ABSTRACT
The philosophical investigation of artifacts is among the most lively areas of 21st-century philosophy. The screenplay is an especially interesting object since its ontological location seems to lie somewhere at the boundary between the work of art and the technical artifact. This chapter focuses on the relationship between the notion of screenplay and that of narrative, conceiving the screenplay as the artifact that is meant to turn a narrative into a film. It offers a narrative-oriented alternative to Nannicelli's proposal. The chapter analyzes the notion on narrative on which the account of the screenplay will be based. It presents Nannicelli's account, and relys on recent developments in the philosophy of artifacts to challenge that narrative-independent account. Nannicelli points out that standard screenplays in the Thirties and the Forties were “continuity scripts” involving a description of each shot whereas standard screenplays nowadays just involve indications about scenes and dialogues.
