MicroCinema Scene

Nothing is more horrifying to a first timer than realizing very early in your shoot that you’re going way over schedule, over budget and your crew is about to mutiny because of long shooting days.  At this point, after shooting all day, you are forced to start cutting pages while trying to keep your movie’s story coherent and alive. It’s my hope this article will help beginning writer/directors embarking on their first feature (or even long short) during the scriptwriting and pre-production phase so they don’t run into such unfortunate situations.

First, so you know where I’m coming from, a little about my background. I have worked for over 17 years in film and video production, shooting 14+ feature films, producing a couple of films and writing 8 feature scripts, 2 of which have been produced.  I have shot video features with tiny budgets and have also worked on the opposite end of the spectrum, shooting 35mm features.

I’ve created an analogy for helping writer/directors gearing up for production.  Think of your script as a wagon in the pioneer days preparing to make the trek across country. You have to carefully select what goes in your wagon before you start the long journey or in your script select the scenes that are most important to your movie.  Don’t go loading that big old grandfather clock on the wagon or in your script don’t go throwing in a scene where the character goes to a bar and gets drunk with his friends that adds little or nothing to the story. You want to load on the meat and potatoes and the tools you’ll need to set up your homestead.  In your script, think of these as character development, sub-plots, motifs, plot points and your major conflict.

Having worked with many first time writer/directors, I’ve seen plenty of great scripts and plans… and I’ve seen many writers who refuse to cut scenes that, though they may be great little character asides, bog down the pacing, adding little to the plot.  Many scenes such as these were cut during editing because the film was running too long.

If your story is overloaded with extras (grandfather clocks and boxes of lace tablecloths), sometime during production there’s a good chance you’re going to have to start throwing these items out, placing yourself into the comfortable position of figuring out new ways to patch your script together.  Doing this at the production phase is difficult to say the least, and often will create plot headaches – especially when you’re modifying your script after a 14-hour shooting day.  Doing it at the editing stage can be even more painful because you see all the wasted expense and time that went into making those scenes as they land on the cutting room floor.

Here are a couple of real-life stories to accent the point. A writer/director buddy of mine asked me to read his screenplay.  It was long and I recommended cuts.  He made some of them and some recommended by others.  It still came back too long.  He decided to stay with the length.  (As a side note, I did notice that his formatting was off and when he later formatted to the script into a shooting script it ballooned to over 135 pages!  On a low budget, that’s huge.) He ended up making cuts during production which he said were very painful because he was juggling shooting, prepping for the next day and he was producing.  Some were good and some muddied the plot.  He regretting not making those cuts at the script stage.

On the opposite side of the coin, another friend just finished a first cut of his 90 page screenplay - and it ran only 72 minutes!  So remember to get your formatting right and stay aware of pacing and run time.  When I write, I like to do a full cast read through with no stops so I can get timing.  Taping read-throughs such as these will give you a much better read on your project’s pacing as well.

Let’s return to the sprawling epic.  After the script grew to over 130 pages, the writer dug in his feet and claimed he didn’t want to “cut his poetry.” We ended up shooting the script as written, but the days were long and nerves were frayed.  Finally, the director did adjust his script after some crewmembers quit because of overwork.

Well, the first cut ran over 200 minutes!!!  Over 3 hours!  After a boatload of editing, they ended up with a 91-minute cut, and effectively cut over half the work the crew did.  What hurt most of all wasn’t just seeing all that time and effort wasted, but rather seeing how the time could have been better spent making the scenes that did wind up in the final cut so much more effective.

What does all this mean?  You have to focus on what is most important to your story.  Only put in the wagon what you need. Tired of the wagon analogy?  Then here’s the simple version: only keep scenes in your script that build your plot and streamline the story.  Make those cuts before you start pre-production so you can focus your efforts on the scenes that matter, not the fluff which lands on the cutting room floor.

My advice is to get as many people as possible to read your script and get a thick skin about criticism.  Try to get people who have been through the process and understand filmmaking.  Don’t line up your close friends and family who love everything you do and aren’t knowledgeable about how to make a movie.

A final piece of advice is to raise a couple extra dollars and get yourself a producer.  I know budgets are tight, but I highly recommend that you find yourself someone to help you, because as writer/director you are already wearing some very big hats.  My friends who have tried it have said they wouldn’t do it again.  You’ll spend so much of your time worrying about lunch, watching the clock, finding props, keeping the crew happy, setting up for the next day’s shoot, etc., that you’ll hardly have the energy to direct and/or re-write the script if needed.  Get somebody who’s been there before, loves your project and filmmaking in general.  Some may work for free, but I always recommend that you try to pay them something.  That makes them fiscally responsible to you.  It doesn’t have to be a fortune, but it will cover their time, any phone calls they make and gas for their car.

In closing, during the writing process and even in the beginning stages of pre-production you must focus on what is essential to your story.  You must be merciless and cut the scenes that don’t help build support your story goals.  This makes you define the spine of the story, it saves you money because you don’t shoot scenes you don’t need and gives you more time to focus on the scenes that matter and your crew will love because they will not feel like they are wasting their time.  You must FOCUS, FOCUS, FOCUS on story and do what’s best for your screenplay.

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