How do filmmakers make changes to scripts while shooting in these cases?

[harmonica44]

Basically some people wrote some scripts that I would like to produce and direct. However, I find myself having to make changes cause of budget or because something may happen, like an actor may flake out for example.

But I find it very difficult to make changes without disrupting the logic of the story. A well plotted story, is like a building of jenga blocks, where if you pull one out, the whole thing could very well not hold together after.

Is their any tricks or approaches to keep in mind when trying to make changes without creating plot holes?

 

[mlesemann]

You're not going to like my answer, but here it is: avoid projects that are quite so jenga-like until you've got the resources to be able to shoot over 4 or 5 consecutive weeks and pay your actors.

You're right that things sometimes need to change on the run - I've cut scenes because of weather or location issues, replaced an actor (in a small but important role) with a friend who happened o be on set that date because the actor could only stay an hour for a scene that would take 5 hours to shoot, cut scenes because we simply ran out of time.

But there was enough flex in the script to be able to work around the problems, add a little something somewhere else to explain away any gaps.

You'll ALWAYS run into these issues, but they're more controllable if everything will be done in a month or 6 weeks, and if the actors have a good reason to commit to the project.