One Piece At A Time

A guy with a great blog (and any blog is great that references one of my favorite Johnny Cash songs in its title) posted a comment here, and in case anyone missed it I thought I would answer it on the main part of the site. He wrote:

So how formed was the script in their heads before you wrote it? Did they come to you and say, "I want this, this and this to happen?"Just curious. Thanks for the great site.

In this case, and in fact in most of the other cases with scripts I've worked on with them as well, the Polonia Brothers sent a several page outline that touched on characters, certain locations, and some touch points for particular scenes they wanted to see, with a smattering of dialogue thrown in. I worked it all up from there. I have had pretty good luck working on stuff for them because I understand what the parameters are going to be, what their resources are, who is probably going to be in it, and so on. This is a comfortable way for me to work with them, but every situation is different. Some producers/directors will want to spitball ideas with you and have you take notes, some might provide more detailed outlines on up to almost short-story length, and everything in between. In general I suggest trying to find like-minded people that you enjoy working with, because movie projects are long-haul commitments filled with anguish and peril.

Give me a shout at johnoakdalton@hotmail.com.