Matthew W. Davis, M.f.a.'s Lounge Discussions

As a director also working as cinematographer/director of photography. What should I do if an actor is always trying to change up lines the day of shooting when I really want something to be said the way I wrote it for the sake of communication for the audience. i.e I had a line "Your husband Carlos told me, he hired me to kill you" the actor wanted to change it to "Your husband Carlos told me, he hired me to take you out" The scene takes place in a restaurant at a table for two and the guy is a paid assassin of bad people but I didn't want the actor to say "Take you out" because I didn't want the audience to think that the husband hired him to take her out on a date although they were pretty much on a date, I just wanted the audience to know at that point that he was going to kill her. I always consider my actor's input and I do make changes at times but am I wrong if I want to be firm and keep things a certain way?

Check out the great short film Caterpillar that I shot on Vimeo: https://vimeo.com/55698309. It was a vimeo staff pick with over 100K views and now it was selected for the 2013 Photo Annual published by Photo District News Magazine.

They finally did it! Look what I found! YouPix.org has created a Screenwriting competition that ACTUALLY PRODUCES the winning script. It must be low budget, though. I think you also get coverage even if you don't win. Maybe 2014 is the year I get my film made...