If you were to consult my long, long list of Things I Hate, you’d find “rewriting a script” right up there, somewhere between “world hunger” and “the New England Patriots“. It’s not that I’m particularly precious about my ideas. It‘s just that after spending days upon days going over a script, writing and rewriting it until it‘s so tight it’s, in your mind, bullet-proof, the last thing you want to do is revisit it. Especially if this revisit requires you to make changes that will effectively undo what it’s taken you weeks to do. The fact is even the most seemingly innocuous note can have major ramifications. Pull the tiny thread and the whole damn thing comes apart. But it’s all part of the business and you can’t expect your first draft to be perfect. And so, knowing that, you put it out to the other writers who weigh in with their thoughts, valuable input that will, in the long run, make the script that much better, that much tighter – that much more bullet-proof. You spend days incorporating their notes, shifting scenes, rethinking the rhythm of the dialogue here or there, and then, when you’re finally done, you sit back and say: “Finally. It’s over.” Until the script goes out to the writers one more time and they offer up their thoughts on the revised version. But generally, at this point, the notes are minor. An adjustment here. A tweak there. And voila! At this point, having gone through two revisions, you can usually feel pretty confident heaing into your notes session with the network and studio. After all, the entire writing department has already been over this script with a fine-tooth comb. You’d assume that any further notes would be almost inconsequential. You’d assume wrong. Back to work you go…
I stayed up late last night wracking my brain, juggling scenes in my head into the wee hours of the morning. And then, spent most of the day trying to incorporate the notes. I feel confident I’ll be able to do most of them, but one in particular poses a problem due to military regs. I did take some time off in the afternoon to deal with the teeniest of potential on-set crises after John Lenic informed me that we were in danger of not making our day. We dropped scene 50, trimmed scenes 44 and 49, and that was hopefully enough to take most of the pressure off. I wanted to stick around for the big sword fight sequence, but I had that rewrite to get back to. I still managed to snap a few pics though.
Today’s pics: Don’t go chocolate-shopping when you’re feeling bummed, and…from the set of Broken Ties.
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