Strike having impact on film already

[Lumen]

Samuel T. Cogley said:
You can't suggest an ad-lib. Then it's not an ad-lib anymore.

Obviously, they are honoring the intent of the strike, so to try to find shady ways around it are not acceptable.

Just write it down on a post-it note and cross your fingers that the strike will end in time to shoot the line later.

Besides, one or two great lines will not make or break the movie anyway.

Yep. That's all that needs to be said here.

Orci and Kurtzman said on numerous occasions during the run-up to the strike that the script was well-prepared for the case of a strike--that the strike wouldn't impact shooting the film. I'm not worried that Abrams can't augment lines, and I'm glad that he isn't finding ways, or trying to find ways, to get around the restrictions the strike imposes on him. If every director and producer did try to find a way around the strike, then the effect of the strike would be delayed or mitigated--and that isn't something a man in Abrams' position wants to happen.

 

[MarianLH]

It's probably for the best. Directors, even when they're also writers and should know better, have a tendency to solve story problems by messing with the characters.


Marian

 

[Wicked_Wizard]

My friends, there is this beautiful thing called "editing"

And "ADR"

Welcome to the modern world. Write down your brilliance and save it for later.

 

[Admiral Buzzkill]

Borgminister said:
What bullshit--if you don't believe you're giving us the best product, then don't do it, Abrams.

There's no such thing as "the best product" as a Platonic ideal. There's only the best product - uh, movie - that can be made within whatever constraints the filmmaker faces at a given time. And there are absolutely always constraints.

Even given the strike, Abrams is making this movie with more freedom and resources than any Trek movie except possibly the first. And come on - given what we've seen in the previous ten movies, it's not unreasonable to hope that he's got the best script in Trek movie history as well.

Now, this is an anecdote Abrams told another writer as they commiserated on the picket line outside Paramount Studios.

Had we not read this, we would never have known about a line that didn't get worked into the show. We wouldn't have missed it - we still won't, really. We'll just gnaw on this for a day or two.

Notably, Abrams did not say anything along the lines of "the script kind of sucked, and every day I see things I wish I could change now. Frankly, the strike could really hurt this movie."

Let's all sleep soundly tonight.

 

[Brutal Strudel]

ManOnTheWave said:
Does anyone think JJ is letting his loyalties to the Writer's Guild influence his responsibility as a director? As a director, couldn't he suggest an ad lib? Or is he just hemming and hawing to publicize the Writer's Strike because he has a job while many of his friends are eating Ramen noodles?

Maybe he's trying to point out how destructive corporate greed is to the creative process.

 

[Franklin]

Brutal Strudel said:

ManOnTheWave said:
Does anyone think JJ is letting his loyalties to the Writer's Guild influence his responsibility as a director? As a director, couldn't he suggest an ad lib? Or is he just hemming and hawing to publicize the Writer's Strike because he has a job while many of his friends are eating Ramen noodles?

Maybe he's trying to point out how destructive corporate greed is to the creative process.

The movie will be retitled: "Star Trek: An Artistic Statement".

 

[Brutal Strudel]

Heaven forfend.

Some things are more important than Trek. If Paramount and the other studios really cared about quality, they'd have settled this thing before it went to the pickets.

No matter what I may think of his work, I admire Abram's integrity and loyalty. He's a writer first and more power to him.

Starship Polaris said:

Borgminister said:
What bullshit--if you don't believe you're giving us the best product, then don't do it, Abrams.

There's no such thing as "the best product" as a Platonic ideal. There's only the best product - uh, movie - that can be made within whatever constraints the filmmaker faces at a given time. And there are absolutely always constraints.

Even given the strike, Abrams is making this movie with more freedom and resources than any Trek movie except possibly the first. And come on - given what we've seen in the previous ten movies, it's not unreasonable to hope that he's got the best script in Trek movie history as well.

Now, this is an anecdote Abrams told another writer as they commiserated on the picket line outside Paramount Studios.

Had we not read this, we would never have known about a line that didn't get worked into the show. We wouldn't have missed it - we still won't, really. We'll just gnaw on this for a day or two.

Notably, Abrams did not say anything along the lines of "the script kind of sucked, and every day I see things I wish I could change now. Frankly, the strike could really hurt this movie."

Let's all sleep soundly tonight.

Not only are you correct, but even Jesus and his (platonic) girlfriend agree:

And I think I shall sleep well tonight
Let the world turn without me tonight.

Close your eyes, close your eyes
And forget all about Trek tonight

Everything's alright, yes, everything's alright...

 

[CorboMight]

Rat Boy said:

Borgminister said:
If this is the case, then shelve the movie and shoot it later, or not at all. What bullshit--if you don't believe you're giving us the best product, then don't do it, Abrams. Or at least do it with another movie, not a Trek movie.

Couldn't Abrams just cavalierly suggest a new line verbally without writing it down? Wouldn't that get around the problem?

Here's what happens.

Abrams suggests, verbally, a line change.

Actor nods. Everyone nods. They go for the take.

The Script Supervisor must write down the change. If they wait until later to write it down, it wouldn't make a difference... it's recorded on film as having been "composed" at that moment -- a moment during the strike, and the written record would have to reflect that.

And that's writing. Verbotten.

