A honed script is not a perfect script

What matters is not trying to write a perfect screenplay, but a fully realised one. The distinction is not rhetorical; it fundamentally changes the way we write and rewrite, and it helps us know when to stop, because the perfect screenplay does not exist.

It cannot exist, because a screenplay is not an end in itself. It is not the work, but the intention behind it. And while a screenplay is the intention of a film, it is not merely its draft. Rather, it is its fantasised version projected onto the inner screen. It is the film’s first form of writing.

Cinema is an art of three successive forms of writing. The screenplay is the first: the foundation of the film, the world that is created and its cartography. Shooting is the second: the creation of the raw material, the embodiment brought by the actors, the inevitable unpredictability, the creative contributions of the crew, and so on. Editing is the third: the final construction, where everything takes shape and gains strength.

The screenplay runs through all three forms of writing and must serve as a compass for each of them, evolving and transforming along the way. It remains the point of reference throughout the making of the film, but it is never the finished work.

To seek the perfect screenplay is to try to freeze a film that is still being built. To seek a fully realised screenplay is to seek one that has reached its potential, its ability to transform without betraying itself — quite the opposite. It is not merely a well-told story, but a clear intention for everyone who will work on it. It is the creation of a world and its cartography.

A fully realised screenplay is ready for its next evolutions. Ready to be filmed, embodied by actors, enriched by the creative proposals of a team, and shaped by the inevitable constraints of shooting and budget. It is solid without being rigid; it can evolve without losing itself. It is a question of the text’s maturity, not of perfection.

Cinema is a living, moving, collaborative art form. And the screenplay is its engine.

That is also what I work on as a script doctor. Because I come from editing — the third writing of the film. From experience, I know that a living screenplay evolves, grows, transforms. And I know that it benefits from doing so.

Because a better screenplay makes for a better film.

Déborah Braun / 90pages

Script doctor

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