The Screenplay

A screenplay is the foundation around which a movie is made. It wasn't always that way. Moviemaking is a relatively new art form that encompasses all the traditional arts: painting, music, acting, and writing. Very quickly the industry had to improve its story telling devices and discovered the art of editing. In the beginning there was no need for the screenplay. Moviemakers sometimes wrote an outline of what they wanted to do and then improvised the rest. Movies were five minutes long. Soon however, they realized they needed scripts that described the action and contained dialogue. The screenwriter was born. The screenplay became the most important part of moviemaking. No screenplay...no movie.

Screenwriters create the world in which the characters live. They put them in conflict with each other, they make us part of their battle and then bring it all to a satisfactory conclusion. The discussions on the next four pages serve as a basic introduction to the screenplay.

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