Rewriting a Scene: If it's Broke, Fix it.
by Steven H. Berman Somebody said, "Writing is rewriting." But no matter who said it first, most writers have repeated it ever since because it's so true.
Having written your script to the best of your ability, with all the imagination and passion you have, the question is how do you know when a scene is not working? It was working when you wrote it, wasn't it? Otherwise, you wouldn't have written as you did, right?
Well...
Here is where we enter the treacherous gray area of the rewrite...mostly because it involves you being very truthful and hard on yourself. You have to balance your objectivity with your instinct. That is very difficult tightrope to walk. It brings into contact with your core feelings about what you have truly accomplished, your artistic stubbornness to cling to your original vision and the practical realities of writing a script that you hope will, at some point, be a film.
Techniques to discover if your scene (or script) is not working:
- Read it out loud to yourself. Dialogue that works perfectly well in your head might sound absolutely terrible or incomprehensible when you read it aloud.
- If one person reads your material and gives you a reaction you believe is unwarranted, you might dismiss it as just one person's opinion. But if three people read the scene or script and have the same reaction (or note), that's something else. Pay some attention in that case.
- When you're on the set (or a table reading) and an actor can't get the words out in any way that makes sense you have an immediate practical problem with the scene. You must deal with it.
- When the production company who is paying you calls you and tells you that the scene (or script) is not working, again, the situation warrants attention.
What to do?
Objectivity is the first casualty of many creative processes. It's hard to be objective and be "in the flow" of the moment. One way to gain or regain some objectivity is to put the script down for at least a week after you have finished it. Then read it again. Is it working the way you thought it was? Are the scenes working together? Don't be afraid to dive in.
Face the fact that almost ever facet of your script; every scene, every description of action, each speech of dialogue can probably be better. In many ways there is only one note you are ever given, "write better." That is THE note. It comes in many different forms, some specific, some general and is rarely if ever actually said by any production executive or producer, but that is what every note means in translation.
But how? Here's a checklist for your scenes:
- Do you need the scene at all? As you went through the stages of writing first your story and then your script, it might be that a scene you were sure you needed no longer is essential. It might repeat action. It might only evoke mood. A production company might tell you to delete a scene for purely financial reasons. Which means the salient parts of the scene might have to be artfully included in some other scene.
Steven H. Berman is a veteran writer-producer and entertainment executive. He has been involved in the development of over a thousand scripts from his years as an executive at CBS Entertainment and Columbia Televsion where he was Executive Vice-president in charge of all development and production. His writing and Executive Producing credits include more than a dozen MOW and Mini-series projects as well as numerous pilots and series. He received a WGA Award Nomination for his mini-series "MARK TWAIN'S ROUGHING IT" for best adapted long form in 2003 and his MOW "TWICE UPON A CHRISTMAS" was selected by Laura Bush as the kick off film for her series of family film screenings at the White House. He was an Executive Producer on the feature film "BEWITCHED" starring Will Ferrell and Nicole Kidman. |
