ABSTRACT
Only by sustained, methodical work on the script can the director fully inhabit every aspect of the story, explore all its potential, and capitalize on the cinema’s strengths. This part of the director’s job is called script development and has several main purposes: first, to analyze a dramatic work to reveal the irreducible foundations such as its structure, character, narrative logic, and themes; second, to harness creative intelligence to address weaknesses or missed opportunities. Script development usually involves writer and director, though in commercial films producers may play a big role. A plot point is a moment in which a story pivots into new territory or where the dramatic circumstances become noticeably amplified. Another interesting type of character development involves less the transformation of a character, than developing the audience’s understanding of that character through slow revelation.
