to school or preparing their lunches, etc. before he heads off on his assignment.

Animals – need a wrangler, more time to shoot, Humane Society: Robert has a dog. A Doberman is let loose inside the heroin den – and it attacks when Robert is exploring in the dark!

Weather — Rain, snow, wind, tornados.: A storm hits at the climax – the weather exemplifies the explosion of tension as they chase each other.

Water and underwater scenes: Markway throws Robert into the public pool inside the Youth Center and tries to drown him. They fight under the water.

Night scenes: The Act One manhunt takes place around the neighborhood and alleyways at night.

Helicopters, aircraft, drone shots: WIde panoramic shots of the decaying neighborhood, the crowd growing at the barricade.

Green screen work: N/A

Extensive Make-up: Increase the intensity of Standish’s medical complications. An involved impromptu surgery is required.

Archival Footage: Show news footage of the riot brewing, use real footage of demonstrations, etc.

Anything else dangerous that increases preparation time and/or Insurance: The floor collapses at one point and Robert is dangling over the chasm… until D’Quan saves him.