Scene 51. Dropped during editing for reasons of length.

Scene 56. Dropped during editing for reasons of length. Voice-over shifted to
Scene 57.

Scene 58. We had two weeks of acting rehearsals on location in Mansfield just
prior to shooting. Though rehearsing may sound like a needless luxury to some,
this scene is a strong argument in favor of it. Not only are rehearsals good for tweak-
ing dialogue and performances, but they're great for spotting problem areas in the
script. One such problem cropped up here, and I'm glad we caught it early, because
it would have slowed us to a crawl trying to figure it out during filming.
So what's the big deal. Except for some minor dialogue changes, the scene seems
to read exactly as it plays in the movie, right Well, not exactly. Read it again, only
this time with an eye toward timing. You'll notice the screenplay has Hadley and
the guards completing their conversation about inheritance taxes -- after which, the
convicts trade a few whispered comments and Andy saunters over to tell Hadley a
few things about IRS loopholes. Sure, it reads fine, but just try blocking it and you'll
soon discover that the actor playing Hadley is left standing there with nothing to
do once he's finished his dia1ogue except suffer awkwardly through one hell of a
long pause waiting for Andy to get there.
This is the difference between writing a scene and blocking it. The director real-
izes that, for the scene to work, Andy has to get to Hadley just as soon as Hadley's
dialogue ends. That means that the convicts' dialogue (along with Andy stepping
away from the group) has to find a new home earlier in the scene -- in other words,
it has to be backed up and played over Hadley's dialogue so that the two conversa-
tions overlap. This way Andy can break away from his group and get to the guards
by the time Hadley finishes talking. And because this is only a rehearsal, because
the clock isn't yet ticking away the precious minutes of a costly shooting day, the
director has all the time he needs to puzzle out which of Hadley's lines are expend-
able enough to be played under the convicts' dialogue. And that, in case anybody
should ever ask, is the value of rehearsal.

Scene 59. We never shot this, because it seemed a better idea to cut straight from
Scene 58 (Andy bargaining with Hadley) to Scene 60 (convicts drinking beer). This
way we could stay focused on the people involved, rather than a bucket. Red's voice-
over from this scene was shifted to Scene 60.

Scene 60. This is perhaps the best example of the technical aspect of shooting a film
with voice-over in mind (at least this film; I'm not sure how other people have done
it). I realized early on that many of the scenes we'd be filming would depend on Morgan
Freeman's voice-over for timing (there's no point shooting a scene to be 30 seconds
long if the voice-over lasts only 10). So we prerecorded all of Morgan's voice-over in
a single session during preproduction to be available for playback on the set during film-
ing (sort of like shooting a music video, where recorded music plays while the rock star
lip-syncs the words). In other words, if a scene depended on precision timing with the
voice-over, I'd ask Willie Burton, our location sound mixer, to play that bit of voice-
over during the take for all to hear. (Later, during post, those sections of sound were
replaced with clean narration.) In the case of this scene, it allowed for exact timing of:
a) the camera move and assorted cons' reactions; b) Clancy Brown (Hadley) entering
the shot to deliver his line, and; c) Morgan Freeman's glance to Tim Robbins.

Scene 61. A bit of dialogue (Red asks Andy if he's carved his name on his wall
yet) was dropped from this scene during editing. When viewed on film, it didn't
seem to us that Andy needed this line to motivate his actions in Scene 62.

Scenes 63 & 64. Here's an example of great ideas just waiting to happen, of pleas-
ant surprises popping up when you least expect them, of turning disadvantages into
strengths. You'll notice that the screenplay (as does Stephen King's story) has the con-
victs watching Ray Milland in The Lost Weekend. Our producer, Niki Marvin,
approached Paramount Pictures about using a clip from that film. As it turns out,
Paramount wanted a lot more money than we had budgeted, so Niki suggested we
check out Columbia Pictures' film library instead (she figured they'd be more
inclined to give us a price break, since they'd be releasing Shawshank domestically).
Columbia faxed a list of their old films to us in Mansfield. I'll never forget the
moment Niki looked up from scanning the titles and said, "Hey! There's a bunch
of Rita Hayworth movies on this list! Let's use Gilda, for God's sakes!"
It's amazing, looking back on it, that it never dawned on us until that moment.
Of course we should put Rita Hayworth in the movie! Creative choices don't get any bet-
ter than that. All it took was a smart producer turning a disadvantage into a strength
and recognizing the creative potential. Thanks, Niki.

