Let’s be real: most indie filmmakers go broke trying to make a movie they can’t actually pull off. This is a harsh truth, but one you need to learn now. You’ve got the vision, sure, but unless you’re sitting on a pile of money or favors, writing a $10 million sci-fi horror epic when you’ve got $400 and a fog machine is a one-way ticket to burnout and hating your creative life more than most office workers like Mondays..

We're here to flip the process. We’re not the first ones to ever say or think this; we’d be full of it and lying to ourselves if we tried. Okay, here is the sentence that will change your creative and filmmaking life…

DO NOT write “whatever makes you feel” and believe you can “make it work”. 

This is a lie we tell ourselves to get through the day. We’re not here to lie to ourselves and “feel good” now; we’re here to make movies people will watch and be the filmmaker or creator we always dreamed we could be.

Don’t “hope” to shoot it “no budget” anyway. You write for what you’ve got, not what you think you can get. 

We’re rebels and indies… not 100 million dollar blockbuster filmmakers with an army of people. And trust me, when done right, that makes your film better, not cheaper. Okay, let’s dive in! 

Step 1: Know Your Sandbox, Don’t Dream About It

Before you even open a screenwriting app, before you decide what your movie is, before you get all “I’m an artist”... Be a real pro and ask yourself the freak’n real questions that will help:

• What locations can I use for free? Do you have a house, a farm, a cabin in the woods?
  
  

• Who do I know that can act? NOT your “friend” cuz you want them to like you, I mean, actually act?
  
  

• What filmmaking gear do I have in my grubby fingers right now?
  
  

• Do I own any props, costumes, or vintage clothes?
  
  

• What can I shoot without permits? (Permits take money and insurance, both are important, I’m not saying break laws or be reckless… be smart)
  
  

While this sounds like a frack’n buzz kill, what it really is is building your story around what’s real. Not hypothetically possible, not I can get a… I mean, actually real. That’s your sandbox. Inside this Sandbox, we can build friggin castles!

Step 2: Location = Genre

You get the vibe now. You want a haunted house film? Better have access to a house.
Want a sci-fi bunker thriller? Maybe that grimy basement you kept saying you’d clean but didn’t is the perfect place.

The lesson to learn here is simple. You have to work with what you have, so you don’t waste time and money. The most important resources you have. (Creativity isn’t a resource, it’s a problem solving system!) The “One Room” film is a very doable and has some amazing potential for storytelling… BUT… the location has to match the vibe of the Genre/Story. 

For example, if you have a beautiful suburban home it will take considerable time and resources to make it into a cabin in the woods for your cabin slasher movie. Don’t be stupid and waste your time and resources trying to shoehorn something you can make amazing later. When people see you can make a movie people enjoy watching, you will level up. I promise. 

REMEMBER THIS: One location doesn’t mean boring; it means intentional moments and focused tension.

Take The Invitation (2015), Coherence (2013), or Saw (2004). These films squeeze every drop of dread, mystery, and energy out of a single space. Lean into that, use it.

Not to sound rude, this is just your Uncle Billy making sure that cute little attention span of yours heard me earlier. DO NOT RENT LOCATIONS or BUILD SETS. Let's be real, my lil freaks, you’re reading this because you don’t have a million-dollar budget or PRO career yet, yet. STOP thinking like you do. Every penny you can scrape together will have a place, trust me. This is for budgets from $0 to $999,999.99…(if you have a million for a budget now, in your bank, check signed, reach out, we have friends who can help 10X it.)

Step 3: Cast Around Your Crew

Got friends who can act? Great. Got friends who think they can act? Write them as background characters or give them one-liners. Be ruthless and smart with casting, it’s better to have two great actors in a three-person story than ten bad actors trying their best for you.  This isn’t about making new friends or uplifting someone else’s ego… it’s about your journey as a filmmaker. 

Oh and for god's sake, write characters age-appropriate for your talent pool. If I see one more twenty-something playing a 50 year old veteran detective, I’m going to scream. It’s a quick way to lose your audience and worse respect for your movie. If everyone you know is 20-something, don’t write a grizzled detective, use Brick as your example… it's an age appropriate noir. Thats way it works.

Step 4: Write for Impact, Not Scope

Believe it or not, a well delivered line is more remembered than a huge action scene. Let's look at Avengers Infinity War (2018). Which scene do you remember more, the one where Tony holds Pete and he says “I Don't Want To Go”? Or the scene outside Wakanda, Battle of Wakanda, when countless aliens attack and we get multiple characters doing punchy punchy? Don't lie, you can even see their faces, and I bet you can't even tell me which characters were even in the start of that fight without looking. 

