Gottlieb described how script additions and revisions translated to delays or costly changes for the production. "The script is a bible, and on the set, when money is disappearing down the tubes at about $3,000 an hour, a twenty-minute wait for the prop man to go get some beer that was not indicated in his pages costs the company a grand," he wrote. "Nobody likes surprises. And surprises were emerging with every revision. 'No coast guard station, boys, we've cut that scene.' Out the window go weeks of getting permission to shoot, the rental of coast guard uniforms, and all the collateral work of preparing that scene. And, 'The scene on the beach will be with all the extras.' Out go the phone calls to eighty-five locals to show up at some corner of the island... a certain desperation began to creep into the production department as they received each set of pages, their bloodshot eyes feverishly dancing down the pages."
