Production Note #11

Welcome to Production Note #11, in which we share some thoughts about storybuilding and on of our director Wolfgang’s favorite movies, Back To The Future.

Building a story is one of the key processes while making a movie. In fiction films, storybuilding happens while writing the script of the movie, so before the movie is shot. This is a very long process and sometimes takes years and many, many versions until it’s done. For Hollywood films, it’s not uncommon to work out something like 70 versions before going into actual production.

Take, for example, Back To The Future Pt. 1, one of our director Wolfgang‘s favorite movies. In the first draft of the script (online available here) many many things are different from that amazing movie that most of you have probably seen at least a couple of times. Perhaps the biggest difference is that the time machine was not the future-like looking DeLorean car but, and this is not a joke, a fridge(!). Imagine Marty McFly cramming himself into a fridge instead of riding the incredible DeLorean! With that first draft of the script, Back To The Future might never have become the popculture icon it is today (and especially this year).

Now, in documentary filmmaking, the storybuilding process takes place in the editing room, so after the shooting. That’s a whole different story, because you have to work with the footage the you have and changes are not executed quickly in a text editor or on a typewriter (not sure if anybody except Woody Allen still does that), but every change has to be edited out by the editor which always takes some time, even with the quickest editors (and our editor Lisa sure is quick!).

What’s the same as in storybuilding for fiction films is that everything needs to be reflected upon, you need to question everything that’s in or not in the movie. This is a sometimes very tiresome process, but – as we can see while watching Back The Future – it’s really worth it. The first script for Back To The Future was written in 1980, and Robert Zemeckis and Bob Gale tampered with the script for years until the movie got finally made in 1985.

We don’t think (keep our fingers crossed) it will take us five years or 70 versions to release the Leo “Bud” Welch Documentary, but this week we really learned how this sometimes painful process of questioning and reflecting upon every detail and constantly working out new ideas really pays off in the end.

We thought we’ve had the perfect very first scene of our movie for some time now. We always loved it, and we still do. It’s a pretty cool piece of archive footage from the early 1990s that really breathes the local color of the Mississippi Hill Country where Leo is from, and it’s also a funny way to say Hello to the audience.

But last Monday, we decided to try something new, something totally different. And, guess what: It’s SO MUCH BETTER. Even while working out the idea in our heads, it was already clear that this is an incredible improvement and a big step forward. We all hope you will love this intro into the world of Leo “Bud” Welch as much as we do.

We can’t wait to show it at our next Test Screening this coming Monday. We’ll keep you informed about the outcome of that screening next week.

In the meantime, we suggest you watch Back To The Future again. It really is absolutely amazing. Thank God they kicked out that fridge!