Moving Images, Understanding Media

Chapter 3 Sound and Image 101

Writing for the Screen

In the 1945 fi lm, Children of Paradise by Marcel Carné, written by Jacques

Prévert, two of the main characters work on the stage, one a mime, the other

a dramatic actor. Th rough this juxtaposition, the fi lmmakers compare and

contrast the artistries of gesture and speech in the setting of early nineteenth

century Paris while also commenting on the traditions of silent and sound

fi lm. Interestingly, their exploration of these diff ering modes of expression

highlights underlying similarities in the search for engaging storytelling and

effi cacy of expression in both traditions.

Th is example could be applied to screenwriting as well. Th e core elements

of writing for motion pictures stayed relatively constant from silent to sound

fi lm, although they seemed masked by the addition of dialogue. Th is remains

true to this day. Many young writers spend little time developing a strong

dramatic structure for their screenplays. What they spend most of their time

establishing is dialogue. Perhaps they even mold their scripts around lines

of dialogue that they like.

Usually, strong screen narrative results signifi cantly from the actions that

we observe on the screen, not from what the characters are telling us. Th is

is why the most highly respected screenwriters and educators in the fi eld

highlight the importance of understanding the fundamentals of dramatic

writing. Writing for the screen has evolved from traditions of storytelling that

reach back to the beginnings of oral and dramatic narrative. Th ese traditions

involve such concepts as the Classical Unities of time, place, and action, and

Figure 3-19 Pierre Brasseur,

Arletty, and Jean-Louis

Barrault in Les Enfants du

Paradis, directed by Marcel

Carné and written by

Jacques Prévert. (Courtesy

Pathé/Tricolor/Photofest)

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