Cameras Don’t Roll Without a Script

Re “Creative Tensions: The WGA-DGA Divide,” Opinion, July 22: Michael Cieply’s declaration that “one group deals in images, the other in words” reveals ignorance with regard to both the mind and job of the screenwriter. A writer who does not think in images and write in such a way as to bring those images to life in the mind of a director is not a film writer. Certainly, once a director connects with a script, the addition of his or her creative vision is expected, but without a strong, visual starting point, most directors are nothing more than unemployed potential artisans waiting for their agents to find them a story to tell.

Even the best books require interpretation and adaptation for the screen so the director can “see” the movie. Unlike dialogue-dependent television, or imagination-reliant bestsellers, film stories are told primarily through the juxtaposition of images, not words, and anyone who believes the director comes up with these images all by himself is deluded.

Frank Allen

Los Angeles