Rewriting A Screenplay… When Are You Finished? — Paul Chitlik
Film Courage: What is your rewriting process?
Paul Chitlik, Author/Screenwriter: Well, first I pound my head on the floor for a couple of times and then… no my rewriting process, it depends if I’m getting notes from people and I’m writing a spec script.
A spec script is a script I’m writing, nobody’s paying for it yet that I’m hoping to sell. Then my process can take some time. I’ll think about it. I’ll think about their notes. I’ll try to make them work if I think they’re going to improve the story.
Sometimes I’ve gotten notes where actually I’ve finished a film, I had a rough cut, showed the rough cut somebody. I could see that it was slow. Somebody came up to me and said Look, let’s talk about this because I think there’s a problem here. He said You have to do this more cinematically, you have to intercut this and you have to cut that and do that. He gave me some really good suggestions and I said You’re so right. I hate you now. Now I have to make major changes in this film. I did it and it was a much better film for that.
