a film begins with a screenplay, a coherent document containing a beginning, middle and end that all relate to one another in some way.

Orson Welles once observed that the difference between filmmakers and all other artists is that filmmakers usually do not own or have access to everything that they need to make a film , that they are dependent on the people who the equipment, financing, distribution and so on.  Nearly fifty years later, as the digital age was dawning, Francis Ford Coppola stated that, with filmmaking technology now relatively within reach to almost anyone, the form had, at last,  become democratic.

So, it is true, now filmmaking is an art form that can be pursued by the masses. “Anyone can do it” but, I ask, how many know how to do it well?

Today, more than ever,  filmmakers have a wealth of technology available to them but all of the software, hardware and special effects in the world cannot make up for a faulty foundation, a lack of content, a story that is simply not “there.”

A screenplay is an instruction manual for a film.  Actors deliver the lines and express the story. Directors conduct the action, set the mood, atmosphere and pace. Cinematographers create the images that pull us into the world of the characters.  Producers tell everyone what to do. All of these elements come from the screenplay; without it, there is no film.

With so many new venues and outlets for film, it is no longer enough to make a film that is merely good and hope that it will find an audience.  Screenwriters need to know not only how to write but what to write.

Film is a public art, it succeeds when people see it. In order to make successful films, we need to make films that people will want to see, films that will do more than merely amuse and divert, films that will provoke, inspire, educate and move people.

                                                                                                           david j. greenberg