When multiple writers write the same script...

[minor muppetz]

I've been wondering something about scriptwriting for awhile.

When a movie or TV show has multiple writers, and it's not a variety or sketch comedy show, do all of the writers usually get together to type parts of the script at a time?

Do writers sometimes type certain scenes on seperate pieces of paper, and somebody (probably the script editor) copies that part of the script into the main script?

Does each writer completely rewrite the script one at a time, copying some scenes/dialogue and adding to it or removing some things?

And finally, back when computers weren't common, was there a way to automatically copy parts of a script? If a small scene were to be taken out, or a scene was to be added, regardless of how big it was, would the writer have still rewritten the whole script to accomodate it? I mean, they could have copied entire pages before it was needed, but what if one part of a script that was kept in the film ended on a page where big changes were to be made? I don't expect them to have done somethign like tear half a page off.

 

[dwmckim]

The process is most likely different depending on the type of show and how the particular individuals work together. They might go back and forth on the storyline in meetings taking notes and then whiehever one's stronger at dialogue typing up the final version - it may be one writer does a first draft with another adjusting it with their passthrough. In soaps where there's larger writing staffs, there's the headwriter who writes the overall story developments and may directly write key or important scenes, but then the HW's arc is divided among breakdown writers who write the dialogue and the specifics of what happens within a scene from the general outline.

However the team collaborates, rewrites and adjustments are typically handled via issueing different colored pages for each draft. The first draft is white. Then if a page has changes in the next draft, instead of copying the whole script over, the pages with the changes are printed on a different color page (say, yellow) and they switch out the pages. The next date changes are made, they print those on a new color (say, green). By the time you get to the final draft, the script tends to look a bit like a rainbow!

 

[D'Snowth]

What DW said, basically.

 

[Gonzo's Hobbit]

This is pretty much what DW said. But I remember in school when we did episodic writing we would split up the storyline into the the A, B and C lines and divide them up to different people or partners. It was always so much fun when we reconvened and went through what people wrote. We'd talk about what worked and what didn't and came up with other ideas as we went. We ended up convincing the instructor to let us do a Halloween Espisode with the different plot lines. Then one of the students that was more familiar with the process either by virture of having taken the class before or being a senior versus a freshman would find which A, B, And C lines worked together best and put them together coherently. It was a lot of fun to do.

 

[minor muppetz]

Now I'm wondering... In cases where the writing is a group effort... I'm thinking like how the characters on The Dick Van Dyke Show were portrayed, if they are all writing together, and while writing a movie or episode, if one writer suggests a line or gag or scene but somebody else writes it, does the person who came up with the idea still count (and get credit) as one of the writers, even if they didn't actually type anything in the script? I would think that'd be a little different from an actor adlibbing and not getting "writers credit".

 

[CensoredAlso]

Now I'm wondering... In cases where the writing is a group effort... I'm thinking like how the characters on The Dick Van Dyke Show were portrayed, if they are all writing together, and while writing a movie or episode, if one writer suggests a line or gag or scene but somebody else writes it, does the person who came up with the idea still count (and get credit) as one of the writers, even if they didn't actually type anything in the script? I would think that'd be a little different from an actor adlibbing and not getting "writers credit".

Well if they're an established team of writers, I imagine they would all get credit anyway.

Of course from what I hear writers have threatened litigation if they feel like they haven't received due credit.

You know in the old days of Hollywood in the '30s and '40s, multiple writers would be assigned to a film. That is, one writer would be hired, then fired, then another writer would be assigned, be fired, and yet another writer would take his place. And then there might be a writer brought in specifically just to write gags. But usually in the end only one of the writers would actually be credited.

That's why we have unions today.

 

[minor muppetz]

You know in the old days of Hollywood in the '30s and '40s, multiple writers would be assigned to a film. That is, one writer would be hired, then fired, then another writer would be assigned, be fired, and yet another writer would take his place. And then there might be a writer brought in specifically just to write gags. But usually in the end only one of the writers would actually be credited.

Would that mean that back then the writers didn't actually come up with the initial ideas for movies?

 

[CensoredAlso]

Would that mean that back then the writers didn't actually come up with the initial ideas for movies?

Well sometimes they did definitely, but mostly writers were employees of the studio who got assigned to specific projects. And a great many movies were based on famous books so the ideas were already there.

Movie making back then has been described as a factory, and all the workers (writers, directors, actors, crew) merely individual "cogs" that kept the machine going, lol.

Casablanca's history was that it was originally going to be a stage play written by one team, but then when it was picked up by Hollywood, a completely different writing team took over. And even then, another writer did some of the later rewrites.

Wizard of Oz, one writer formed the basis of what would become the final script, but he was always getting in trouble with the studio so then another writing team came in and made a ton of rewrites. That wasn't working either so the original writer was brought in again. In the end the final script is a mixture of all of them (and thankfully all three of them were credited). But then there were several other contributors who did rewrites who aren't credited, not to mention the gag writer.