Posted by Geraint_Lewis on January 26, 2011 at 05:50:31 user Geraint_Lewis.
In Reply to: Re: The good parts of the films, was Re: Ages of actors in CC -- was Years of SA & SD posted by Roger Wardale on January 22, 2011 at 12:50:29:
I had the good fortune to meet Claude Watham some years ago, when the BBC was making their short Big Screen Britain documentary about the making of Swallows and Amazons. He told me in some detail about the way he approached directing this movie.
He said that one of his main concerns was keeping the child actors' performances fresh and natural. He was particularly concerned that they didn't worry about "remembering their lines", because he knew any such worry would show through in their performances. He therefore made a point of never letting them see the script. Instead, he sat down with them immediately before shooting each scene. Sometimes he read them the relevant section from the book, on other occasions he explained the scene and how it fitted into the story as a whole. He then discussed with them how they thought each of their characters would feel and act and what sort of things they would say. Presumably he "guided" those discussions, using his own knowledge of the screeplay to keep the actors reasonably "on track". So he may well have suggested "and she's going swimming" (or any other line) on that basis. But assuming his recollections are correct (and I can't think of any reason to doubt him) then it sounds as though much of the dialogue and "depth" in the finished film did come at least partially from Suzanna Hamilton and the other actors, rather than simply being memorised and repeated from the formal screenplay.
I suppose the only way to know how much would be to check the original screenplay against the finished film. Maybe a fun bit of research, assuming anyone can get hold of the screenplay.