> Reading your script for "The Coming of Shadows" in "The
>Complete Book of Scriptwriting", one can see that lines were cut from
>the original show.
> I was wondering...do you often changes lines and/or entire
>scenes on the set? Anyone who writes always wants to improve on what
>they wrote AFTER they re-read it.
> I keep wondering if any of the more memorable lines from the
>show were written on-the-fly during shooting.

No, never. For starters, it's *vastly* unfair to the actors. They have to
memorizes pages and pages of dialogue, and to hit them with new stuff on the
stage, when they haven't had a chance to digest the material and dig out the
subtext and themes, means the performance will not be as good regardless of the
material.

There is *no* improvising allowed on the set, either. If an actor wants to
change even a word, the first AD has to come find me and get approval first.

Where you make the revisions are in the stages prior to when the actors get to
the stage. A first draft is published, which goes to all the department heads.
Between the first and the final drafts (we only do about 2 drafts here), you
have about a week to make any revisions you choose to make. Bearing in mind
that I don't publish the first draft until I'm absolutely satisfied with it,
there ain't much that gets changed, usually bits of dialogue and production
related stuff.

The cuts you see were done in post-production, as the show is edited for time.
We slice lines and bits to fit in the available time.


jms

>Do you work differently when you write for the stage? Would you send the
>B5 scripts through additional revisions if you had the time?

No, in writing my play now, and in those I've written before, I generally just
write it the way I hear it, and it's up to the actors to find a way to make
that work. (If something absolutely falls on its face and doesn't work and
it's the fault of the words, however, then you gotta fix it.)

As for question 2...understand that there isn't a frame of B5, or a page, that
I wouldn't keep tinkering with ad infinitum. Every time I look at ANYthing
I've done, I always want to go back and tweak something.

As somebody once said: art is never finished, only abandoned.

jms

From: (jmsatb5@aol.com)
B5 Official Fan Club at:
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