The screen writer (June 1947-Mar 1948)

The Screen Writer's Medium SHERIDAN GIBNEY SWG member SHERIDAN GIBNEY, whose article, What Is Screenwriting? was published in the May issue of THE SCREEN WRITER, this month discusses the medium in which screen •writers work. Mr. Gibney is a writerproducer and chairman of the SWG Political Advisory Committee. IN A PREVIOUS article I attempted to define screen writing, and by a process of elimination, came to the enormous conclusion that what a screen writer does is to write a motion picture — in much the same fashion as a playwright writes a play, or a composer writes an opera. In all three cases, whether or not his works are produced, succeed, or fail, the writer is the essential creator, for without his manuscript there can be no production. But there the similarity ceases. The screen writer, employing quite different devices to achieve his effects, can borrow only sparingly from the rules and techniques of the theatre ; and it is for this reason that I ventured the further opinion that writers for the screen are engaged in a new form of dramatic art. Historically, it is not uncommon for new art forms to come into being as a result of mechanical inventions. In music, for instance, the invention of the harpsichord in the fourteenth century, combining the keyboard of the pipe organ with the strings of the harp, made possible and inevitable the development of many new forms of musical composition. But the invention of the motion picture camera has had a far more revolutionary effect upon the art of the dramatist than the mere addition of a new instrument could possibly bring about. The origin of western drama is commonly attributed to a Greek named Thespis in the sixth century B. C, who conceived the idea of having an "actor" discourse with the leader of the chorus in the Dionysian festivals — a radical departure in religious ritual which enabled Greek tragedy to develop. Aeschylus added a second actor and Sophocles a third ; and from that day to this, a matter of twenty five hundred years, the medium for drama underwent no essential change so far as writers were concerned. Their task was set once and for all by the established convention of presenting a dramatic representation of life on a stage by means of actors and dialogue for the enjoyment or discomfort of an audience. The physical limitations of the stage itself were soon turned by the dramatist to his own advantage. The necessity for bringing characters logically and naturally to the scene of action; the three rules of classic unity which made a single setting possible ; the arbitrary convention of keeping physical violence off the stage (where it too often appears ridiculous or implausible) ; are conditions by means of which the playwright demonstrates his skill. The accepted limitations of any art form are always looked upon as a challenge; and the artist, like the magician, is judged in part by his ability to conceal the methods by which he overcomes them. The technical triumph of Ibsen, for example, in devoting a large part of his dialogue to pure exposition, while appearing not to, is a case in point ; and a present day playwright like Elmer Rice is able in Street Scene to convey an impression of reality by the use of a single set representing the windows of a tenement, a doorway, and one conveniently placed ash can. To this arbitrary place of action all the characters must logically and naturally be brought in order that the audience may view them. The success with which this feat is accomplished contributes, in large measure, to the enjoyment and interest of the spectator. The revolutionary aspect of motion pictures, from a craft point of view, is simply that it reverses this process. By freeing the audience and putting it on a magic carpet, so to speak, the skills and techniques of construction, which playwrights have sweated over these many centuries, suddenly become useless. The writer can no longer rely upon an audience's imagination to fill in the picture for him. On the contrary, he must take his audience with him, for there is now no legitimate reason not to. The audience can ride on a carousel side 23