of course! the director can write his own script any way he sees fitting. however, the best fit is the one that is recognized by all in the industry so there is no confusion when the producers, actors, and all the crew can understand it.
after you spec script is sold and prior to going into production someone will write a "shooting script" and put all those necessary cues in there. know that many scripts you get online will be shooting scripts and their formatting is not the correct model for a spec script.
This "shooting script" idea is one of the great fantasies of the unsold script universe.
I have shooting scripts. Some of my scripts have been turned into shooting scripts.
Nobody "goes through it" and does things like put in "we see" or rewrites it in the way that people seem to think.
What they do is adjust the format -- things like partial slug lines are turned into complete slug lines.
If, in a scene, somebody moves from a kitchen to a living room or from inside to outside or what have you -- that's going to likely be broken up into appropriate different slugs.
And everything gets scene numbers.
It's all technical. Nobody dives into the text and changes words around.
Once that's done, various production will start their own particular breakdowns -- they'll start budgeting, looking at locations, cast, effects, etc.
At a certain point, questions are going to be answered, in a more detailed way, as to how particular scenes are going to be shot. If these are complicated scenes, involving action or effects, they'll likely be storyboarded -- at which point, the boards are going to become the primary source for determining how the sequence will be shot, not the script.
How will the scene be shot? The director is going to sit down with the DP and the PM and the line producer and figure this out. How long do they have to shoot? Is it happening on a stage or on location? How many set-ups? Is this a big action sequence? A party scene? A jury scene? Two guys at a table? Is this a director who's planning some complicated steadi-cam BS where he wants to move all around the two guys at the table while they talk so that there can't be any lights on the floor or crew visible and there have to be four completely walls which is going to take extra time and extra money and be a big pain in the ass for nothing --
Or is he simply going to go for two shots and reverses and finish the scene in half a day and let's get moving?
None of that has anything to do with anything the writer puts in the script. Forget about it. Maybe the director wants a single moving shot drifting down the freaking hallway. Or maybe he wants a bunch of sharp cuts, or maybe he wants something completely different.
That's his business. How those particular details are shot -- that is, the particular way in which they are conveyed to the audience is not *story* -- only *that* they are conveyed.
Sometimes, the way in which information is conveyed to the audience *is* a matter of story, just as sometimes the way in which a line is spoken isn't simply a matter of an actor's interpretation, but the substance of the story itself hinges on a line being said in a certain way.
In that case, it is not only permissable, but necessary that the writer indicates how the line should be spoken. That's not intruding into someone else's domain -- because *story* is the writer's domain.
But whether they're using a dolly or a steadi-cam or the shot is hand-held or they're doing it as a bunch of separate cuts -- that's not the writer's domain.
But in any case, all of that stuff -- how they decide to shoot or cover a scene, is something that is decided between them. The Director may scribble notes on his particular copy, as the DP may make notes on his copy, as the Art Director may make notes on his copy of the script -- but those notes are particular to the individual -- they're never incorporated into some final "Shooting Script" that is generally published.
The only things that end up as rainbow pages are changes to scenes and to dialogue -- additions and cuts -- that effect schedules and what the actors are going to do and say on the set.
And all of those things that are memorialized and distributed as rainbow pages -- are done by the writer.
NMS
