I've been writing a short film for a while now and I've asked myself, when is a script done? I’m on the 8th draft and even though I felt that the 7th draft was pretty much there. Given some time and more thought I thought it would be better to re jig a thing or two.

Is it wise? Probably not. I think somewhere between my general lack of patience and general life experiences, you change things in your script. Character’s change, locations change, endings change, and heck even themes change. It’s weird because you think you can reach a point where the script is tight and all the characters work well together and there is character development, plant and payoff etc etc, But when something doesn’t feel right in your creative gut, you have to make a change.

But at the same time I asked myself, if I had shot the last draft would the film not have worked? Who knows, but I look back to my film school days when we would write 2 maybe 3 drafts tops and be ready to shoot. And the film would work, and be successful. We had less time and were less precious, but they still ended up as a good films. Surely 2 and a half years later I’m ten times the film maker I was then, right?

Maybe sometimes you have just got to trust your creative gut and shoot. Perhaps the longer between your shoot dates the more holes you seem make in your own script. Perhaps sometimes you just have to shoot and learn from it. If it doesn’t entirely work, you learn from it. The way I look at it Spielberg couldn’t have made Schindler’s List in 1975. He no matter how many drafts the screen writer made he still wouldn’t have been able to make it an Academy Award film winning and Christopher Nolan wouldn’t have been able to make Inception the phenomenon it was in 2010, back in 2001. Yes I know they had budget limitations or studios wouldn’t trust them etc etc, but what I’m getting at is that you can only learn what works in film making by making the films, and those guys both (no matter how great they are) had to learn by making mistakes and by trusting their own creative gut.

Back in my film school days I guess the attitude was just shoot and hope, hope that you knew what you were doing and that the puzzle in your mind actually is a good film. When you don’t have a panel of people saying it’s a good script, you somehow still end up with a good film.

The truth is a script is never done until you start shooting. Only you know when you can shoot, whether it’s your story or just your confidence, only you can make that call, but at some point you have to trust yourself.

No matter how many times you visualize it, it’s never going to be as good as actually making the darn thing and seeing what works and what doesn’t. And then you get to see what holes are actually in your script and which ones no one really notices or cares about.

I guess that’s what makes a good director, trusting your own creative gut and just shooting what you know (Thanks Rich) because no one else is going to make your film for you.

Right now to Auditions.....