Script First, Shoot Later: What Happened To The Rule?

Big-Budget Films and the Writing Process

A film can spend two years on the sets and still feel like it was never fully written. That is the uncomfortable question big-ticket cinema needs to confront.

Earlier, the writing room came before the shooting floor. A director and his writing team would spend months developing the story, screenplay, characters and scenes before taking the project to the sets. By the time the cameras rolled, the major structure was usually locked. Small changes could happen during the shoot, but they were changes to a film that was already written.

Now, the process can sometimes begin with just a strong point. The idea excites a star, the project gets approved and shooting starts while the screenplay is still taking shape. Characters can evolve, scenes can be rewritten and portions of the story can change after production has already begun.

That is where a promising project can get stuck. Every major change during production has a ripple effect on schedules, performances, locations and budgets. A shoot that was expected to finish within a certain period can stretch for months or even years. Release dates keep moving, while the pressure around the project continues to grow.

The irony is that spending more time on production does not necessarily mean more time was spent making the film better. If the core writing problems are still being solved on the sets, the additional years may only make the process longer, not stronger.

A great point can get a film approved. But it takes a complete screenplay to build the film around that point.

The bigger question for big-ticket cinema is simple: are we trying to solve writing problems on the shooting floor that should have been solved in the writing room?