Wednesday, September 16, 2009

Clarity - Screenwriting 2 - Obligatory Cave Origins



Just about every book on popular arts feels the need to justify itself by tracing its roots back to the Lascaux caves.
Thankfully this book keeps the section short and actually makes a good point: that communication is more naturally a visual art, and that written communication is artificial, using arbitrary symbols to represent images and actions.

Film, and cartoons even more so can and should use the much more natural visual form of getting their ideas across. Words - or writing is just a supplemental tool (one of many) to aid the visual process. Pictures are first - and those who can make pictures directly are the masters of the medium - not those who can describe pictures third hand through clumsy symbols called words.