First Drafts to Read to Make Yourself Feel Better
To better understand how much progress can be made in a rewrite, read the first draft of Good Will Hunting, and then read the final draft. The bones are all there in the first draft, but the emphasis is off, and there are several characters and subplots that take the screenplay off on a tangent. In the first draft, the main story revolves around Will being recruited and pressured to work for the FBI. This plotline detracts from the real story, which is Will having to face the reasons for his self-destructive anger, so he can learn to trust people and have meaningful relationships. In the rewrite, screenwriters Matt Damon and Ben Afflect focused on the most important characters: Will, Sean, Skylar and Chuckie, and cut the FBI plot. They also deepened the relationship between Will and Sean. Reading the first draft of Good Will Hunting will make you feel better about your screenplay. Comparing the first draft and the final shooting script underscores the importance of focusing on the main character’s story and their relationships, and how it frees you to cut anything that deviates from the central storyline.
Another enlightening screenplay is first draft of Back To The Future. The basic idea and characters are there, but the idea isn’t fully realized and feels like an entirely different movie. There is no DeLorean, no flux capacitor, no clock tower. There is a lot of talk about science and not much focus on Marty’s family. The strongest surviving elements from the first draft to the final draft are the complications of Marty’s mother falling for him, and the need to get his mom and dad together. The ending is very plot heavy and revolves around getting power from a nuclear power plant in the middle of the desert. Screenwriters, Robert Zemeckis and Bob Gale, centered their rewrite about the McFly family. They cut pages of scientific mumbo jumbo, trimmed the plot, and focused on the character stories and relationships. In their rewrite, they used the contrast between contemporary times and the past to create complications and obstacles, and more humor. It’s easy to see by reading the first draft, that there was always a great idea at the heart, but it needed a lot more attention to the characters, relationships, and using the world to full potential.
These are both iconic movies and it’s easy when you see them to believe they were hatched fully formed, but in fact, it took an enormous about of time, sweat, and passion to get the scripts into shape to be made into movies. The first drafts are flawed with enormous problems, but the writers believed in their ideas and worked to make the characters stronger, the relationships focused, and the narrative streamlined. If you have the passion and the work ethic, you can do the same thing to your first draft, but you have to be in it for the long haul. Damon, Affect, Zemeckis, and Gale are all remarkably talented individuals, but it is their passion and belief in themselves that fueled their work and creative drive, and got these movies made.
Another enlightening screenplay is first draft of Back To The Future. The basic idea and characters are there, but the idea isn’t fully realized and feels like an entirely different movie. There is no DeLorean, no flux capacitor, no clock tower. There is a lot of talk about science and not much focus on Marty’s family. The strongest surviving elements from the first draft to the final draft are the complications of Marty’s mother falling for him, and the need to get his mom and dad together. The ending is very plot heavy and revolves around getting power from a nuclear power plant in the middle of the desert. Screenwriters, Robert Zemeckis and Bob Gale, centered their rewrite about the McFly family. They cut pages of scientific mumbo jumbo, trimmed the plot, and focused on the character stories and relationships. In their rewrite, they used the contrast between contemporary times and the past to create complications and obstacles, and more humor. It’s easy to see by reading the first draft, that there was always a great idea at the heart, but it needed a lot more attention to the characters, relationships, and using the world to full potential.
These are both iconic movies and it’s easy when you see them to believe they were hatched fully formed, but in fact, it took an enormous about of time, sweat, and passion to get the scripts into shape to be made into movies. The first drafts are flawed with enormous problems, but the writers believed in their ideas and worked to make the characters stronger, the relationships focused, and the narrative streamlined. If you have the passion and the work ethic, you can do the same thing to your first draft, but you have to be in it for the long haul. Damon, Affect, Zemeckis, and Gale are all remarkably talented individuals, but it is their passion and belief in themselves that fueled their work and creative drive, and got these movies made.