Something I wrote awhile back:
"Good Notes"? Isn't that an oxymoron? Well, no. Other people can have good ideas, too. I know... to quote Wallace Shawn in THE PRINCESS BRIDE: "Inconceivable!!!"
Look at it this way. Your script is a road trip down Route 66, and the car has some hitchhikers aboard. They have ideas on how to get there differently. One says it's prettier if you go on the back-roads through the mountains and "see a little country." Another says there's a short-cut using the Interstate. You've chosen Rt. 66, because, well, it's a classic. But that doesn't necessarily make it right for today. Rt. 66 was built before speed was an issue. And it also predated "vogues" like stopping and "smelling the roses" made for a better quality of life. Who's right?
My wife likes to tell the story of the Zen master who was traveling with someone on a long journey. Mile after mile, the companion complained about one thing after another. But the master never lost his smile, nor his patience. Finally after this had gone on for days, the companion shouted, “What’s wrong with you? Haven’t I made you angry?” The Zen master replied, “If someone gives you a gift, but you don’t take it, whose is it?”
You're still the driver. Consider your riders' ideas, but choose your route of travel yourself. And if your riders drop away, well, there'll be other trips.
From TALES FROM THE SCRIPT, Edited by Peter Hanson and Paul Robert Herman, HarperCollins, p. 133, screenwriter Billy Ray on studio development notes and the revision process:
"You have to listen to their problems [found in your script] but ignore their solutions [for it]. Their solutions, just by definition, will make your movie more like other movies – that’s how studio executives think, and that’s not gonna help. I think writers have a knee-jerk response to any notes, which is that they’re just stupid, and that knee-jerk response is folly. Not all notes are bad notes. Some notes are enormously helpful. The development process is there to make movies better, and sometimes it does actually work. I’ve seen scripts of mine get better. Here’s the thing to look out for: Sometimes your screenplay – as you go through the second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth draft – will get smarter and tighter. Development always works in that way. However there is a certain raw, organic energy to that first draft – even a certain messiness – that has value. Sometimes as movies get tighter, they get less passionate. You have to guard against that"
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Screenwriter, David Hayter adds:
"You can fine-tune a script down to the nth degree, and it’s uninspiring. It doesn’t move. It’s too constructed. Sometimes you just need to break all that, and try to re-infuse some of that chaotic energy into it. As William Goldman said in one of his brilliant books, a screenplay is a series of little surprises. If your script has become too solidified in terms of structure and form, then you’ll have fewer surprises, just because your average movie-going audience is pretty film-savvy at this point. So you need to find a way to break it up, and to create things that will surprise you as the artist, and thereby surprise the audience as they watch the film."
Listen. Then drive.
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Great advice, Lee Matthias! Some notes are helpful, but too many notes -- and too rewrites -- can hurt a script. I like to save a copy of the script so if the notes end up not helping, I can go back to the previous draft.
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Great post! Definitely there's such a thing as too many notes; you risk losing your touch and getting drowned out. That's why I take any and all advice I get with a grain of salt; sometimes I get very good advice that does help what I'm going for, other times I don't. It's why I think critically about what I'm told: does this aid or hinder what I'm going for? could I have come up with this on my own? could I even use this for another story? and any other question that's pertinent.
I fully embrace that you can't achieve a good polish on your own 95% of the time but at the end of the day, I'm the one telling the story so all advice I get is subjective and I'm free to follow or ignore whatever I see fit.
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Great posts and good extracts. As ever, the value of something tends to be subject to where it's coming from. If a producer suggests a different location is going to get more production value for the budget, that has to be listened to. If an actor suggests a change in dialogue is going to result in a better delivery, that has to be listened to. If a director suggests adjusting a scene to get more emotion from it, that has to be listened to. Anything at a technical/pragmatic level has to be respected when it comes from someone who specialises in it.
Creative input, for me, is all about wavelength and voice, a bit like being in a band. If those collaborating all see a similar vision, most suggestions should be driving everyone in the same direction. The problem is when you've got issues like very different personalities and opposing artistic voices.
However, I think the biggest issue I see are notes that come from a place of cowardice. I've seen this over and over again. A random person will question something, something woefully minor, possibly because they feel they have to mention something. and it will be action stations to address what maybe shouldn't even be a concern in the first place. Stuff's allowed to not make sense. Some things are fine to remain a mystery. Plot holes won't ruin an entertaining film. Addressing minutia like this can do more harm than good, and we head toward safe, committee-based results that feel dispassionate to the audience.
What's frustrating is that this dispassionate process is exactly what writers are adopting when they try to please competition judges, appease BL readers, address every "issue" they've had brought up in coverage, and try to come up with a Goldilocks script that will please all of Hollywood. It is the anthesis of being an artist and does everything not to help someone stand out.