Personality of a Group

Often, scenes in STBD need to be tinkered with.

Perhaps a location needs to be switched. Perhaps a useful prop changes the opportunities within a scene.

Most often, it's because an actor is added to or subtracted from the scene, changing its entire dynamic.

Coming and Going

Let's say you're out with a friend at a bar, having a conversation. While you're talking, you're greeted by someone else your friend knows very well, but whom you've never met. Suddenly, the entire conversation changes.

- You can no longer talk about anything personal because now you're in the company of a stranger.
- Your friend and the new acquaintance have numerous anecdotes to share, none of which involve you.
- Suddenly, YOU'RE the stranger in the room.

A similar thing happens when characters get added to or subtracted from scenes.

Sometimes a scheduled scene will be knocked off-kilter because one of the actors becomes unavailable. Alternately, an actor may become unexpectedly available and offer to join a scene. This often happens if we're filming back-to-back scenes in a location and an actor who was only needed for the 1st scene decides he or she has time to be involved in the 2nd scene as well -- if it would be useful.

Then, on the fly, we need to decide if there's room in the scene for another voice.

But it's more than just a reallocation of dialogue, or even the invention of new lines; the presence (or absence) of a character in that scene now affects the rhythm of the scene, as well as the actions and intentions of the other characters.

Bite Your Tongue

For example: let's say Caroline and Dierdre are discussing something personal at Affogato. If we decide to add Rich to the scene, that directly affects Caroline (who's forced to become more "professional" and guarded because her boss is there) and Dierdre (who doesn't know Rich personally and therefore would be reluctant to talk openly).

Conversely, if a scene calls for Leo, Dex and Chloe to be locked out of a car in a parking garage, and then we discover Dex can't be part of the scene after all, this changes the scene's dynamic -- and what it's actually about. Instead of three headstrong, impetuous personalities trying to one-up each other, each with their own motivations, we're now left with an awkward moment between Leo and Chloe. In this situation, Leo would almost certainly be trying to impress Chloe in the first place, until he realizes he's locked out, at which point his ability to impress her becomes nil and she visibly gains the upper hand.

Just like that, the comedy of the scene -- and its weight within the script -- changes.

A change like that might not just affect one scene, but its placement within the script -- or its relocation to a completely different episode.

Just like a recipe, the addition and subtraction of ingredients in a story can drastically affect the end result.