A good think

I hate getting notes.  It can be hard sometimes not to take them personally.  It feels like they’re revealing some lack in your writing.  Sometimes they make no sense whatsoever.  Other times, they contradict themselves.  Over time, you formulate a pattern of which notes you need to address and which ones you can ignore.  It’s a delicate balance.  Ignore the wrong note and you could get turfed from the project.

I’ve seen it happen.

Film, unlike any other form of writing is always up against other input.  A novelist, deals primarily with an Editor a playwright with his director and producers but a screenwriter?  Well we deal with everybody else.  I even remember getting notes from the sound guy on one film.  Him I told to, “Fuck off.”

But when the notes come from higher up the food chain, you do need to have a look at them.

The more concise the note, the more you need to look at it.  Phrases like, “It needs more blue,” can be safely ignored.  Specific notes as to character interactions and plot devices though, should be looked at.  Film is a collaborative medium, the person giving you their note wouldn’t be wasting their time, if they didn’t think it was trying to help the production.  Unless of course, they’re simply trying to justify their position.  The best way to figure that out is to count how many times a particular note comes up from other individuals.  Three times and it’s a lock you’ve got to change it.

The problem with any other input is you’ve got to weave the new stuff in to the script.  Sometimes, this is a small matter.  You change the tenor of a scene or two.  Every other time, it becomes a major rewrite.  A note is like tossing pebbles into a pond.  A small note, makes a tiny splash and a small ripple but a big old boulder of a note can smash everything to hell.

So the best thing to do, is have a good think about it and try to stay awake (much harder than it sounds).  You need to set yourself down and just think it through.  Go for a walk, have a shower, kick your dog.  Whatever works for you.  Sometimes, it can take a couple of days to figure out a new battle plan and that’s okay.  Better to get it locked down in your head than to just try to wing it.

That’ll just lead to more notes.

You can bet on it.