On the Cutting Room Floor

So I’m writing away on my current November project, The Illusionist’s House, and I’ve already deleted a scene. It was one of the first scenes I thought of, too, when the whole project first came into my head.

I remember when I first started buying movies on DVD. All those lovely extra features! And deleted scenes were particularly enticing. After all, if I liked the actors and the film, what could be better than having a little bit more, right?

Well no, not really. I quickly realized that if the film were any good in the first place, the deleted scenes had been excised for a reason.  Sometimes it’s fun to watch them just to pick out why.

Sometimes a scene serves to make a character less sympathetic than they should be. Sometimes it just screws up the pacing.  Sometimes it presents information that is better presented somewhere else.  Sometimes they just don’t work.

I have occasionally stumbled across a scene that should have stayed in the film, but these gems are rare indeed. The film people are professionals – they know what they are doing.

Knowing that the professionals produce more than they need and have to pare their story down in the editing room is comforting.  Film and actors cost a lot more than keystrokes. Cutting and editing don’t mean I’m doing wrong, they mean I’m doing it right.

And isn’t that a happy thought?