I came across a couple of interesting articles on Bill Martell's Script Secrets site on how to write a big splashy action movie with high production values that actually can be filmed for (relative) peanuts. The techniques he lists are simple and useful, and the articles include a production mini-lesson in how these kinds of movies are made.
When I was reading and covering scripts for theaters, I was often amazed and chagrined at how little grasp some writers seemed to have of the reality of staging a play. You don't send a script that relies on live animals, falling rain, and levitation to a regional stage company, however well-heeled, and expect to get added to the season.
On the other hand, we did produce a play set in a Cape Cod beach house, and had not only the beach onstage but part of the ocean as well, but that writer was previously produced (read, proven commodity).
While part of the fun of writing a spec script is to not be fettered by real-world limitations, I have to believe some notion of the practical aspects of filmmaking can only help the writer.
Thoughts? Do you consider the plywood and power tools side of moviemaking when writing your spec script?
1 comment:
I do a bit but not much. Not on the first run throughs of the script anyways, but then again I am not inventing new situations that will require the invention of a new camera or something
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