The Final Rewrite

5 Another approach

DOI: 10.4324/9781003161578-6

The chapter explores various ways to think about a scene, when an editor’s or director’s approach reveals another way to envision the script. Also discussed are obstacles that occur at the script level and can be overcome during post production in a way that speaks to writers.

The Gift of Memory and Its Limits

In my film class at USC, showing the original dailies from a theatrical feature is followed by a look at the final cut that was released in theaters. Students are often startled by how different the final version is from the dailies and, for that matter, from the original script.

One evening, while screening an example of professionally shot dailies, I was struck by a remark made by one ...