Analysing the Screenplay

Jill Nelmes

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2010
• eBook ISBN: 9781136912443
• Topic: Media & Performing Arts
• Subtopic: Film History & Criticism

Most producers and directors acknowledge the crucial role of the screenplay, yet the film script has received little academic attention until recently, even though the screenplay has been in existence since the end of the 19th century.

Analysing the Screenplay highlights the screenplay as an important form in itself, as opposed to merely being the first stage of the production process. It explores a number of possible approaches to studying the screenplay, considering the depth and breadth of the subject area, including:

• the history and early development of the screenplay in the United States, France and Britain
• the process of screenplay writing and its peculiar relationship to film production
• the assumption that the screenplay is standardised in form and certain stories or styles are universal
• the range of writing outside the mainstream, from independent film to story ideas in Bhutanese film production to animation
• possible critical approaches to analysing the screenplay.

Analysing the Screenplay is a comprehensive anthology, offering a global selection of contributions from internationally renowned, specialist authors. Together they provide readers with an insight into this fascinating yet complex written form.

This anthology will be of interest to undergraduate and postgraduate students on a range of Film Studies courses, particularly those on scriptwriting.

Chapter 1
Introduction

Jill Nelmes

Even though the screenplay has been in existence since the first scenarios of the early twentieth century the form has received little academic attention. This is mostly because film has been seen as part of an industrial and technological process, in which the screenplay is considered merely the first stage towards the final product, the feature film, and therefore not on a creative par with the stage play, prose or poetry, which are more immediate creative forms with a less complex production process. yet most producers and directors acknowledge the crucial role of the screenplay hence Hitchcock’s often quoted mantra was ‘the script, the script, the script’ (Truffaut 1986: 56). Despite this fact academic attention has been diverted towards the director and the final stages of film production rather than the study of the screenplay. Somewhat ironically, because of the general interest in writing in this form, there are a plethora of publications on the subject of how to write a screenplay but there has been a meagre amount of published academic work which analyses the screenplay itself. There is though a growing recognition of the paucity of research on the subject and an acknowledgement of the importance of the screenplay as a form in itself which exists independently from the film. Academic periodicals such as the Journal of Media Practice have described the area as under-researched and the Journal of British Cinema and Television published a special issue devoted to aspects of screenwriting, pointing out that, ‘discussion of screenwriting is a notable blind spot in both British cinema and television studies’ (Cook and Spicer 2008: 213). Indeed it would appear this imbalance is now beginning to be redressed and in the last year two important books on the subject have been published: Steven Maras’s Screenwriting: History, Theory and Practice (2009), which gives an overview of the subject area, and Steven price’s The Screenplay: Authorship, Theory and Criticism (2010), which, as well as discussing theory and authorship, applies textual analysis as a method of studying the screenplay; in addition the Journal of Screenwriting was founded with the aim of encouraging research in the area. These new publications indicate a surge of interest in the subject and it would therefore seem an opportune time to publish an anthology whose aim is to highlight the screenplay as an area of academic study, clearly connected to the study of film but also with a separate existence. The book explores a range of approaches to studying the screenplay, often from very different perspectives, giving a sense of the depth and breadth of the subject area. The contributors are widely recognized experts in their field and the anthology is divided into four sections; first, the history and development of the screenplay; second, craft and process in the screenplay; third, alternatives to the mainstream screenplay; and fourth, theoretical and critical approaches. It is hoped the reader will find the anthology a stimulating mix of historical perspective and theoretical analysis of this fascinating and complex form.

History and early development of the screenplay

The three articles in this section consider the early screenplay in the United States and Britain, a period in which the screenplay was very much in its infancy and still developing as a form. The first two chapters focus on early film in the United States; Torey Liepa’s chapter ‘The Popular Film Writing Movement and the Emergence of Writing in American Silent Cinema’, discusses how and why writing became a public activity for a short period from 1910 to 1920, by which time the studios had developed their own writing practices and film writing was largely regulated; Jule Selbo’s chapter ‘Screenwriters Who Shaped the Pre-Code Woman and their Struggle with Censorship’, outlines the role of women screenwriters and the portrayal of independent women in American films produced during the Pre-Code era, before the Hay’s code was implemented, arguing that by the mid-1930s the effect of the Code was being felt and had tremendous impact on film content, particularly in the depiction of strong-minded women in favour of the home-loving, passive female.

