Final Draft

The Final Draft

by Rebecca Schechter, President, Writers Guild of Canada

I wrote my first TV scripts as a freelance writer for Street Legal. I loved doing it, but quickly saw that if I wanted to see the work through to the end, if I wanted to learn how to bring a script to the point where it was produce-able, I’d have to work inside a story department, to become a story editor.

In the first story-department I worked in, I loved the experience, but saw that only the executive story editor really had the “last word” on the script. So, if I wanted to have the experience of putting a script on its feet successfully and have control over it, I’d have to become an executive story editor.

The first time I was an executive story editor, I realized that, yes, I had the final say on the production draft of the script, but it was the showrunner who actually sat in the edit room and cut the final product. If I wanted to write the final draft of my own script I’d have to be a showrunner and do it in the edit room.

There’s a lot of talk in the industry these days about showrunners. This year Banff and Canwest are sponsoring the first ever Canadian showrunner training course. Thinking about this, it occurred to me that one of the key things that make the difference between a really good story editor and a showrunner is the edit room. It also occurred to me that in Canada it happens too often that story editors–even exec story editors–aren’t allowed in the edit room. Maybe the biggest reason is the killing time-pressure of our production schedules coupled with too few writers in the story room. But often, I think it’s also because many producers feel the edit room is their domain. They let the director do a cut, of course, and then take over. Maybe they’ll ask a writer for notes on the director’s cut. Maybe not.

The reason it works so well to put writers in charge of TV series, the reason this is the norm in Hollywood, is that every step of the way the decisions made by the showrunner impact the script. So, when someone who isn’t a writer makes all those choices, not only does the show suffer, it handicaps the whole writing community. It takes us out of the feedback loop where we learn how every creative decision we made in the script effects every creative decision made by art directors, directors, cast, crew, editors, sound mixers, etc. By cutting us off from the experience of finishing our work, writing the final draft of our script in the edit room, we’re prevented from developing.

Of course, the most successful shows (and showrunners) in Canada have writer/showrunners who are in charge of writing, editing, casting, working with art directors, directors, crews, line producers and network executives. But this shouldn’t be the exception. It should be the rule. If it’s not, it leaves all of us open to sniping from those who think (wrongly!) that there aren’t enough good writers in Canada.

What can we do about this? Here’s a suggestion. Maybe next year, in tandem with the showrunner course, Banff/Canwest could develop a program for producers–helping them learn how to let go of the edit room. Or at least share it with the writers who run their shows.