A third draft of DANGERBALL now exists, which is 131 pages. It's SO FREAKIN' HARD to do cuts in this way. You tend to take aim at things that are more idiosyncratic than anything else. Things that are particular to how I chose to reveal a character, which most often falls into the "fish out of water" category. You know... a well placed pause, and errant "What?", a strange little detail. If Pear does some good, perhaps I can talk my way into expanding the short version into the long version, but that seems a long ways away at this point.
The idea of a pruned script annoys me, because obviously it paves the way for extensive improvisation, which I'm not completely opposed to, but in the last few years, it has definitely become abused. A screenplay for a comedy film, for example, should only be 90 pages long. That means if a film runs longer than 90 minutes, then there was plenty of play time for the comedic actors who try different lines until the cast and crew and director crack up sufficiently. But that's what you get when you hand twenty million dollars to your actors... spoiled little misfits who think that whatever they do is gold.
God love the theater. The actors don't change the script. They may prune it a bit, as in the case of Shakespeare, which shouldn't even happen, but does, but the words spoken are there on the page. Can you imagine trying to improv Shakespeare?
Come on, imagine with me...
IAGO: O, beware, my lord, of jealousy! It is the green-eyed monster which doth mock the meat it feeds on. The cuckold lives in bliss who, certain of his fate, loves not his wronger; But O, what damned minutes tells he o'er who dotes, yet doubts; suspects, yet strongly loves!
OTHELLO: Yea! Verily! Most... verily! Forsooth, thou art fragrant! And my bodkin acknowledges thee as such a wise and fragrant flower!
Of course, it probably wouldn't occur like this unless... oh, darn. I've changed font once again. But this is... it isn't bad, is it? Kind of... it's more like the font on the other pages, isn't it? Like... homey? Familiar?
The idea of a pruned script annoys me, because obviously it paves the way for extensive improvisation, which I'm not completely opposed to, but in the last few years, it has definitely become abused. A screenplay for a comedy film, for example, should only be 90 pages long. That means if a film runs longer than 90 minutes, then there was plenty of play time for the comedic actors who try different lines until the cast and crew and director crack up sufficiently. But that's what you get when you hand twenty million dollars to your actors... spoiled little misfits who think that whatever they do is gold.
God love the theater. The actors don't change the script. They may prune it a bit, as in the case of Shakespeare, which shouldn't even happen, but does, but the words spoken are there on the page. Can you imagine trying to improv Shakespeare?
Come on, imagine with me...
IAGO: O, beware, my lord, of jealousy! It is the green-eyed monster which doth mock the meat it feeds on. The cuckold lives in bliss who, certain of his fate, loves not his wronger; But O, what damned minutes tells he o'er who dotes, yet doubts; suspects, yet strongly loves!
OTHELLO: Yea! Verily! Most... verily! Forsooth, thou art fragrant! And my bodkin acknowledges thee as such a wise and fragrant flower!
Of course, it probably wouldn't occur like this unless... oh, darn. I've changed font once again. But this is... it isn't bad, is it? Kind of... it's more like the font on the other pages, isn't it? Like... homey? Familiar?
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