LOF - The Language in Film Lesson

The Language in Film

Screenplays

"Toto, I've a feeling we're not in Kansas anymore."

"E.T. phone home."

"May the Force be with you."

"Frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn."

The one characteristic these quotes have in common is that they were spoken in movies, survived through decades, and have become iconic. When movies started showing in cinemas as blurry, black and white moving pictures in 1886, there was no dialogue and no sound effects--just the characters gesturing wildly to get the plot across to the audience. When sound technology was finally developed in France in the early 1900s, there was a need to create organized plots and narratives, as well as actual dialogue among characters to help develop a story--and screenwriting was born.

Screenwriting, from the word itself, is writing scripts for on-screen media. This can range from television shows, movies, and, most recently, even the evolving world of computer or video role-playing games. All of these media begin with the written word. Screenwriting lays the foundation for the story and establishes the characters and their world. In 1977, for example, George Lucas broke through the science fiction genre and established Star Wars as one of the most influential movies ever created. It all started with a graduate student with an idea--and probably a typewriter in reach.

Reading Assignment: Citizen Kane Screenplay

Have a look at the script for Citizen Kane. This section is from the finale. While reading this closely, pay attention to the interaction of the dialogue and directions. Screenplays are similar to plays but include the elements of cinematography.

Click here to read the Citizen Kane screenplay excerpt. Links to an external site.

And so it was by an awful fluke of justice that when Academy Awards night came, and Welles should have got the awards he deserved as director and actor, the award he got (the only Academy Award he has ever got) was as co-author of the Best Original Screenplay.

- Pauline Kael, Raising Kane, 1971

The screenplay functions as the essential touchstone for the development of the project. The irony that Orson Welles only won an Academy Award for his screenplay is twofold. First, there is a serious debate on how much he actually wrote. One of the long-standing debates of Citizen Kane has been the proper accreditation of the authorship of the screenplay, which the credits attribute to both Herman J. Mankiewicz and Orson Welles. The second bit of irony is the usual obscurity that surrounds screenwriters. Directors and certainly actors become famous; few know the names of the authors of the films.

Nonetheless, many writers aspire to write a film that captures the imagination of an audience. So what makes a screenplay work? Here is an article by an established screenplay writer named Frank Cottrell Boyce. Note closely his advice.

Reading Assignment: "How to Write a Movie" by Frank Cottrell Boyce

Click here to read the article "How to Write a Movie." Links to an external site.

The iconic Hollywood sign is changed to say "How to Write a Movie."

Reading Assignment: "Death to Readers" by Terry Rossio

The following article/blog is from a former reader. A reader is employed by a studio to read all of the scripts they receive. They summarize, annotate, and generally write "pass" on the scripts. Note where this advice differs from the advice above.

Click here to read the article "Death to Readers." Links to an external site.

In this editorial image, a human skeleton is poised atop a stack of books. The skeleton holds a book in its hands with its head tilted down, giving the appearance that the skeleton is reading a book.

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