TED TALK SCREENWRITING
What is the profession of screenwriting in the film and
TV industry and is it important?
The profession of screenwriting has been around for decades
even since the 1900s and if you want to count screenplays too such as
Shakespeare then it has been around way before films were invented. However,
I'm going to be focusing on the filming aspect of screenwriting and how it’s been
used in Media from the start of films to the present day and if screenwriting
is as important as people may believe it to be.
The role of screenwriting itself is silent and now a days
most people don't actually notice as they're more captived by the CGI affects
and the performance of the actors etc. A quote that I think portrays this
perfectly “Screenwriting is the most prized of all the cinematic arts.
actually, it isn’t, but it should be.” by Hugh Laurie. This is because most Films
and TV shows wouldn't be possible without the screenwriter, you may wonder why
this is, well it’s because the job of a screenwriter has various elements to it
the first one is to write a draft script either adapted from a book or play or
a story made by themselves and present it to a producer which will then decide
if they want to proceed to take it into production, If this happens then the
next part is to work closely with the director, assistant directors and
producers to change the different elements to the story or script and they do
this throughout the process giving their team the idea they have and the
director will then take that idea and turn it into a vision which he will the
use for directing actors. This was when films started to grow but the job role
has expanded since with the growth of things such as video games and animation
as well as dubbing.
A trip to the moon a movie by George Melies in 1902 is said
to be the first ever film that used screenwriting despite films starting during
the 1800s. The way screenwriting was utilised in this movie was through stage
directions instead of dialogue due to the movie being silent, now even though
you may think this sounds more like a stage play, the script itself is more
resemblement to a modern-day script with descriptions of each scene. This
itself already answers the question of is Screenwriting an important role in
the industry however there are a lot more examples which I go into later.
Here is a link to the movie so that you can see for yourself
just how important screenwriting was in this movie:
https://youtu.be/zCMl11KAP40
As you may notice in the script the actors all know what
their roles are and where to stand on set why? Exactly because of a script and
a script is only possible with a screenwriter furthering the importance of the
role. It’s almost as if the screenwriter makes the blueprint for the entire
Film or Television series.
However, as the years progressed Screenwriting started to be
used more and more as films started to become bigger and popular. So, Hollywood
started to need screenwriters to keep up with the demand for films but this
wasn't only in America countries in Europe too such as France their film
industries started to grow so the need of screenwriter in the years between
1900 to 1920 became a much-needed role for industries across the globe you even
could say it was the golden age of screenwriting.
When sound started being used in films at the start if 1927 Scripts started to include dialogue which of course meant that a screenwriter’s job became a lot more complex as films needed a good story to keep their audience entertained. This is when screenwriters started to get noticed for their efforts in films with people such as Ben Hecht and Neil Simons becoming famous as people started to notice the role for what it was.
Now as the years progressed after the 1920s films where
staring to grow and with the second world approaching governments started to
use propaganda films but to make a propaganda movie powerful and noticeable
using the military was only half the of the job the other half was getting q
cinematographer to film it and getting a screenwriter to script it in a way
that would captivate the audience as well as world leaders, This meant
government where in need of film industry and all the people in it especially
screenwriters. However, it doesn't stop at world war too as the cold War
happened and propaganda was still being used the need for screenwriters kept
growing. In the 1950s films started to have a worldwide audience and this is
when films really started to grow big and you can't make a film without a
screenwriter or screenwriters, as you can probably tell there has always been a
high demand for screenwriters for their talents and profession.
During the 1970s films started to be influenced by other
genres such as Sc-fi and horror which meaning films started to become different
and more imaginative meaning the industry needed more people to come up and
write stories for them. One of the most famous screenwriters of the 1970s was
Francis Ford Coppola the reason for this is not only because he was the
screenwriter or all three Godfather films in fact it’s because of his screenwriting
the audience is captivated in every film he makes and even though all the
movies he has worked on are adapted from famous books or stories such as
Dracula and The Godfather none of them would be near as amazing as they are if
they didn’t have him as a screenwriter. I find this quote he made very
inspirational “When I was sixteen or seventeen, I wanted to be a writer. I
wanted to be a playwright. But everything I wrote, I thought was weak. And I
can remember falling asleep in tears because I had no talent the way I wanted
to have." The reason for this is despite his struggles to become a
screenwriter he persisted and became one of the greatest screenwriters of the
century.
In every discussion about a topic there’s always a for and
against, There are many for screenwriting being important because it is the
foundation of any film or series but some people may argue that its not
important and that the cinematography for example because without good
cinematography the movie wouldn’t look as good or they might say that directing
is the most important role because without the director the actors wouldn’t
have anyone to guide or tell them what to do. I disagree with any of these
arguments because as my argument for without a screenwriter none of the roles
in the production would know what they are doing. From my experience screenwriting can be fun and interesting if you enjoy it and i think that is what might people off the idea of doing it as a job because you have to enjoy writing to continue you it in a job.
In my opinion
screenwriting is a form of art it’s what makes a film or show amazing because
with terrible writing that would ruin the whole film or show. I think it's a
very specialised role in the film industry and not everyone can do it
professionally because by no stretch is screenwriting an easy job a quote that
back this is by the famous screen writer William Goldman he said “The easiest
thing to do on earth is not to write.”, this just shows the amount of time and effort
that goes in to screenwriting.
Bibliography
Coppola, F., 2022. 15
Wise Screenwriting Quotes from Francis Ford Coppola - ScreenCraft. [online]
ScreenCraft. Available at:
<https://screencraft.org/blog/15-wise-screenwriting-quotes-from-francis-ford-coppola/#:~:text=%22When%20I%20was%20sixteen%20or,way%20I%20wanted%20to%20have.%22>
[Accessed 11 May 2022].
Laurie, H., 2022. 21 great quotes about screenwriting.
[online] gasoline sky. Available at: <https://joegievano.wordpress.com/2013/11/26/21-great-quotes-about-screenwriting/>
[Accessed 11 May 2022].