Ian Macdonald’s chapter ‘Screenwriting in Britain 1895–1929’ looks at the development of the screenplay in the UK before sound, dividing this into three periods, the early 1900s to 1910, in which the screenplay was beginning to emerge as a form; 1911 to 1924, when the screenwriter as professional had emerged, although trusted scenario writers were still scarce; and 1924 to the coming of sound in 1929, which saw a significant rise in the number of new screenwriters. The chapter points out that screenwriting developed as a form by appropriating many of the terms and concepts used in theatre and that film had changed from being a writer-led to director-led medium by the arrival of sound in 1929.

Development, craft and process in the screenplay

This section analyses the process of screenplay writing and its peculiar relationship to film production, being separate from, yet part of this process. The screenplay commences with the development of an idea, progressing step by step to the shooting-script stage, a process which may take many years. The screenwriter will often complete many rewrites, working with both the director and producer, in what is very much a collaborative process. A screenplay may be developed and then for various reasons not go into production, even after many attempts, as was the case in Andrew Spicer’s chapter ‘An Impossible Task? Scripting The Chilian Club’. The chapter discusses how the screenplaywent through many years of development, from a first draft in 1972 and then being rewritten by a number of writers including director Mike Hodges. The producer, Michael Klinger, made one last attempt to resurrect the project by submitting it to Handmade Films where it was rejected and finally laid to rest in 1985. Paul Wells’s chapter ‘Boards, Beats, Binaries and Bricolage’ explains the process of developing an animation film, a process which is very different to writing for conventional film where, he argues, it is not helpful to think of animation in terms of the screenplay but one in which visualization is central to development of an animation film and the storyboard is a vital part of this process.

Ken Dancyger’s chapter ‘The Flexibility of Genre: The Action-Adventure film in 1939’, argues that all films make use of genre, pointing out not only how flexible genre can be but what a useful tool it is for the screenwriter. Referring to four examples of action-adventure films filmed in 1939, one of the greatest years in Hollywood production, the chapter examines their content suggesting they have much commonality in terms of genre but also each film, in very different ways, pushes the boundaries of the genre to create a unique and powerful story.

Alternatives to the mainstream screenplay

The third section challenges the assumption that the screenplay is internationally standardized in form and suggests there are many ways of outlining a film story, questioning the concept that certain stories or styles are universal, exploring writing in independent cinema and film outside Western notions of narrative. Adam Ganz, in Chapter 8, suggests how interaction design can be usefully applied to building the film story and how the concept of the ‘self-teaching system’ may help in developing a film. Kathryn Millard pushes this point further in ‘The Screenplay as Prototype’, arguing the screenplay may be unnecessary or even a hindrance to the film development process and suggests alternative ways of creating a template for a film, in which a screenplay could usefully be conceived as a design prototype, rather than a literary document. Millard suggests that the screenplay is limiting and inflexible, and that excluding image and sound from the traditional screenplay is an impediment to creativity. J. J. Murphy’s discussion of the collaboration between writer Jon Raymond and director Kelly Reichardt is a fascinating case study of their working relationship in American independent film, a style of film which is usually auteur-based and director-controlled. Murphy explains how the writer and director have developed a unique way of working together and are a highly successful and intuitive partnership, in which Raymond brings an internal vision while reichardt focuses on the visuals.

Sue Clayton’s chapter ‘On Screenwriting Outside the West’, points out how little has been written about screenwriting in world cinema and discusses the work of writers and directors from four very different countries; Iranian filmmaker Mohsen Makhmalbaf, Brazilian Braulio Montavani who wrote the screenplay for City of God and The Elite Squad, vietnamese filmmaker Tran Anh Hong and finally Khyentse Norbu, the writer/director from Bhutan where Clayton was invited to work on a collaborative film project and teach screenwriting.

