Moving Images, Understanding Media

Chapter 7 From Page to Screen 257

Cultural backgrounds, artistic objectives, and educations can all lead to vast

diff erences in writing practices. David Lynch, who has written for television

and feature fi lms, says “I sit and dictate what comes to me... [My assistant]

sits at the computer and I sit in a chair, and I try to catch ideas and say

them... the idea tells you how—as you read a book you picture it, you hear

it, and it makes an impression. So you stay true to that impression as you

translate it to fi lm.”

Numerous fi lmmakers have used approaches that do not follow the

“how to” dictates of cinematic narrative developed by diff erent generations

of Hollywood experts and executives. Acclaimed American fi lmmakers such

as Quentin Tarantino, Spike Lee, Robert Altman, Woody Allen, and Steven

Soderbergh have made movies that break from conventional storytelling in

diff erent ways. For example, the story may feature a large number of important

characters or may not move forwards in a straight time line. As a movie viewer,

you have probably watched feature fi lms that do not follow standard methods

of Hollywood screenwriting. Refl ect on the following questions:

• Within the fi rst ten minutes of the movie, are you sure who the one or
  two main characters are? Th is is not true if there is a group of characters
  who are equally important to the plot of the story.


• Has it been made clear to you “here is the good guy and here is the
  bad guy” during the fi rst twenty or so minutes of the movie?


• As the movie moves past an hour or so, have the main characters of
  the movie clearly indicated their feelings to other important characters,
  including anyone with whom they are in confl ict?

Figure 7-7 Writer and

director Spike Lee (with

G on forehead) with actor

Giancarlo Esposito in School

Daze from 1988, one of Lee’s

fi lms that contains strong

autobiographical elements

like his 1994 fi lm Crooklyn.

(Courtesy Columbia Pictures/

Photofest)

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