Man, stripped down to the basics...this is a wicked script. Close to amoral except it's got a strong morality to it, one that's not limited by hypocritical renditions of what is right and wrong. Not locked into pandering. Vicious and cruel, at times. Lost at others. I'll print out a copy to take with me to Oakland for a polish...make sure it's consistent...then it's off to AFF and the Nicholl.
Oh, it's 112 pages long...and could probably be cut down to 105 because I've got some areas a bit heavy in dialogue. But I also have some long sections without a word spoken, so...
If I'd had this attitude thirty years ago, I'd probably have a couple of writing Oscars now. Who knows? I might also have been driven to suicide by the destruction of my scripts by talented directors and actors. Who knows?
I used to was At The Movies with Siskel and Ebert, who were fairly intelligent about film. But sometimes they could really get it wrong. During one show they complained about how screenplays were badly written and how the writer didn't do his part right, then in the very next week's program talked about how actors make scripts better by sometimes ignoring what the writer's put in them. What irritated me wasn't just the two-faced aspect of what they were saying, it's that they were basically suggesting they had no idea how a film is made.
The script is the beginning. The director goes through and reworks the action and angles to suit himself, usually by deliberately ignoring what the writer is indicating; can't have people not know he's directing this movie. Then actors come in and ad lib or rework lines to suit themselves or drop lines altogether because they just know they can project the meaning better in their eyes.
But then comes the editing...from God knows how many different takes of the same scene...and you can completely rearrange a film's story at that time. If you've ever seen The Stuntman, you'll see how that works. That movie was completely restructured in editing; you can tell by the clothes the actors are wearing and where they are in the set.
Another way of screwing around the writer is by having so many different angles and shots and takes, you can cut the damn thing to ribbons. I saw that happen in two different movies, both of which had fantastic scripts -- A Chorus of Disapproval and The Last Time I Committed Suicide. The directors of both films edited them so quick and hard and needlessly, they destroyed the rhythm of the script and even the beauty of the performances.
But hey...it's always the writer at fault, right?
Oh, it's 112 pages long...and could probably be cut down to 105 because I've got some areas a bit heavy in dialogue. But I also have some long sections without a word spoken, so...
If I'd had this attitude thirty years ago, I'd probably have a couple of writing Oscars now. Who knows? I might also have been driven to suicide by the destruction of my scripts by talented directors and actors. Who knows?
I used to was At The Movies with Siskel and Ebert, who were fairly intelligent about film. But sometimes they could really get it wrong. During one show they complained about how screenplays were badly written and how the writer didn't do his part right, then in the very next week's program talked about how actors make scripts better by sometimes ignoring what the writer's put in them. What irritated me wasn't just the two-faced aspect of what they were saying, it's that they were basically suggesting they had no idea how a film is made.
The script is the beginning. The director goes through and reworks the action and angles to suit himself, usually by deliberately ignoring what the writer is indicating; can't have people not know he's directing this movie. Then actors come in and ad lib or rework lines to suit themselves or drop lines altogether because they just know they can project the meaning better in their eyes.
But then comes the editing...from God knows how many different takes of the same scene...and you can completely rearrange a film's story at that time. If you've ever seen The Stuntman, you'll see how that works. That movie was completely restructured in editing; you can tell by the clothes the actors are wearing and where they are in the set.
Another way of screwing around the writer is by having so many different angles and shots and takes, you can cut the damn thing to ribbons. I saw that happen in two different movies, both of which had fantastic scripts -- A Chorus of Disapproval and The Last Time I Committed Suicide. The directors of both films edited them so quick and hard and needlessly, they destroyed the rhythm of the script and even the beauty of the performances.
But hey...it's always the writer at fault, right?
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