Collaboration

As you work on your scripts, hoping one will catch someone’s eye—say a producer or development exec or contest reader—it’s important to remember to write from your heart, to follow your vision. For sure. But when it comes to someone being interested in your film—say to option it for future production—what’s the first thing that will happen?

First thing? They’ll ask you to rewrite. So all of those things that made up your “vision” are fair game to be changed.

Now, if you’ve got the money to make your film independently, hey, go to it! But if you need others to finance your work, you have to collaborate.

Anyone who’s been on a film set knows how important collaboration is—everything you’re doing, every decision you make, affects others on the set. The director wants a different dress on the lead actor? The costume designer doesn’t say, “But this is my vision” because the vision of the costume designer bows to the vision of the director.

This is true all through the development process for the script as well. The company who optioned your script will give you notes that you need to address in a rewrite. When the script is packaged with actors and producers, all of them will have notes they want you to address. The studio? Many development execs could have notes as well. And, of course, the director will be the final say on the things in your script that need to be changed.

In the process of making your film, you will rewrite and rewrite and rewrite. And if you say, “Look, I’m the writer here and I’m not going to change the age of the older sister—it’s all wrong for the story. Don’t you see that?”

Well, they’ll smile and say they totally understand and they respect your vision. And by the time you get home your agent will have called to tell you you’re being ‘replaced’ on the project. That means fired.

What happens now? Someone is going to take over your “vision” and rewrite it and rewrite it and rewrite it. You’re off the project. Your vision becomes totally taken over by another writer.

As a writer, you are not the final say when it comes to what’s right for your story. You abdicated that when you got paid for that option and paid to do rewrites. You are now doing—as we say in the biz—‘work for hire.’ You are just the writer and you are easily replaceable.

So how do you deal with this? You learn to see OUTSIDE your vision and listen to the thoughts of others. Even when you don’t agree with the changes being asked of you, try making them. See what you come up with. You may be surprised to discover that the script gets better. Or you may be dismayed that the studio notes have made the script worse. But either way, if you want to stay with the project and thereby have a better chance of protecting your vision, you learn to collaborate.

Collaboration is what film is all about. If you can’t be a collaborative screenwriter, write a novel or a play. But if you love film and want to write in what I think is the art form of our time? Collaborate.

Copyright © Diane Lake

25Apr21

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