Letters to the Editor
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re: Calliope, I disagree
The first misapprehension the average joe has about screenwriting is that it is synonymous with good dialouge. The primacy of film has not been disturbed by television, at least not on that account. Shows like the Sopranos, and West Wing are serials, the kind of thing movie houses were using to fill in the time before the feature film, back in the 1930's.
In the serial drama the writers ability to alter his character is severely restricted. Shows like South Park get around that by killing the same character every week in sort of mock defiance of the form. They killed Kenny!.
The screenwriter sets the stage, lays down a blueprint for the blocking, and if there are a few peripheral grunts and groans he might add those as well. The film, unlike the novel, is constrained by the limits of What Did He Say? Words pass quickly, and the audience is lucky to comprehend half the dialogue.
What may be worth a mention is the number of films about screen writers. Barton Fink, White Hunter, Black Heart, In A Lonely Place. Clearly the profession has some charms, even if they are misrepresented. The screenwriter should probably take the sort of direction actors often receive, don't act, behave.
To paraphrase Sam Fuller, "He lives his story." The writer has to be able to project.