script page represents one minute of screen time.
The best screenwriters learn to craft concise but
vivid descriptions of essential information so as to
provide the director, cinematographer, designers,
and actors a practical foundation that informs the
collaborative creative process necessary to adapt
the script to the screen. Many scripts are even
described and arranged to take a step beyond
written storytelling and suggest specific images,
juxtapositions, and sequences. No rules determine
how an idea should be developed or an existing lit-
erary property should be adapted into a film
script, but the process usually consists of several
stages, involving many rewrites. Likewise, no rule
dictates the number of people who are eventually
involved in the process. One person may write all
the stages of the screenplay or may collaborate
from the beginning with other screenwriters;
sometimes the director is the sole screenwriter or
co-screenwriter.
Before the breakdown of the Hollywood studio
system and the emergence of the independent film,
each of the major studios maintained its own staff
of writers, to whom ideas were assigned depending
on the particular writer’s specialty and experience.
Each writer was responsible by contract to write a
specified number of films each year. Today, the
majority of scripts are written in their entirety by
independent screenwriters (either as write-for-
hires or on spec) and submitted as polished revi-
sions. Many other screenplays, especially for
movies created for mass appeal, are written by
committee, meaning a collaboration of director,
producer, editor, and others, including script doctors
(professional screenwriters who are hired to
review a screenplay and improve it). Whether
working alone or in collaboration with others, a
screenwriter has significant influence over the
screenplay and the completed movie and, thus, its
artistic, critical, and box-office success.
When the director is also the screenwriter—
and, thus, genuinely an auteur—there is a higher
likelihood that the screenplay will reflect and con-
vey a consistent vision. This is true of films by
directors such as François Truffaut, Werner Her-
zog, Chantal Akerman, Joel and Ethan Coen,
Woody Allen, Akira Kurosawa, John Ford, and
Satyajit Ray, to name a very few.
Despite the widespread existence of seminars,
books, and software programs that promise to
teach the essentials of screenwriting overnight,
becoming a professional screenwriter requires the
possession of innate talents and skills that can be
enhanced by experience. Such skills include under-
standing the interaction of story, plot, and narra-
tive; being able to write visually (meaning not only
putting a world on the page, but also foreseeing it
on the screen); and being able to create characters
and dialogue. Screenwriters must understand the
conventions and expectations of the various gen-
res, work within deadlines that are often unreason-
able, and be able to collaborate, particularly with
the producer and director, and to anticipate that
their original ideas may be extensively and even
radically altered before the shooting starts. In addi-
tion to creating a compelling story, engaging plot,
and fascinating characters, screenwriters must
have a solid understanding of what is marketable.
Finally, if they are presenting a finished screenplay,
it must conform to industry expectations regarding
format and style.Elements of Narrative
Narrative theory (sometimes called narratology)
has a long history, starting with Aristotle and con-
tinuing with great vigor today. Aristotle said that a
good story should have three sequential parts: a
beginning, a middle, and an end—a concept that
has influenced the history of playwriting and
screenwriting. French New Wave director Jean-
Luc Godard, who helped to revolutionize cinematic
style in the 1950s, agreed that a story should have a
beginning, a middle, and an end but, he added, “not
necessarily in that order.” Given the extraordinary
freedom and flexibility with which cinema can han-
dle time (especially compared to the limited ways
in which the theater handles time), the directors of
some of the most challenging movies ever made—
including many contemporary examples—would
seem to agree with Godard.ELEMENTS OF NARRATIVE 137