Wobbly skates

William M. Akers tells a great story about “Rocky”.

Stallone’s script called for Rocky and Arian to finally go on a date.  He’s asked her out and she’s refused, but he’s at last worn her down.

They go to a restaurant.  they have a lovely conversation.  It’s a wonderful first date, right?

Well, when it got around to shooting the scene, they couldn’t afford to rent a restaurant and pay for all those extras.  They had to find a cover set that twas cheap to rent, requiring no extras.

What did they use?  An empty ice rink that was closing for the night.

Putting Adrian on wobbly skates and Rocky walking beside her while they had their sweet, halting conversation – same dialogue they’d have used in a restaurant – was a sublime choice.

A little conflict thrown in from the Zamboni guy saying the have to leave in a few minutes, and you have one of my favorite scenes in any movie.  All by changing where the scene takes place.

Go through your script, scene by scene, and see if you can turn a few boring locations into something magical.