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A practical manual of screen playwriting : for theater and television films (1952)

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WRITING THE SCREEN PLAY 173 who can create the appropriate visual symbols and then translate them into revelatory dialogue and action, who is cognizant of all the techniques of screen-play writing— the director can receive a shooting script, with camera directions, which he cannot help following. The shooting script At the same time, the knowing screen writer can write his camera directions, actions, and dialogue so that the director will be forced to shoot just what the screen writer has indicated in the way he has indicated it. In many respects, a professionally written screen play can be, to all intents and purposes, a predirected screen play. FADE IN EXT. ENTRANCE MERIWETHER HOSP.-DAY 1. MED. SHOT on a cab parked at the curb. A nurse is handing a bundled-up baby to its mother and father in the cab. NURSE There you are, Mrs. Meade. INT. CAB-DAY 2. MED. SHOT on nurse, standing outside cab, as she hands the baby to Mrs. Meade, shooting past MR. and MRS. MEADE, a typically American young married couple who are still somewhat dazed and fearful of their new parental status. MRS. MEADE (fearfully) Will the ride hurt him, nurse? NURSE (smiling) He'll live through it, I'm sure.