ABSTRACT
We have seen the way screenplays hold the promise – or not – of a future film, and the manner in which they create, detail, foresee, anticipate the movie, is what has interested us here.
We put forth a predominantly narrative approach to screenwriting and to reading. This book has examined the connections between scriptwriting and film editing, possible narrative structures and the implicit presence of visual and auditory elements in the text. Attention has been given to the internal architecture of the scene through its scene directions. We have also examined numerous point-of-view configurations and how to read and comment on a screenplay to help its author with the rewrites.
Reading and Writing a Screenplay investigates the relation between images and sounds, between what is said and what is shown. For it is in the balance between what will be seen while remaining unsaid, between what is hidden and known, perceived and understood, heard and felt, that the future film can unfold within the screenplay and be a real promise of a cinematic world to come.