 

[STARTREK11]

Samuel T. Cogley said:


Besides, one or two great lines will not make or break the movie anyway.

i disagree.


Words and lines define a memorable film.

I quote David Marcus.

"Words.


That is where ideas begin".

 

[Admiral Buzzkill]

Samuel T. Cogley said:


Besides, one or two great lines will not make or break the movie anyway.

Absolutely Right(TM).

Where scripts are concerned, thicker is not better.

 

[johnconner]

STARTREK11 said:

Samuel T. Cogley said:


Besides, one or two great lines will not make or break the movie anyway.

i disagree.


Words and lines define a memorable film.

I quote David Marcus.

"Words.


That is where ideas begin".

Let's not forget:

"That's damn peculiar."

Those words just roll off Shatner's tongue, I tell ya.

 

[MadBaggins]

I can't believe this. 20 long years we've waited for a new great Star Trek movie and what we're going to get in the rushed, first draft by the Transformer's writers(!) and NO revisions. What if they made a typo? Does that have to be including? This is worse than death.

 

[Therin of Andor]

MadBaggins said:
I can't believe this. 20 long years we've waited for a new great Star Trek movie and what we're going to get in the rushed, first draft by the Transformer's writers(!) and NO revisions. What if they made a typo? Does that have to be including? This is worse than death.

As Lumen said earlier:

"Orci and Kurtzman said on numerous occasions during the run-up to the strike that the script was well-prepared for the case of a strike."

ie. Not "rushed" and not a "first draft".

 

[Brutal Strudel]

johnconner said:

STARTREK11 said:

Samuel T. Cogley said:


Besides, one or two great lines will not make or break the movie anyway.

i disagree.


Words and lines define a memorable film.

I quote David Marcus.

"Words.


That is where ideas begin".

Let's not forget:

"That's damn peculiar."

Those words just roll off Shatner's tongue, I tell ya.

Are you joking? Because that really is one of my favorite Kirk lines. I still use it from time to time.

 

[johnconner]

Brutal Strudel said:

johnconner said:

STARTREK11 said:

Samuel T. Cogley said:


Besides, one or two great lines will not make or break the movie anyway.

i disagree.


Words and lines define a memorable film.

I quote David Marcus.

"Words.


That is where ideas begin".

Let's not forget:

"That's damn peculiar."

Those words just roll off Shatner's tongue, I tell ya.

Are you joking? Because that really is one of my favorite Kirk lines. I still use it from time to time.

Well, I love TWOK - and for that matter, Shatner - but I've rolled my eyes at that line, though, ever since 1982. It just seemed so "Hey, we're a movie, not on TV, so let's put in a swear word." And Shatner, quite frankly IMO, delivers it in just that way. That quasi-polite, not-quite-strictly-military-Star-Trek-speak.

Now, I'm not anti-swear words - I love Mamet, Goodfellas, Pulp Fiction and "America - FUCK YEAH!" as much as anybody - but that line just seemed ... oh, I don't know ... out of place, I guess.

To me, anyway. I'm curious, what makes it so positively memorable for you?

 

[Frodo Lives]

Huh? Damn's a swear word? Cause Bones used to use it pretty regularly in the Original Series and no-one seemed to have a problem then.

 

[Brutal Strudel]

No, Frodo, Bones never said damn. Kirk said "hell" once and used "damn" as a somewhat neutral verb in "Journey to Babel." Bones had to get by with "blast" and "blazes" which our memories transmogrified into "damn" and "hell," kinda like how we knew the cops of Hill Street Blues didn't really say "freaking."

johnconner, I can't put my finger on why I like the line. I think its the perplexed way Shatner delivers it. Personally, I think "damn" and "hell" barely qualify as swears anymore so it didn't really register. "Goddamn," otoh,is still a doozy.

 

[johnconner]

Brutal Strudel said:
No, Frodo, Bones never said damn. Kirk said "hell" once and used "damn" as a somewhat neutral verb in "Journey to Babel." Bones had to get by with "blast" and "blazes" which our memories transmogrified into "damn" and "hell," kinda like how we knew the cops of Hill Street Blues didn't really say "freaking."

Yeah, "Let's get the hell out of here" at the end of COTEOF. Now that's a well-placed expletive, though massively tame by today's standards.

johnconner, I can't put my finger on why I like the line. I think its the perplexed way Shatner delivers it. Personally, I think "damn" and "hell" barely qualify as swears anymore so it didn't really register. "Goddamn," otoh,is still a doozy.

Maybe it's me growing up in a smaller town, but my eyebrows raised back in 82. But it's for sure not very "sweary" these days.

I'm glad you like it. That movie has tons of great lines. My favorite:

"Khan. I'm laughing at the superior intellect."

 

[Admiral Buzzkill]

"This is damned peculiar" always rang as somewhat archaic IMAO - as if Meyer really were writing the characters as 19th century British characters. I kind of liked it in a perverse way.

 

[scotthm]

Therin of Andor said:
You're assuming that JJ disagrees with his own union, which is fighting to get him and his writer colleagues a sufficient royalty on future DVD and download sales...

(emphasis added)

No, the union is fighting to get increased royalties. I'm sure sufficiency has nothing to do with it.

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