You know what I hate? More than being late? More than driving around, looking for parking? Even more than the New England Patriots? Rewrites. I was a notorious rewrite-hater back in the Stargate days, so much so that years after Paul and I had stopped co-writing, we still shared script credits because, while I was writing most of the originals, he was doing ALL of the rewrites and it was only fair.
Despite what executives will tell you, there is no such as a “small rewrite” because, if you’ve done your job properly, you will have crafted every scene, each dialogue run, in a smooth progression, inexorably building toward a conclusive payoff. Remove or change one piece, and the entire structure risks collapsing like a Jenga structure. There are no small rewrites. Only rewrites. And even bigger rewrites.
[Interesting fact. If you do a google image search for “hate rewrites”, roughly 30 of those first 110 results will link back to this blog.]Having said all that, I’m about halfway through the rewrite on Episode 301 and it’s actually coming along quite nicely. EP Jay Firestone’s notes were pretty good and I was able to address all of his issues and implement most of his suggestions. Hopefully, I’ll finish up tomorrow after which it’ll be smoooth sailing…until the next rewrite.
Thanks to everyone who weighed in with their opinions on what they did NOT want to see in Dark Matter’s third season. 80+ comments so far and counting!
Hey, remember when you were in elementary school and you had a falling out with a classmate? And they’d do something petty like not invite you to their birthday party BUT invite your best friend in an attempt to curry favor with them? Well, this kinda happened to me. TODAY! I shit you not. My response was stunned bemusement. Seriously? Are we suddenly eight year olds again?
Well, tomorrow’s the day! For Bubba, it’ll be blood work, an ultrasound, and an anti-cancer vaccine. For Lulu, it’s a chest x-ray, an MRI, a catscan, and an uvulopalatopharyngoplasty (say THAT three times fast!). Wish ’em luck!
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