ABSTRACT
This chapter describes how screenplays present specific cinematic characteristics that set them apart from plays and novels. A screenplay should not simply recount a story, rather, it should foreshadow the future film. One of the characteristics that distinguishes a “weaker” scenario from a “good” scenario is often related, despite the initial strength of an idea, to what I call the principle of performativity of words – their ability to become audio-visual matter on-screen in all their forms: place, space, time, light, atmosphere, emotion, action, landscape, drama, moving image, action, gesture, character, word, etc. In other words, the more the words and sentences of the screenplay are achievable with cinematic means or those of the chosen technology, the more the scenario is a clear guide of the film to come.
This chapter addresses the many different functions a script has to assume while standing out as a unique film proposition. In this regard the chapter stresses the importance of detail in the process of distinguishing a screenplay’s uniqueness.
