[Watch the video interview on YouTube here]
Film Courage: In Hollywood, you say that almost every screenplay or treatment that a screenwriter writes will be rewritten almost every time.
Ron Mita, Professor of Advanced Screenwriting at College of the Canyons/Screenwriter: Sad but true.
Now, there are exceptions.
If you can get yourself into the low-budget world, and horror films are the place to go for that, less likely.
If they don’t have the money, they can’t afford a rewriter.
On the feature side, especially the big studios or the big streaming media platforms, they’ve got enough money and they’re never sure if they got what they want.
I think it has to do with a lot of the development people.
No one’s willing to say yes, go!
They’re more like how about one more guy, one more gal writing it?
How about some new scenes?
It is almost inevitable you will be rewritten.
Now, the good side of that is you may get opportunities to be a rewriter and rewrite someone’s work.
If you ever do that, I would encourage you to be kind and know that someone did the work before you.
There are bad rewriters who will rewrite names.
We don’t change names.
That’s a cheap shot.
But, rewriting scenes usually though it’s notes that come from the studio.
We want this character to do this and I get it.
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Generally speaking, it leads to overdevelopment of stories.
It leads to stories not having a flow because one writer did this and the next writer did that.
Sadly, it is a truth that the studios will probably hire two, three writers to do a script and there have been some with just dozens.
The more writers you see on a screenplay, at the end of the film, the less likely it is to be a really good screenplay.
Film Courage: And that is because why? There’s not an…(Watch the video interview on YouTube here).
About:
After beginning his career as a graphic artist, Ron quickly realized his true passion was storytelling. That realization led him to Loyola Marymount University, where he pursued a graduate degree in screenwriting and before graduating, sold his first screenplay to Columbia Pictures in 1993, launching a career that now spans more than three decades.
That early success opened the door to work with many of Hollywood’s major studios, including Universal Pictures, Sony Pictures, Columbia Pictures, TriStar Pictures, Warner Bros., DreamWorks, HBO, TNT, Screen Gems, and CBS.
Ron’s produced credits include the animated hit Robots for 20th Century Fox, S.W.A.T., starring Samuel L. Jackson and Colin Farrell, Sniper II, starring Tom Berenger, and 24 Hours to Live, starring Ethan Hawke.
Since 2002, Ron has helped shape the next generation of filmmakers as a screenwriting professor at College of the Canyons and as a filmmaking instructor at Antelope Valley College.
Early in his career, Ron developed the Magnificent 7–24 Method, a screenwriting architecture that helps writers move from idea to page with clarity and confidence. Built as a flexible framework rather than a rigid formula, it removes the fear that often keeps aspiring screenwriters from beginning. The method remains the foundation of both his professional work and his teaching.
A working screenwriter and dedicated educator, Ron continues to move between the classroom and the industry, where story always comes first.
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