For one thing, a screenplay is not a novel, and it's most cer-
tainly not a play. If you look at a novel and try to define its funda-
mental nature, you'll see that the dramatic action, the story line,
usually takes place inside the head of the main character. We see the
story line unfold through the eyes of the character, through his/her
point of view. We are privy to the character's thoughts, feelings,
emotions, words, actions, memories, dreams, hopes, ambitions,
opinions, and more. The character and reader go through the ac-
tion together, sharing in the drama and emotion of the story. We
know how they act, feel, react, and figure things out. If other charac-
ters appear and are brought into the narrative line of action, then
the story embraces their point of view, but the main thrust of the
story line always returns to the main character. The main character
is who the story is about. In a novel the action takes place inside the
character's head, within the mindscape of dramatic action.
A play is different. The action, or story line, occurs onstage, un-
der the proscenium arch, and the audience becomes the fourth wall,
eavesdropping on the lives of the characters, what they think and
feel and say. They talk about their hopes and dreams, past and fu-
ture plans, discuss their needs and desires, fears and conflicts. In this
case, the action of the play occurs within the language of dramatic
action; it is spoken in words that describe feelings, actions, and
emotions.
A screenplay is different. Movies are different. Film is a visual
medium that dramatizes a basic story line; it deals in pictures, im-
ages, bits and pieces of film: We see a clock ticking, a window open-
ing, a person in the distance leaning over a balcony, smoking; in the
background we hear a phone ringing, a baby crying, a dog barking
as we see two people laughing as their car pulls away from the curb.
"Just making pictures." The nature of the screenplay deals in pic-
tures, and if we wanted to define it, we could say that a screenplay is a story told with pictures, in dialogue and description, and placed
within the context of dramatic structure.
That is its essential nature, just like a rock is hard and water's
wet.
