Detail: Screenplays as Literature

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  • Detail: Screenplays as Literature

    First, don't yell at me. A screenplay isn't literature, I get that. Literature is meant to be read as an end in itself. A screenplay is an intermediary medium (heh). But still, you can't watch a script. It's meant to be read and, like a good short story or novel, it evokes images, it paints characters, it tells a story. I had thought to post some excerpts from a few scripts by people who ostensibly are supposed to know what the hell they're doing, like William Goldman, for example. But we've all read them, I'm sure. They read like literature or, at least, like entertainment and the experience of reading them is completely different from watching the film that's based on it. And the way they entertain is by employing detail in action lines that goes beyond, probably, what's necessary. Yes, every word used as detail is a word closer to a script that's "too long.- But what's given up in terms of economy of expression is a lost opportunity to immerse the reader in the vision of the writer. Who cares about the vision of the writer? Good point. In the big picture of a production, not very many people. EXCEPT the reader of the script, whoever that may be (producer, director, actor, etc.) as they read it, as they experience it, as their mind's eye "watches- the script's story.



    What am I getting at? No idea, except I'm curious how others feel about it. I love detail when I write, so I know it's a weakness that needs to be resisted. I guess it goes hand in hand with the need by some writers to direct or, perhaps, try to influence how the film will be directed by planting detail. But every single word, even in scripts that are Spartan and laconic compared to others, is still a "suggestion,- a planted possibility in the mind of the reader.



    Huzzah for detail!

  • #2
    Re: Detail: Screenplays as Literature

    You have to balance it, IMHO. I think you do need to entertain. I think you need enough detail so the characters pop, the world pops, the screenplay is clear and easy to instantly visualize, but not so much detail that the story stops while you're describing the smell of the flowers in the garden. Save the detailed description for things that really matter to the understanding of the story. It's more important to keep the story moving and compelling than to stop to describe every detail. Some things can be painted in quick, broad strokes -- the right word instead of many words -- because you only have so much room, and most of it is needed to keep the story humming.

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