“Behind the Camera: Shari Hamrick Grewal Reveals the Secrets of Transitioning from Film Crew to Visionary Director”
Shari Hamrick Grewal
Well, I think for writers that are listening, I think that they have to manage their expectation about what is going to happen once they option or license off, you know, they sell their script. So, the majority of the time in this area, I mean, riders overall, they sign an option, they get paid for the script, whatever the terms that they’re accepting, you know, maybe with a rewrite or 25 grand, whatever the deal is, depending on the size of the companies they’re involved with. And then they’re usually not involved anymore. That’s the end of it for them. I would say 90% of the time, that’s the end of it, there is no other involvement. Then what happens is sometimes the producer will bring in either, you know, they’ll make tweaks and changes. And then during filming, because maybe a location got flooded out or something, that’s going to be changed in the script during filming, which the producers and directors have a right to do. But the end product is not really going to match what they wrote to begin with. And they really need to manage the expectation about how that happens. Because it’s not good. The dialogue will change, things will change, an actor will change a line, it will not match what was the script when they optioned it. So they have to be careful about what’s going on in their expectation about, oh my god, I just watched it. It doesn’t resemble my thing at all. And now it’s been ruined. Because a lot of us writers are like, you know, they wrote it, they want to be protective of that scene or that location or that moment. And it may never even end up in the final cut of the movie. I was lucky to have Joni, the writer actually was able to come to set for a week. We met and had some talks about the limitations of the script and the things that I wanted to change. And she was very happy to be a part of that conversation. And I think that wouldn’t have happened if I hadn’t already had a relationship with her from having done two other films with her. You know, I trusted her, she’s not precious over like, but it said the tree was on the left, you know, it’s on the bridge. And now you’re in a driveway. Like, you know, she’s about the little nugget of the story surviving, right, the spirit of the story that was thriving. So, because she just been around enough to not be precious over that. So I don’t think that would have happened if I hadn’t known her.
Post Comment