A script consultant's eye

When I started my first editing internship, I thought that removing or adding a single frame was perfectionism, even nitpicking. How could one frame — 1/24th of a second — be so important? 1/24th of a second is insignificant, right? A detail, so small. Surely you can't even see it? Well... Think again. I was shown, and...

It’s quite common for a screenwriter to be surprised, or even shocked, at just how different the finished film is from the script they wrote. Scenes have been moved, cut, altered by the set, the actors, the director, the editor, the sound, the music…Yet the script remains the reference point for making the film, running through it from start to finish. It is the film’s totem. But while the script “creates” the film, it does not lock it in place. On the contrary,