Vale's Technique of Screen and Television Writing

Introduction

The Exciting New Media

In the twentieth century a new form of storytelling was invented. Through an ingenious combination of small metal pieces, strips of celluloid, glass in the shape of lenses, electric wiring, a technological breakthrough was achieved that was destined to have tremendous effect upon the minds of millions of people.

In comparison with other forms of art, the origin of the motion picture is peculiar. Unlike the medieval pageants performed on the cathedral steps or the Molière comedies played in the royal palace, “the flicks” came from the primitive hallways of entertainment. The movie was born next to a shooting gallery and raised in the vicinity of a beer hall. Acrobats and peddlers of sexual postcards, sorcerers ...