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WRITING THE SCREEN PLAY 175
at the hospital entrance and when we next pick her up, a quick dissolve from the close-up on the sign to, perhaps, a close-up on Jane's room number, is in order. However, if it were necessary to indicate a lapse of considerable time, we could tilt the camera down to the nurse's feet as she walks into the hospital, and then dissolve through to her feet walking into Jane's room.
When the above shooting-script scene is shot, the director will shoot the cab exterior from one camera setup, and the cab interior from another setup. The film editor will then intercut the exterior shots with the interior shot, as indicated in the script, unless he and the director have other plans. Then again, the director may decide to shoot a few close-ups of the baby in the nurse's arms, or of the anxious parents in the cab. If these are available to the film editor, he may decide to intercut some of the close-ups into the other shots. In this case, though, because the close-ups would not necessarily reveal details that are important enough to require spot-lighted revelation, it would be doubtful that the director would cover himself with extra close-ups. That is why they were not suggested in the shooting script.
The foregoing discussion should give further indication as to the qualifications necessary to the screen-play writer and his use of motion-picture techniques.
In the previous sections, we dealt largely with things literary and with things technical. The idea, the synopsis, the treatment, and even the master-scene screen play, were simply literary exercises that could well have been written by any competent writer with a specialized knowledge of dramatics— as it pertains to the motion picture— and with a flair for visualization in addition to verbalization.
But the writing of a shooting script calls into play a number of specialized skills— skills that often are not within the province of the ordinary writer.
Granted the screen writer should have the psychological insight to develop character; a sense of story so as to be able to involve his characters in and extricate them from various situations; the plot faculty to juggle these situations so that they tell a well-ordered story; the ability to dramatize these situations so that they can present impact; together with the various other literary aptitudes necessary to the equipment of the experienced writer.