Screenwriting 101: Mark D. Rosenthal
“The word screenwriting is a kenning, which means it’s a composite of two nouns. This is my literary background. Everybody stays focused on the screen part, because it’s Hollywood and it’s fun and it’s money and it’s fame. The writing part, no one talks about.
The most difficult thing a screenwriter does, which is the most difficult thing in moviemaking, is to make a precise, detailed decision. It’s easy to say, ‘Let’s have an exciting chase along the beach here, where he finds out that his partner is gonna betray him.’ The person who says that thinks, ‘Oh, I’m a genius. I just came up with a scene.’ That’s not hard. Anybody can do that after a while of watching movies.
The precise second-to-second detail of that scene — what each character is doing, feeling, and saying — is really hard, because it forces the mind to get as particular as mathematics. It’s the only reason moviemakers use screenwriters. Otherwise, why pay us this money? It’s too hard to try to come up with all those details while you’re making the movie. You have to have them laid out first.”
— Mark D. Rosenthal (The Jewel of the Nile, Mighty Joe Young, Planet of the Apes), excerpted from “Tales from the Script”