What does an independent filmmaker need that a novelist, short story writer, or poet doesn't?
1. Talent 2. Insight 3. Tenacity 4. $$$
Knowing the right answer, there's relevance to the following:
There's this scene in which a young woman and young guy begin to realize their mutual attraction. Their romance buds when she shares with him the poignant secret of her childhood recollection of DEA agents busting into her home—flashlight beams stabbing the darkness--as the men run clomping up the stairs before the nearly scared to death little girl's eyes to arrest her father for concocting and selling an LSD-like hallucinogen. The scene is written mostly in flashback, of course. After all, it's an audiovisual medium. Sweeping beams of light—intercut with close-ups of the terrified child peering through the second floor banister spindles—Foley-enhanced footstomps pounding loudly like Nazi jackboots...
all great stuff. Only thing is, it has to be shot at night (time-consuming lighting). Unless the house is going to be tented-in (also costly). And...it's a low-budget film with a fast diminishing amount left to spend.
This is a producer's problem...with solution up to the writer, who ponders the key question, What's the point of the scene? (the director may not know, bedazzled by cinematic possibilities)
From a storytelling perspective, the answer's simply The budding romance. So, instead of shooting a prohibitively costly, albeit exciting, hyper-charged sequence, the writer rewrites to have the young woman just recount tearfully in detail to the empathetic young guy her remembrance. The intimacy of the revelation draws the couple into tender embrace. Just two actors in a room with a window blacked-in. Art in terms of story is served, financial backers relieved&mdashwin-win!
What's the point of all this? Only writing a good screenplay isn't enough—not if you hope to actualize it as an independent, low-budget film. Tune in to Radio WSDM and ponder this from Mick and The Stones:
You can't always get what you wa-ant...
You can't always get what you wa-ant...
You can't always get what you wa-ant...
But if you try sometimes,
You just might find...
You get what you need.