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178 A PRACTICAL MANUAL OF SCREEN PLAYWRITING
when completed, should provide the basis for learning the fundamentals of the art of screen-play writing.
In the beginning was . . .?
Where to begin? How to begin? These questions have plagued all writers. But the screen-play writer has problems which other writers never encounter and which put the answers to the plaguy questions in an entirely different category.
Because a motion picture flashes by continuously, without stopas contrasted to the printed story, which can be reread for clarification of missed or misinterpreted points— the order in which its varied elements are shown is highly important.
What should be shown first, for example? Should it be an atmospheric scene designed to set the mood of the picture? Or should it be an action scene revealing character? Should these introductory scenes be of a merely expository nature, a sort of static introduction, as it were, to the action to follow, or should they be those in which the audience is thrown into the story, without preliminary preparations?
Actually, there is no set rule to govern the choice of a film's opening. Each picture calls for individual treatment. Certain stories may lend themselves only to certain types of opening, while others would be best handled with completely contrasting types.
Open with a bang? Generally speaking, though, it is standard Hollywood practice to leap into the story feet-first, without expository preliminaries. This sets the pace for the picture, which must then move along quickly. "Open with a bang!" in other words, is the oft-spoken injunction of Hollywood producers.
Wyler's The Letter really opens with a bang when, after establishing the locale— a plantation in Asia— with a long-running pan shot, a pistol shot suddenly punctuates the scene and a man is seen running down some bungalow stairs followed by Bette Davis, who continues to pump bullets into her lover's body.
Opening with a bang— either aurally or visually— is definitely