"That process also taught me another valuable lesson as a writer, which is that every scene has to pass the get-up-at-5-am test. Production is exhausting. Getting up before the sun rises and working all day, it’s brutal. So the scene you’re writing, the one that’s going to be shot that day, it has to be worth the trip. It has to be worth bringing 200 people out of bed, and into the Canadian winter to create something. It’s hard to envision that when you’re at your desk, so far removed. You just write off a scene and say, oh well, it’s a dry, necessary scene. But shooting that dry, necessary scene for 16 hours in the winter… it’s awful. You have to be excited to shoot it. Because if you’re not, and you wrote it, then certainly no director, or cast, or 200 crew members are going to be excited about showing up." This is excellent perspective. So true. I may have to post this on my wall as a constant reminder ...

[...] The Get-Up-At-5am Test, from Justin Marks [...]