The Role of the Script Editor, Revised

If script development is usually a hidden and surreptitiousaspect of the screen production process, then the practice of scriptediting is arguably even more mysterious. All screenplays go through ascript edit of some sort, but what that entails can be anything from factchecking and proofreading, to structural reshaping and dialogue rewriting. Analyses of screenplays and of screenwriters’ processes often failto acknowledge that the script editor exists and, furthermore, that theyserve an essential purpose in the development and revision of a screenplay, and the ongoing practice of a screenwriter. The lack of publishedmaterial on the role of script editor and the responsibilities they inhabitin script development is what this chapter responds to, shedding lighton what is arguably a key creative role in the production of a screenwork. Drawing on a body of recent research about script development,this chapter outlines the various roles undertaken by the script editor;the responsibilities they possess, including to whom and at what timesin the development process they occur; and the ongoing relationshipsscript editors have with others working in script development, particularly the screenwriter.