Script accuracy?

[Dr_Strangelove]

I've been wondering about something for some time now, please bare with me here.

Those of us who write our own scripts and spend endless nights trying to write a decent story which will eventually be transfered on to film or video (whatever the hell one choses) how carefully do you stick to the script youve written?

What I mean to say is, in the end, when youre watching your movie on the ''big screen'' (by big screen I mean with the help of uncle Bob's digital projector and a white wall) with your screenplay in your hands,how accurate is your film to what you have written?

/Jan

[Evan Kubota]

It completely depends. If I'm working quickly, very little changes except for some staging and blocking things which I feel are good to leave open until you're actually on location (or on set).

My current film is a fairly long-duration production. I started shooting in early April and it won't be done for at least two more weeks. During that time, you obviously think of revisions and alterations to the script. I see no reason not to use these if they improve the film.

Usually my finished films are fairly close to the final script.

[Nigel]

Remember making a movie is a collective effort. If you want it to be exactly like what you have on the page then you need to direct, star, shoot, edit, produce, light, set design, etc, etc...Which will never happen. So you will have to just make your script into a film and see what happens.

Who knows it might even change for the better.

Good Luck

[steve hyde]

I think too much rigidity is not a good thing, but it depends on how you want to work. If you have large crews with people wandering around wondering what they are supposed to be doing than you need a tight, scheduled script - one that has been worked over dozens of times. This is a very modernist mathematical way of working. I've got a project coming up in September that I am planning with only a scenario - no script. I plan to compose shooting scripts in collaboration with the other filmmakers during production. The reason we are choosing to work this way is because it is a road movie and we plan to enlist non-actors to participate as we go. This way of working is self-organizing. We cannot possibly know what we will get in the end and I'm comfortable with that. The key is to have a solid outline of events that shape the story - when, where and how they happen and play-out is less important than making sure that the character shaping events are recorded and carefully crafted and thought-out on the fly....

It's my first real dramatic character-driven short so of course I have no idea what I'm talking about.....

Steve

[audadvnc]

I recall reading an Alfred Hitchcock interview where he said he envisioned the entire movie down to the smallest detail before he ever entered the studio. Rolling film was merely an afterthought for him.

[flatwood]

A pal who was on The Brothers Grimm shoot in Europe just sent me the shooting script from the film. They revised it every day or so as they were working and the script as sent matches the film almost word for word and beat for beat. As they made changes they would print them on different colored paper and insert into the script.

[npcoombs]

Remember making a movie is a collective effort.

Nah. I prefer the totalitarian model where the director lords over the cast and crew with an absolutist iron fist and with a streak of terror.

[Evan Kubota]

"As they made changes they would print them on different colored paper and insert into the script."

Yep. This is SOP... I've spent too much time collating copies with those new pink and blue pages...

I'm willing to take suggestions when I'm directing but I don't usually use them. This isn't a kindergarten sandbox where you "have" to share.

[Dr_Strangelove]

Sugestions are always nice but just like you Evan, I rarely follow them, because those who have sugestions dont really understand my vision of the film.

[mattias]

i always follow the script while shooting, but editing always changes everything or you're doing something wrong.

/matt

[flatwood]

.....Yep. This is SOP... I've spent too much time collating copies with those new pink and blue pages....

Now I see why they use those brass brads to hold the scripts together.

[Nigel]

I don't mean collective effort in the sense that people have equal say in what is going on...

I mean collective effort in the sense that despite the fact that the director wants a shot I might not like I get the shot and in the end I can still see my mark on that picture.

If making movies was truly a collective effort then movies wouldn't get made. Just like the government they would get bogged down in bullshit. Then again I guess they still do...

Good Luck