Assignment 6: Witness

The language used in the Witness screenplay is designed to quickly  create images in the readers mind by using mostly verbs and adjectives.  It was not written to read like like a novel. A novel needs to have a flowing narrative and strong prose. A novel must also adhere to the rules of writing more than a screenplay does.  A screenwriter is more concerned with using visual language to create an image rather than writing beautiful sentences. The action in the Witness screenplay is composed mostly of verbs and adjectives.  They tell the reader whats going on, and what it looks like.  The writers were not concerned about run on or fragmented sentences. In fact, the run on and fragments are a vital part of the visual language.   The action can be bogged down by a complete sentence. Visual language uses only the most important and descriptive words, without using any more than it has to. Likewise, if something requires extra description, it's okay to use run on sentences made up mostly of verbs and adjectives.  It's a simpler kind of writing, because it's about the image. The writers can't get be worried about proper sentences and reading flow. Witness is great writing that's just stripped down to the bare essentials; descriptive words and action verbs, so that the reader can instantly picture the movie without concentrating on a long, proper sentence.

1. What are the differences between Wallace and Kelley's writing style and Goldman's style?Whose visual language is more effective? 

2. What is it about collaborating on a creative project that seems to destroy more relationships than it creates. What other great collaborators have suffered the same fate as Wallace and Kelley?