For some reason – and it’s not just my usual laziness – the idea of revision has, of late, been quite a mountain to climb. As if it wasn’t bad enough circling a blank screen, approaching a draft with revisory intent always makes me think of that saying about dogs and their vomit.
A script doesn’t get better on itself, but.
So. I took the notes I was given from the read-through, some more from the director hisself, and some of my own, and tried to integrate those that were most applicable (ie., felt right) into the next iteration of the draft.
If nothing else, it’s making more sense. It’s jumped from 33 pages to 37 pages but that’s okay. The director is not afraid to cut lines and stuff whether I’m in the room sobbing or not.
I used to wonder what a “revised first draft” meant. I used to think it was virtually identical to the first draft – it just had all the typos ironed out. As far as feature scripts were concerned, the definition could vary, depending on the producer.
But with this project, my wearing the writer and co-producer hats means that a revised first draft is whatever I damned well say it is.