The point is your budget doesn’t have room for huge fight scenes, car chases, plane crashes, or epic crowd scenes, but you can write moments that punch your audience in the gut.

Here’s what low-budget scripts can do incredibly well:

• Psychological tension
  
  

• Brutal simplicity
  
  

• Weird, surreal moments
  
  

• Personal, character-driven horror or drama
  
  

• High-concept setups in a small space
  
  

Example: Two strangers wake up in a locked room with one rule, only one leaves. That’s Saw.

Small set, few characters, massive tension. 

Step 5: Silhouettes, Not Special Effects

Want to know the cheapest way to break your film? Bad visual effects. Want to know the cheapest way to make people feel like they saw something horrifying, huge, or alien? Don’t show it at all.

Use silhouettes, sound, shadows, POV, and off-screen action like a damn magician. You’re not cutting corners—you’re controlling what the audience imagines. And trust me, what they imagine is always scarier than the 3D skeleton you found on a free stock site.

Look at The Blair Witch Project. You never see the witch. No VFX. No monster costume. Just terrified performances, creepy sound design, and darkness. And it became a cultural earthquake.

Instead of:
A CGI demon erupting from a portal (that you’ll never render convincingly)
Try:
A door slams. A scream. The camera tilts. Someone’s gone.

Instead of:
A spaceship exploding in the sky
Try:
Characters stare up, blinded by light. A low rumble. Something falls from above, but we never see what.

This is the only time you will hear me say, TELL don’t SHOW… by that I really mean, suggest more, show less. Use sound, shadows, POV shots, and off-screen action to do the heavy lifting. This isn’t “cheating”, this is cinema. Think The Blair Witch Project. They didn’t show you the monster, and it still messed you up. Always remember, what your audience imagines will always be more horrific to them than you could ever make.

When you write, think in suggestive visuals. What can I imply happens here? What can I get away with NOT showing on screen? Bad VFX kills immersion faster than anything except bad writing. Use practical effects when possible. Use darkness and light to obscure. Use audio cues. Write around the damn spectacle. And for the love of Mike, if you absolutely must show something, make sure it fits your style and your budget.

Because if your demon looks like it was rendered on your mom's computer, you just lost your audience and your credibility.

Step 6: Build With Production in Mind

Every. Damn. Word. You. Write, is a future problem you have to solve on set.

That kickass scene in your head? It could be a logistical nightmare if you didn’t think it through. So here’s the cold truth: writing isn’t just storytelling—it’s prepping the shoot before it happens.

Every word on the page costs you time, energy, and money. If you’re asking yourself, Should I do this? 

NO, absolutely not, 9 out of 9 times, it’s you trying to justify something stupid for your ego. You always lose something when you do that… always. 

Before you lock in a scene, run it through this filter:

• How many setups will this take? (The number of times you have filmed it to get it right.)

• Day or night? (Night = harder. Every time.)

• How hard is it to light this? (If it’s outside at night—good luck.)

• Can you record clean sound here? (If it’s near a highway or a playground, you’re recording garbage.)

• Does this require special props, rigs, costumes, blood, rain machines, possessed puppets, or a goat?

If the answer to any of that is “yes” and your budget is “no,” and if you don't have 50K in your pocket right now you can light on fire, then it’s time to kill your little darlings. Strip that scene to its core with a chainsaw and rebuild it with what you can actually do.

Final Thought: Constraints Fuel Creativity

Filmmaking isn’t about how many toys you have. It’s about how well you weaponize your limitations.

Genre stories thrive in tight spaces. Small budgets force you to be clever, focused, and emotionally precise. That’s not a weakness... it’s your superpower.

Look at Night of the Living Dead. Clerks. Primer. They didn’t wait for permission. They didn’t fake the big leagues. They wrote exactly what they could shoot, shot it with everything they had, and built legends from duct tape and vision.

So stop dreaming about crane shots over CGI cities.

Write what you can shoot. 

Shoot what you can edit. 

Edit what people want to watch.

Now open that script file and build your monster. Just make sure it fits your budget.

Kavan Out

By: Bill Kavan — filmmaker, educator, artist, and curriculum necromancer

With script punching and structure hacking by ChatGPT, Gemini, and a small but unruly coven of AI gremlins trained on VHS horror and Sundance rejection letters.