The script

The first basic element in creating a film is the script. The script is basically the guideline. Even if it is very precise, it is a guideline. Later, the period of the shooting will bring you a lot of surprises. Then, the editing is a completely new experience. Every picture starts out with an idea placed on paper. These ideas come from a multitude of places, including plays, poems, paintings, music, etc. 

There are thousands of people currently writing scripts in hopes that theirs might attract the attention of a producer, studio or director. There are a lot of well-written scripts that for one reason or another will never make it to the screen. Martha Coolidge (Rambling Rose) has said “You're always looking for a metaphor that is extremely visual and dramatic so that it becomes a picture and not just words on the page.”  Besides the fact that the budget of a film is the underlying determinant as to whether a picture is made or not, all films begin with a visualized concept. This concept represents an attitude towards characters, events, environments and objects. 

Michael Winner (Scorpio, Deathwish) has quoted, “What normally happens in this town (Hollywood) is that somebody gets a script and says, “Let's give it to somebody else, which I really can’t understand at all, and ten writers later and six arbitration's later…. Sometimes very good films are made that way. Some of the finest films ever have been through many writers in the most extraordinary manner.” Case in point: One of the American Film Institute’s 100 greatest movies of all time, MASH, was turned down by 12 different studios/directors before Robert Altman decided to take a chance and make the picture. “One sets out to make a film because one likes the subject matter. I believe the script is never finished. I constantly work on the script, either with the writer, or, if the writer is not there, with another writer, or with the people that are working with me. I think the script is the blueprint and then it has to have a life of its own,” John Schlesinger (The Manhattan Cowboy, The Marathon Man). Still there are other directors who take a script word for word, action for action, never changing a thing.

For many directors, the creation of an unforgettable character in a script is the key to winning them over. Many directors begin by considering how the character’s journey through the story will ultimately affect the audience. For Ron Howard (Backdraft, Apollo 13) this is the single most important consideration. Directors like Howard tend to seek out material that will confirm their own worldview. More often than not this involves an attempt to carefully select the kind of stories that will have a lasting and positive impact on the audience. Once a director has finally settled on a project, the next step is to begin the development process. Normally research is a big part of this process, considering many scripts are based on other scripts, real-life events or adaptations from other previously written materials (such as books, plays, etc). Ron Howard spent many nights with firefighters and at firehouses learning what he could about their lifestyle before he began production of his film Backdraft.  Roland Joffee traveled to Calcutta several times over a period of 4 years to learn what he could from the culture before filming City of Joy. Stephen Spielbergsent his actors through boot camp and had them live in very primitive conditions before he began the filming ofSaving Private Ryan. The best research is that which yields a true vision of the arena in which the story takes place. Ideally this means going beyond the cultural cliches to create a dynamic and insightful script that will result in an honest movie.

As the process of researching material comes close to completion, it may sometimes become apparent that parts of a script need to be reworked before production can begin. Reworking the script may consist of minor changes such as different locations, seasons or character situations. On the other hand, major changes may also be necessary, such as changing the entire scope of a character. For example, in the script for the movie Alien, the character eventually played by Sigourney Weaver was initially a man.