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FILM
AUTHOR !
FILM
AUTHOR !
. . . to fill the biggest parts as well as the smallest, film authors have only to take their pick of the dazzling array of talent lying before them.”
It would require another book, rather than a brief commentary such as this, to examine M. Benoit-Levy’s work in detail, to refute or support his various theories of film making. However there does remain one point, and to my mind the most important of all, which 1 have saved for last — along with too little space in which to discuss it properly, in the light of its pertinence to the American screen writer and his craft.
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It will be noted that in the quotation above, M. Benoit-Levy refers to the “film author.” He uses the phrase frequently throughout his book, and he makes its meaning most clear. He describes the function of the “film author” in great detail; further, he goes to the length of supplying an ingenious chart which establishes the relation of the “film author” to the other components of the film-making organization. And let it be understood right now that by “film author,” M. Benoit-Levy does not mean the writer of the screen play.
An examination of the aforementioned chart would indicate that an approximate Hollywood equivalent of the “film author” would be our writer-director. That is, the “film author” works in immediate con¬ tact with a producer and his business organization; the original work from which he develops his script; his creative and technical associates such as composer, cameraman, cutter, assistant director, et al. However
— and here is the very essence of the creator’s role in film making — the contribution of the “film author” is an uninterrupted process which begins with the development of the screen play, and ends with the final cutting of the film.
Writing and directing moving pictures, then, are — and should be
— the two components of an hyphenated entity. Put it as you will — that the direction of a screen play is the second half of the writer’s work, or that the writing of a screen play is the first half of the director’s work. The fact remains that a properly written screen play has already been directed — in his script, by the trained screen writer who has conceived
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