Cars and the writing process
Hamlet recently got into the movie Cars. (This is but one of many reasons why fast, loud cars must be a matter of nature, not nurture: we are not NASCAR fans. But I digress.) It's a movie that's on the long side for kids, but has plenty of speed and noise for them and enough character development for the adults watching with them.
Like many DVDs, this one contains extras like deleted scenes. These are what caught my eye, for two reasons:
First, these scenes--there are four of them--contain bits of action and dialogue that made it into the final production, but not in the same context or sequence. Second, the scenes are old in movie years. Cars came out just last year, but some scenes date back to 2002.
Watching other creative works take shape like this fascinates me. As these scenes show, revision is absolutely critical. Some things make sense, but make even more sense when put together a different way. Others are attractive, but detract from the story's overall point; thus they must be cut. And making things make sense takes time--sometimes a lot of it.
It's nice to see depth in a kids' film, but even nicer to see depth that reinforces certain truths about creation.
Like many DVDs, this one contains extras like deleted scenes. These are what caught my eye, for two reasons:
First, these scenes--there are four of them--contain bits of action and dialogue that made it into the final production, but not in the same context or sequence. Second, the scenes are old in movie years. Cars came out just last year, but some scenes date back to 2002.
Watching other creative works take shape like this fascinates me. As these scenes show, revision is absolutely critical. Some things make sense, but make even more sense when put together a different way. Others are attractive, but detract from the story's overall point; thus they must be cut. And making things make sense takes time--sometimes a lot of it.
It's nice to see depth in a kids' film, but even nicer to see depth that reinforces certain truths about creation.
posted by Christa M. Miller at 8:50 AM
2 Comments:
I am really looking forward to taking my grandson to the movies. When my kids were little, there were so few quality pictures. Now, you get one every week. So some thing do improve.
Hamlet can't handle the movies yet - I think you either have to get them used to it early, or wait till they're less sensitive to things like dark and noise. In his case, he's never really been able to handle either one, so we just wait for things to come out on video.
Incidentally, both Ice Age movies are very good recent releases.
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