A friend of mine sent this to me, thought the group would find it
interesting:

This is from a book I'm reading, Lew Hunter's Screenwriting 434:

Producer Irwin Allen (Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, Poseidon
Adventure, Towering Inferno) once said, "When I was a young man, I
wanted to shoot a movie called The Big Circus. I was summoned before
Harry Cohn, then head of Columbia Pictures. This mogul threw the
script at me as I sat in his spotlighted visitor's chair. He
said, 'This is a piece of crap, Allen.' I swallowed and said, 'What
seems to be the problem, Mr. Cohn?' Harry Cohn said, 'You know that
jerk who walks on that tightrope across Niagara Falls on page 19?' I
said, 'yes.' Cohn said, 'Put him on page 49, you got a deal.'"

This change may seem simple, but the one line suggestion will
dramatically affect the audience reaction. You see, we don't care if
the tightrope walker falls in the water on page 19! By page 49 we
will know him, care about him, and identify with him. We, the
audience, will by then be the man walking across Niagara Falls on
the tightrope.

Loved the story, and what a great point about characterization...