THE ART OF CUTTING

Judy and I have written a couple of often badly needed articles extolling the virtues of economy in screenwriting. Here’s a small reminder--

“Less is almost always better in screenplays. Writing the "chateaubriand" of a scene is the name of the game, then cut away to the next fillet. Fat is a no no, a bit of gristle should be carefully doled out. Screenwriters in the know realize this and usually employ this philosophy and profit from it. But there are a boatload of scripts out there that are suffering from too much weight. Their stories are encumbered by so much rhetoric that it's hard to find the spine. If you can't find the spine, you can't find the story and that's bad news.”

But let’s say you’re like many screenwriting practitioners out there who haven’t received this message and that you’re sitting with an overweight manuscript begging to be reduced.

How is it done?

OK, first here’s how it’s NOT done. You don’t gratuitously cut a hunk of pages and declare victory. Don’t chuckle, that’s what many writers do when facing this dilemma. The need for instant gratification can sometimes produce some shoddy methods of crafting!

Cutting, trimming, tightening, and truncating, is an art.

Here’s our suggestion. The first step in healing anything is REALIZATION. So begin to realize once and for all that there’s value and beauty in good, tight writing. Over explaining, over describing, and falling in love with everything that you produce can be a huge mistake. A screenplay is not a textbook. It represents a cinematic event that you see just ONCE! Movies go fast. You don’t have the chance to review the material. The screenwriter needs to spit it out clear, crisp, and concise. It’s really empowering to know this.

Here’s a ‘one size fits all’ suggestion about reducing material:

Examine EVERY page of your script--one by one.

*Can you lose a word; a piece of dialogue; a hunk of exposition or whatever without getting a justifiable stomach ache?

*Be honest, is there a way to get into the scene a little LATER or get out EARLIER?

*Are there any redundancies? Remember, if you have to tell Tom, Dick, and Harry the same thing in a script, tell Tom and let’s assume Dick and Harry were told off camera.

*Finally, have you over explained/over described anything. Many well-intended writers make the mistake of being so thorough that they actually end up achieving the opposite thing--confusing the reader. “Say it small, make it clear, then get onto the next thing”.

If you apply the above procedure, the following usually happens: as you go page by page, parts that used to seem like meat begin to look like fat and the need to trim becomes obvious. What you once fought tooth and nail to “protect” actually becomes dispensable. A pleasurable game has been hatched--the game of honing and focusing.

The big thrill comes when you get to the last page because you now get to print out the new draft. Inevitably, it’s tighter, more plot-oriented, better paced--a better read--and you’re thrilled. Dollars to donuts, it whets your appetite for additional economies. You have reduced the script not only in length but also in the amount of words distributed on the pages. Most of what’s left has now become more relevant because it has survived the cut. Thus, in a way, it takes on extra credibility. It belongs on the page!

Without too much art, you have improved your script by a good 25%. And you have finally realized how profoundly important LESS is.

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