Theoretical and critical approaches

The fourth section of the anthology proposes possible critical approaches to analysing the screenplay in which the chapters offer a very different range of methodologies. Steven price’s chapter ‘Character in the Screenplay Text’ explores the notion of character in the screenplay, discussing how characters in the novel can be expressed through their inner world while the screenplay, out of necessity, must take a very different approach. The chapter, by close analysis, compares the depiction of character in two very different screenplays, David Mamet’s House of Cards and Graham greene’s The Third Man. My own chapter ‘Realism and Screenplay dialogue’ offers an analysis of the function of dialogue as a means of increasing the realism of the film world, arguing that the use of what appears to be realistic dialogue is actually a contrivance which draws the audience more deeply into the film. Mark O’Thomas’s chapter provides a comparative approach between the play and the screenplay form, using The Talented Mr Ripley as a case study, while Barry Langford examines the tension between screenwriting practice and film theory and suggests methodologies which could be applied to the screenplay such as those of Frederic Jameson. The chapter then, by means of a case study, looks at how two different screenplays engage with narration and trauma with regard to the Holocaust.

References

Cook, J. and Spicer, A. (2008) ‘Introduction’, Journal of British Cinema and Television, 5(2): 213.

Maras, S. (2009) Screenwriting: History, Theory and Practice, London: Wallflower.

Price, S. (2010) The Screenplay: Authorship, Theory and Criticism, London: Palgrave.

Truffaut, F. (1986) Hitchcock, New York: Simon and Schuster.

Part 1
History of the form

Chapter 2
Entertaining the public option

The popular film writing movement and the emergence of writing for the American silent cinema

Torey Liepa

… every man imagines himself a heart-breaker, horse-trainer and an ad writer. It would be wholly true to add that every other man and many women believe they could write photoplays, – if somebody would only tell them how!

(Bagg 1913: 8)

American film production was torn between conflicting tendencies in the 1910s, and writing was the troublesome cause. Fortune and fame in the booming industry seemed within grasp of the amateur writer simply by putting ideas to paper, leading to the submission of hundreds of thousands of story ideas, synopses, scenarios and scripts to film companies. Encouraged through promotion in the trade press, screenwriting manuals, and elsewhere, writing for film was initially advertised as a task for which the industry not only desired, but needed creative input from the public. By the end of the decade, however, film writing had become a largely regulated and institutionalized function within the industry’s own production apparatus. As the industry took shape throughout the decade, consolidating into several dominant studios and streamlining and rationalizing production, writing was increasingly assigned to an ascendant class of professionals. By 1917 prospects were bleak for the amateur as the distinction between novice and professional gained definition; the trade journal Motography asserted, ‘There are only two classes of motion picture scenario writers – a few whose work is in real demand, who collaborate with the producers and get good prices; and a great many whose work is of little or no value and most of whom never will succeed’ (Motography 1917: 651–2). The diminishing prospects of success for amateur writers reflects the manner in which the newly consolidated American culture industry quickly defined and regulated its boundaries and its interests.

By 1917 script and intertitle writing had become thoroughly institutionalized elements of film production, situating writing at (or at least near) the centre of the creative process. That same year, Moving Picture World columnist Epes Winthrop Sargent reflected on the past decade of film writing pointing out that, in the decade from 1907 to 1917, American filmmaking had changed dramatically. The result of that decade of development, Sargent argued, was that film writing had come full circle. ‘Ten years ago,’ Sargent wrote, ‘we stood just where we stand today in the writing of photoplays’ (1917: 1491–2). What Sargent described, however, was not the relative role of writing in film production, which had unquestionably changed, but rather the way writing had mediated the relationship between the public and the industry. For in some ways, 1917 resembled 1907, when the film industry had been a closed shop, in which filmmakers either wrote their own material or, perhaps more often, did not bother with writing at all. In 1917, though writing had become an important aspect of film production and film form, film production was again largely closed to the general public and the amateur writer i...

Table of contents

• Contents
• Figures
• Contributors
• Acknowledgements
• Chapter 1 Introduction
• Part 1 History of the form
• Part II Development, craft and process
• Part III Alternatives to the conventional screenplay form
• Part IV Theoretical and critical approaches
• Index