![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kc_obrienIt was a cold and blustery winter's day when they did the final table read of my script. Principal photography was going to begin the next day; the sex scene. The director insisted that it was the best way to break the ice and get everyone into character. Personally, I thought it was the best way to creep out the starlet-of-the-moment they'd cast as the anjenue, but what did I know; as the screenwriter, I had about as much say on set as the production assistant (less, actually, the PA had to watch the clock and make sure they didn't get into trouble with the trade unions).
The reading was happening on set; the director's choice yet again. If we were on set, we (and by we he meant everyone but me; that I was allowed to sit in was a courtesy, though rumor had it that Roy Carpenter has really liked my script and wanted to talk to me about his part) would get the feel for the pending film. The set was dark and they had set up three tables and a veritable ass-load of chairs. The tables were set in a triangle, the principle actors at two of them, the director and the department heads at the third, minor players and we few speechless masses further back in folding chairs.
What fun.
I kept telling myself that I shouldn't focus on what I wasn't able to do but rather on the opportunity presented. How many guys fresh out of film school get a shot at sitting on a soundstage at Dreamcast Productions and hear a professional cast reading the script that they're making into a film. Goosebumps.
"Alright, actors, eyes on me!" The Director called everyone's attention to him. "We're going to give a final read on through on Mr. Wilmington's fantastic script." He stood and picked up a rather large binder and chucked it about the room. "We read, but we feel. The words are nothing... we are everything. Read them so that we can abandon them and do what your characters must."
Next script I write, I swear to GOD, I'm directing myself.
==
Today's '30 Days of Fic' task was to write a scene that takes place on a movie set.
Click Here for rundown of tasks that are part of the "30 Days of Fic" challenge, including a link to all completed works!
The reading was happening on set; the director's choice yet again. If we were on set, we (and by we he meant everyone but me; that I was allowed to sit in was a courtesy, though rumor had it that Roy Carpenter has really liked my script and wanted to talk to me about his part) would get the feel for the pending film. The set was dark and they had set up three tables and a veritable ass-load of chairs. The tables were set in a triangle, the principle actors at two of them, the director and the department heads at the third, minor players and we few speechless masses further back in folding chairs.
What fun.
I kept telling myself that I shouldn't focus on what I wasn't able to do but rather on the opportunity presented. How many guys fresh out of film school get a shot at sitting on a soundstage at Dreamcast Productions and hear a professional cast reading the script that they're making into a film. Goosebumps.
"Alright, actors, eyes on me!" The Director called everyone's attention to him. "We're going to give a final read on through on Mr. Wilmington's fantastic script." He stood and picked up a rather large binder and chucked it about the room. "We read, but we feel. The words are nothing... we are everything. Read them so that we can abandon them and do what your characters must."
Next script I write, I swear to GOD, I'm directing myself.
==
Today's '30 Days of Fic' task was to write a scene that takes place on a movie set.
Click Here for rundown of tasks that are part of the "30 Days of Fic" challenge, including a link to all completed works!
no subject
Date: 2011-06-29 04:25 pm (UTC)My first thought was that his next script should star the director as the villain. :) (It could turn into a meta-horror film when this same director gets the script and decides to 'get in character'.)
Good things can happen though when the script writer is in control (see Princess Bride for example).
no subject
Date: 2011-06-29 06:50 pm (UTC)Auteur for life!!!
no subject
Date: 2011-07-01 10:46 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-07-03 09:05 am (UTC)It's why the people who you think of as the best at writing and putting the stories together are, by and large, directing their own work.