Low-budget filmmaking tip #165

It’s easy to think you don’t need a script, or that a script is a pain to deal with, or that writing is easy.  None of that is true.  Although we sometimes joke that “the script practically writes itself,” recognize that this is tongue in cheek.  Writing is hard work.  A lot of delicate and careful elements go into each script, and everything — characters, settings, props, mood, motivations, and more — must balance carefully.  It’s a craft.

This is not to say that the other elements of filmmaking aren’t crafts, but the script is the first and lowest-level document.  Everything has to come from the script at some point.  Every character, every setting, every description, everything.

The script is the blueprint.

It takes a lot of work to make a good story’s underpinnings invisible.