The screen writer (June 1947-Mar 1948)

CAN SCREEN WRITERS BECOME FILM AUTHORS? words — "newer writers." What is meant by "newer writers"? Does it mean those who have just begun to work at the business of writing, the beginner fiction writer, the hopeful dramatist? Or does it mean writers new to Hollywood? Before I'm ac:used of quibbling, I hasten to say the fundamentals of screen writing — in my opinion — are the same as in any other media. A story-teller is as good is his story. Consequently, one must assume the newer writer, i.e., the writer new to Hollywood, has learned the art of story telling, regardless of medium. If he hasn't then it will mean nothing for him to learn the facts of screen story telling. The next phrase is — "learn their trade." By definition, we are assuming the newer writer has learned the fundamentals of good story telling and is now deliberately and of his own free will determined to use them as a basis for screen story telling. We are promptly faced with a diversity of opinions as vast and often as confusing as an MGM budget, not counting retakes. I can only offer mine for what it's worth. There is no mystery to the mechanics of movie-making. There is a camera, there is a sound track, there is a cutting room, a dubbing room, a thing called special effects, all kinds of exciting mechanical activities, all plainly marked by small signs on buildings tucked away between stages. I've never yet met one of the gentlemen or ladies involved in these wonderful processes who wasn't definitely delighted at the opportunity of explaining how his or her particular job really made the movies. Then there are the already produced motion pictures, great ones, even bad ones, sometimes crowded with imaginative achievements, sometimes offering only a single moment that can be recognized as the humble offering of true artistic inspiration. These are the newer writer's text books, available in direct ratio to his own curiosity, his desire to study what has been done, his will to learn to understand, through review and study, this potentially greatest of all artistic media. And I say if the newer screen writer, assuming he has already learned the fundamentals of good writing, has done all this — and is still dissat isfied with his knowledge of screen writing as such, he needs to examine his own curiosity and re-evaluate the creativeness of his own imagination. So we come to the last and third phrase — "under present conditions." I will — for a moment — seemingly refute something I wrote in the previous paragraph. I have never ceased to marvel at the stupidity of producers who expect fine screen plays from untrained writers or from successful dramatists and novelists who have too often turned up their noses at anything Hollywood other than its money. Does this same producer think his particular brand of Scotch is blended by a beginner who has not been given a decent chance to learn his trade? Doesn't this same producer often tell you at great length how he started as a cutter or an office boy or even a waiter? And in some instance when reason finally fails, doesn't he refer to his "long experience" as if it were a weapon capable of destroying logic? I do not blame producers entirely for writer ineptitude, but I do believe they are at least partially responsible by not urging the newer writer to spend more time on stages. I will go even further; I will say that newer writers should be expected to spend at least one month on a stage before being asked to write a screen play. And then, after he has written his first screen play, he should be encouraged to follow it through every phase of production. I, of course, realize that is only possible for contract writers. For the newer free lance writer, something should be worked out with the studios whereby a writer certified by the Screen Writers' Guild will be given the opportunity to watch production for at least one month. Not only the writer but the studio would profit from some such arrangement. Producer attitude toward writers is — to put it mildly — short-sighted. Much of it however, is the fault of the writer himself. Writing, in any medium, is not easy; it takes hard labor, constant discouragement and continuous self-education to achieve the high standards inherent in fine writing. It takes the severest kind of self-criticism to beget the humility that eventuates in great creative accomplishment. I know how difficult the writer's task is in this motion picture indus try; I have lived through most of its hazards ; I am still far from overcoming many of its obstacles. And I know how quickly the truly creative mind is discouraged and sometimes destroyed by stupid and even intellectually dishonest restraints ranging from inept producers to infantile censorship. But I also know the history of both the drama and literature is crowded with similar seemingly tragic restraints. Yet each survived and produced greatness on greatness. And always it was the writer who fought and suffered to produce this greatness. The motion picture is — in my opinion — the greatest medium of expression yet devised. Also the youngest of the art forms. Even now, it is still going through a period of transition in which it is trying to learn the proper use of sound in what was conceived as a silent medium. There are hundreds of other problems, problems having to do with the eternal intangibles of truly creative progress. I believe many of these are essentially the writer's problems ... as they have always been the writer's problems. There must come a day when producers will recognize them as such and accept the writer's solutions. But the writer must also be capable of finding the solutions. Therefore, the wise producer will help the writer learn the complex mechanics of movie making. The rest is up to the writer. To his knowledge of story telling he will need to add the integrity and the courage to fight against the destruction of the results of that knowledge. There is no easy road to learning any kind of writing. There never has been. It's a miserable profession under almost any conditions ... if 3'ou really work at it. ALLEN RIVKIN: T MUST agree with everything that -* Benoit-Levy and Mankiewicz wrote in the May Screen Writer as I must agree that cancer must be conquered. I'm afraid, however, that Jean and Joe don't go far enough with their argument. A "film author" can learn his craft as solidly as a surgeon allegedly learns his, but when a surgeon 35