How Good Does it Need to Be?

While I sit patiently waiting for Charlie to get off his ass and do his revision to the script, I started to think about the art of revisions. Writing a script is only the first part of the game. Re-writing it is the next part, and often the lion's share of the work.

I read and re-read the current draft. It's a step-by-step draft. This happens, then that happens, then this happens. We've done a good job in making sure that all the points connect, all the gunmen get killed, etc. Now we need to add the life to it. Make it sing. Bring these people to life.

Without screwing up the step-by-step stuff.

It's a balancing act. Maybe the wife needs a 2-page scene to describe what she's really thinking about the revelations being thrown in her face, give her an emotional core, but can we afford to stop the action for 2 pages of talking heads? Writing today's action movies (even today's action B-movies) is not as easy as it ought to be. We are so caffeinated and jumpy, desiring non-stop thrills, that we no longer have time to create characters.

A while back, I took another look at Raiders of the Lost Ark. A movie I would give my left nut to write. There are 7 action sequences in the film. Sounds like a lot, but it isn't. 10, 15 minutes at a time go by without any action. Think we could get away with that today? Go watch Die Hard sometime. That film is SLOW.

Now, if a character mentions that he's getting over a divorce in one throw-away comment, that's high character development. In a way, we're left with creating gimmick characters. The guy who laughs at everything, the woman who is overly sexual, the stutterer. Their affectations are their characters. So that's what we have to go in Siege and create.

High art? Maybe not, but it'll give you an idea of who these people are while they're shooting at each other.

Of course the real question is, does it matter? Do we need to make these characters more developed? Will anyone care?

Maybe, in the end, we'll care. And that's enough.