Film technique and film acting : the cinema writings of V. I. Pudovkin (1954)

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12 PUDOVKIN that conditions every work of art. All further limitations influencing the choice of theme are connected with the action-treatment. As I have already said, the creative process never takes place in schematic sequence : thinking of the theme involves, nearly simultaneously, thinking of the action and its treatment. THE ACTION-TREATMENT OF THE THEME The scenarist, in the very first stages of his work, already possesses a given material later to be disposed in the framework of his future creation. This material is provided for him by knowledge, experience, and, finally, imagination. Having established the theme, as basic idea conditioning the selection of this material, the scenarist must begin its grouping. Here the persons of the action are introduced, their relations to one another established, their various significance in the development of the plot determined, and, finally, here are indicated, given proportions for the distribution of the entire material throughout the scenario. In entering the province of the action-treatment of the theme, the scenarist first comes into contact with the requirements of creative work. Just as the theme is, by definition, a supra-artistic element, so, contrastingly, the work on the action is conditioned by a whole series of requirements peculiar to the given art. Let us first approach the most general aspect — let us determine the character of the work on the action.