Brant and I sold a script last year and we learned so much from the experience. Did you know we finished the first draft of the script the morning we got engaged? We wrote the final pages on the train to Amsterdam!
After our manager, David Sweeney, connected us, we had some wonderful meetings with the studio who ultimately bought it. They gushed over our script, so we were a bit surprised by the several pages of "studio notes" we received after signing the paperwork. However, we were relieved to hear from every writer friend that this was normal and to be expected.
We decided to look at it as a learning experience and tried to deliver what they wanted, even though we were a bit disappointed that some of our favorite comedic moments were being cut. Ultimately, they decided to put more of the comedy back into the script after our second draft and we were all happy with the final draft that we ended up shooting. It was definitely a learning process and I think ultimately, we ended up with a great shooting script that a lot of people will enjoy. We were so grateful to all the actors who sent us messages complimenting the script and to a lot of the crew who had such kind words. Usually writers aren't on set, so it was fun to see all the elements come to life and be there to do some last minute rewrites when some things were changed due to weather.
Something interesting we learned was the editing done for budgetary or locational purposes. In the original script, there was a two characters that were turned into one character. Brant's character had a Christmas tree farm in the first draft and due to locations and budget, his character became a baker. Most of the smaller characters with only a few lines ended up being cut. There was a dance studio scene that we ended up filming at the bakery location. This cut a location and cut a ton of child extras from the budget. The script was edited down to a tight 92 pages and any crazy magic/special effects moments didn't make the final cut.
In the end, we were very happy with how it all went, but we'll definitely be keeping all we learned in mind when we write the next one, especially since we want to write a script for Brant to direct and know now how challenging that can be with a lot of characters and locations!
You can read about how filming went here. And don't worry, we'll definitely keep you all updated when we can say more about where to see the film! Be sure to follow both Brant and me on social media to get updates.
