The First Cut is the Deepest
BY JIM YOAKUM
Congratulations, your script has been produced, filmed and edited. Now comes the heartbreak – you get to see the first rough cut. Well, first consider yourself lucky that you’re even seeing this. Usually writers are written out of the picture the minute you sign the option, but (for some reason) you’ve been invited to look at your baby newly-born, freshly-scrubbed and all dolled-up in pink (or blue, blue usually reserved for action scripts) projected on the silver screen (actually a TV monitor). The lights go down and you wonder: “Will the baby look like daddy or mommy?” Unfortunately, the baby usually ends-up looking more like one of those cute orphans Angelina Jolie likes to adopt. It’s a baby alright, just not the one you expected to see. What happened to that scene, you ask, the one with all the clever dialogue set in the coffee shop? Cut. What about that scene where we show the main characters angst by - Snipped. What about…. The list goes on.
That’s the moment you realize that your baby, your script, is no longer yours. She grew-up, married a toothless mechanic from Arkansas and yet still wants to call you daddy (or mamma as the case may be) and name their two-headed baby after you. Now you’re confronted with an issue: do you claim this wayward child, welcome it back to your bosom - or do you cut it off, give it a pamphlet about incest and wish them well?
I’ve been lucky in that my experiences in film have not excluded me, I’ve been very involved in all aspects of post-production, but I know plenty of other writers who have gone through this Jerry Springer-like (“We have the DNA evidence!”) experience. I’ve mopped the tears off my sodden shoulder and the best advice I have is, seeing as how, whatever you decide, this monster will still bear your name (i.e. in the credits), the smart choice is to smile, buck-up, and hope it gets into a good college. Talk to the editor, make the editor your friend; explain to them how you (the writer) and they (the editor) are really the alpha and omega of the process. If that doesn’t work, change your name.