From Script to Screen (Part 3: Directing without a script)

Here’s Part 1: Directing your own script
Here’s Part 2: Directing someone else’s script

I will be a guest on #ScriptChat (Sunday: March 27th – 8pm EST) to talk about my experiences on bringing your script to life. Learn more about this group here.

Here’s the last installment of bringing a script to the screen. This is a sequence from WHAT’S UP LOVELY which was created from an entirely different approach: having no formal script at all.  Read more about it here.

Working solely from a treatment and having the majority of scenes be improv-based was a great experience.  It can be very daunting going in to a film and not have the exact story plotted out.  I relied on a great actress (Jenn Dees) who helped me shape both the character (Luci) and story — during the shoot and in the editing room.  Learn about our test screening process here.

There is a voiceover (VO) component that we recorded after shaping the story in the editing room.  It’s not a narrative explanation to what’s happening on screen….but more of a contemplative inner-dialogue that allowed our viewers to get deeper into Luci’s thoughts.  I told Jenn from the very beginning that I wished for her to keep a diary as the character during the shoot…and that we’d draw upon it after the film was put together.  Ultimately, she had to draft about 4 versions of the VO’s — basically for each rendition of the film as it was being shaped during the editing process.

For Scene 22-23, you can see there are very few lines written about what’s supposed to happen on screen — and yet I think we found some nice moments.   We actually moved the originally planned dialogue exchange from Scene 23 to Scene 22 — mainly because we realized that shooting a lengthy conversation on the tracks could take longer to get the coverage and performances needed….and we didn’t wish to overstay our welcome.

This moment of the film was always planned, but we soon discovered the key he gives her had gained more significance in the editing room and with test audiences…so much so in fact that we shaped more of the film around it.  I originally hadn’t planned the object to anchor the film as much as it does in the final cut.

Approaching the making of this film was very different than working from a traditional script.  It allowed more freedom and yet we had to have a strong sense of who the character was in order to build moments around her.  Going in knowing this was a great challenge that everyone was eager to take on….and it was one of the best experiences I’ve ever had.

Hope to see you on #Scriptchat next week!

Please note: After playing….click the icon with 4 arrows (located at the bottom right hand corner of the video window — next to the VIMEO logo). This will expand the image to FULL SCREEN so you can read the text of the script much easier.