I like to watch the deleted scenes in the bonus material section of DVD movies, because I'm curious about what they took out. More importantly, I want to know why they removed it.
When I watch these deleted scenes, usually a producer or director from the film explains why the scene was cut. Often, the film was just getting too long. Just as often, the producer will say, "The scene just wasn't moving the story along." I love this reason, and so should any writer or editor. If something isn't relevant to the idea or the story, it has to go.
One director's comment took the idea even further. He said, "You have to be willing to cut your favorite scene." I could not agree more. I can remember running into this same dilemma while writing newspaper articles. I'd have a great quote from somebody I had interviewed, but I could not justify working it into the story. As much as I may have loved that quote, it didn't belong or make sense anywhere. It didn't move the story along. I had to leave it out. Although it was difficult to leave those great thoughts and quotes in the notebook from time to time, the stories were better off without them.
As William Faulkner memorably observed, rewriting is easy: all you have to do is go back and kill your little beauties.
ReplyDeleteIt sounds as brutal as it is.
ReplyDelete