The screen writer (Apr-Oct 1948)

garding plot and character — namely, that detailed plot development was never of primary importance. Most vital was the disclosure of the inner experiences of the individual. That technique is still employed by the important novelists of today — Hemingway, Maugham, Steinbeck, etc. This process in the quality novel can best be described by saying that environment and outer forces are reflected primarily by revealing their effect on the inner workings of the individual. It is the individual's "inner plot" which serves as the spine for the novelist's disclosure of that character. The only obligation to environment is that on those infrequent occasions when it become dominant, it can be treated authentically and at the point at which it affects the individual whose story is told, it be incisive and vivid. Emphasis of the pulp writer, the cheap mystery story writer, the action story boys, in the field of novel writing. Take the play. From Euripides to Bernard Shaw, the physical limitations of the boards made on-stage plot action the least of the dramatic ingredients. The action happens offstage and we, the audience, share the emotional experience of the characters of the play which result from this off-stage action. We believe the off-stage action to the degree that the actors, director and playwright make their responses to it believable. TJ ETURNING to the novel for a ■^•^ moment — the words on paper mean nothing until they are transformed from the sybols of things to the things themselves in the mind and emotions of the reader. In the play, the off-stage action, while having more reality than symbols, nevertheless, does not become true reality until its effect upon the actors is believably communicated to us by them across the footlights. In a painting, or in a work of sculpture, action or motion is likewise implied, rather than real. "You almost see the volcano erupting. You almost hear the thunder of the guns." The same, with aesthetic variations, is true of still photography. In the case of music, the note symbols by which the composer communicates his emotional experiences, are not reality until they are re-converted from these symbols by the emotional frame of reference of the listener, rather than that of the composer or even the performing musicians. The film, in this respect, is unlike any other art form, though it uses all of them. It has no symbols. It communicates directly. The action is not a half-reality off-stage. It is complete reality on-stage and the audience is irritated when it is not. The motion is not implied. It is actual. Communication to our nervous system is not indirect, as in the case of music. It is most direct. It is not possible to arrive at a correct balance between plot and characterization without understanding the bearing that this difference in the motion picture art form has upon the balance. The simplest statement of it is that a medium as direct in its nature as film — as dependent on motion as film — as nourished by action as film — does its best job of disclosing character by doing so through deeds. This means that plot is the method by which the film medium achieves characterization. Spare me the argument of the so-called 'tough realists' who, at this point may say, "Hold on! Cut {Continued on Page 21) 3n mnwirtam DAVID HERTZ Executive Board 1946 1947 1939 1940 The Screen Writer, May, 19 + H 5