Deleted Scenes
Happy New Year!!!
Watching movies this past 'vacation' with family I decided to view the bonus features on a couple of dvds, deleted scenes in particular.
I watched these scenes first as a viewer then as a writer and it was very enlightening. I could see first hand how one would edit a book. It's just like throwing out scenes in a movie. Film editors and book editors have very similar jobs. But it was not just seeing what was deleted, it was figuring out why each scene was deleted that helped....
As I watched I looked for several different reasons a scene might be deleted, I already saw the film and could tell if a scene would have helped or hurt the narrative flow:
- Did this scene give away too much about the character?
- Did it give it away too soon?
- Was the information in the scene not important?
- Did it mislead the audience or frustrate them?
- Did it give away the ending?
- Was it too focused on the secondary characters, taking away from the forward momentum of the plot?
- Should this scene have been left in?
- Was the film just too long and they cut this scene for no other reason?
- Was this a scene that never should have been filmed to begin with? Why did the writer keep it in?
- Was there a problem with dialogue? Acting? Setting?
Watching deleted scenes after you have seen a movie can really give you a crash course in book editing. As they say, every scene should reveal character or advance the plot. I would add that it should also fit with the narrative design and the writier's purpose. Often there are scenes that merely serve as comic relief or add shock value. They can be just as important as any other scene if it fits with the writer's purpose for the story.
Rent a few new movies, watch the deleted scenes and see what you learn....
Watching movies this past 'vacation' with family I decided to view the bonus features on a couple of dvds, deleted scenes in particular.
I watched these scenes first as a viewer then as a writer and it was very enlightening. I could see first hand how one would edit a book. It's just like throwing out scenes in a movie. Film editors and book editors have very similar jobs. But it was not just seeing what was deleted, it was figuring out why each scene was deleted that helped....
As I watched I looked for several different reasons a scene might be deleted, I already saw the film and could tell if a scene would have helped or hurt the narrative flow:
- Did this scene give away too much about the character?
- Did it give it away too soon?
- Was the information in the scene not important?
- Did it mislead the audience or frustrate them?
- Did it give away the ending?
- Was it too focused on the secondary characters, taking away from the forward momentum of the plot?
- Should this scene have been left in?
- Was the film just too long and they cut this scene for no other reason?
- Was this a scene that never should have been filmed to begin with? Why did the writer keep it in?
- Was there a problem with dialogue? Acting? Setting?
Watching deleted scenes after you have seen a movie can really give you a crash course in book editing. As they say, every scene should reveal character or advance the plot. I would add that it should also fit with the narrative design and the writier's purpose. Often there are scenes that merely serve as comic relief or add shock value. They can be just as important as any other scene if it fits with the writer's purpose for the story.
Rent a few new movies, watch the deleted scenes and see what you learn....
posted by Victoria at 2:38 PM
2 Comments:
Eww, great idea. I love the deleted scenes. Now I'll analyze them. LOL!
This is a good idea, except sometimes I watch deleted scenes and wonder why they were cut! That's frustrating, because hey, I'm smarter than the director, right? ;)
But there have been deleted scenes where I can completely understand why. They weren't BAD scenes, but often they were redundant, or they were cut from a rambling scene.
It's helped me understand a bit how to tighten and hack and slash my own writing.
Camy
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