Scene 67. Dropped during editing for reasons of length. Voice-over shifted to
Scene 66.

Scenes 70 through 77. Here's an ambitious sequence that our schedule simply did-
n't allow me time to shoot. Given all the footage necessary to cut the sequence
together (as well as the time-consuming stunts and effects), I believe I would have
needed three full days to get everything in the can. As it was, I had a single after-
noon. That meant thinking on my feet and coming up with the simplest solution.
Obviously, the big high-fall stunt and the ancillary characters (Ernie and Red) were
out of the question. I decided instead to focus the scene on Bogs and the guards.
By having Bogs try to crawl from his cell and grab the railing, I could go to a sim-
ple side-angle view as he gets jerked back inside by the unseen guards. Though a
compromise, I do think it proved a nice alternative -- poor Bogs vanishes abruptly
from view like some hapless swimmer in Jaws, leaving us staring at the deserted tier
for punctuation.

Scene 78. Though it's written as one scene, I wound up shooting this as two scenes
separated by a brief time-jump: a) Bogs gets wheeled to the ambulance; b) the
ambulance pulls out to reveal Red and the gang watching from behind the fence.
It simply felt more visually graceful to do it that way. (That old ambulance was beau-
tiful, but -- like every period vehicle I've ever seen used in any movie -- inevitably
developed mechanical trouble. In this case, the engine block decided to crack, leav-
ing us with a giant white paperweight instead of an ambulance. So here's what you're
not seeing on screen as that ambulance departs: me and about half a dozen grips and
electricians pushing that sucker from behind, trying to get up enough speed to send
it coasting by itself through the shot. The group of us stopping was a sight, as we
were all waving our arms for balance and trying not to fall on our noses into the
camera's view. Let's credit Morgan Freeman for delivering his dialogue with a
straight face.)

Scene 81. This was combined with Scene 82 for simplicity of shooting. Red was
dropped.

Scenes 83 & 84. These were expendable and never shot.

Scene 85. The latter portion of this scene (the discovery of the sharpened screw-
driver and the con being sent to solitary) was dropped during editing for reasons
of length.

Scene 87. Dropped during editing for reasons of length.

Scene 91. The end of this scene was dropped during editing, because it made for
a more graceful cut to Scene 92 when shortened.

Scene 92. During rehearsals, James Whitmore felt strongly that the casual profan-
ity should be dropped from Brooks' dialogue in this scene. It's not because Jim's a
prude; he actually had two excellent reasons. First, he pointed out that Brooks is of
a much earlier generation which was not given to profaning casually. Second, he felt
that by holding back the swearing here, it would make the scene where Brooks flips
out and holds a knife to Heywood's throat (Scene 103) all the more shocking by
virtue of the contrast in his language (the old boy's swearing up a storm in 103). Jim
was right, of course. What else would you expect from an old pro like him?

Scene 97. The visual of the guards waiting in line was replaced during filming with
an image of Andy preparing Warden Norton's taxes. I did this for two reasons. First,
I thought that cutting from a shot of guards waiting in line to another shot of guards
waiting in line would be visually repetitive and boring, possibly confusing. Second,
I wanted to give Andy and Warden Norton some extra time on screen in this early
part of the film to lay the groundwork for what follows. This seemed a good oppor-
tunity to do it, brief though it is.

Scene 98. An expendable scene that was never shot. Red's voice-over shifted to
Scene 99.

Scene 99. Here's another real-life prison guard playing a small role in the film:
Donald E. Zinn, doing a great job as the "Moresby Batter" getting his taxes done.