From the screenplays I've flipped through at the bookstores, I got the gist that screenplay gives the director a bible to shoot the film with. It describes the point of view shot and the dialog. Is this the stuff we are talking about when talking about screenplays?

What makes a screenplay good? Is it how it describe how each scene is cut together in the film to make a cohesive whole? Is it the way it describes each scene from scene to scene (this is different from plot, which almost aways involved going from point A to point B to point ... to find clues or whatnot to achieve a goal). Does it flesh out the look of the film and the characters?

When someone says Saving Private Ryan has almost a non-existent screenplay while Leaving Las Vegas has an excellent screenplay, what does it mean? Is it the characterizations that are included in the screenplay which gives us the nuances of the characters so we feel some sort of empathy for the protagonists and care about the fate of the lead characters by the end of the film? Just curious.

Yeah, good question. I would like to know this too.

Indian Runner was a great script (to me) but no-one went to go see it. Why?

Moving to Talk.

--Heather