Script Analysis Essay Examples

The contemporary society relies so much on literary works such as comedies and fictions which range from plays, poems and drama. One of the most prevalent misapprehensions in the arts and entertainment arena is that playwright and screenwriting are almost tantamount in function if not substitutable. These literary works have some distinctive unique features that the writers try to incorporate while writing the scripts so as to differentiate the various categories. The media chosen to be used as a channel of conveying the message also has an inordinate upshot on any one exacting script. The screenplay “Ray’s Male Heterosexual Dance Hall” and the stage play “Touchstone USA”are two scripts that though similar have some unique features and contents that differentiate the two. There is so much distinction to be learnt from the two.
The media being used also brings about some differences in the two plays. The screen play is for videos or television whereas the stage play is meant to be performed in a theatre. The stage play is more dialogue heavy because that is what the audience in the seats requires in order to make sense out of the scenes. On the other hand, the screen play acknowledges the contribution of the camera and other affiliates of the crew. The screen play only describes what will be seen or heard. This makes it a good screen play that can comprehensively deliver the message to the audiences wherever they are. Since cameras are a major device used in screen plays, it is common for the screen writer to direct the actors on how to read a certain line or even goes ahead and tells the director where to place the camera and the angle at which the camera should be placed. Is this really essential after all? The actor’s internal motivation should have a place in the screen play and not merely working under somebody’s instructions.
The writing format of the screen play scripts and that of stage play scripts also reveal some differences. The play write format is more of a narration while the screen write appears to be a little bit technical. For the stage paly, sounds, language and heavy descriptions are principal whereas if one watched the screen play, it will be easy to realize that it is dominated by images rather than sounds and languages. Moreover, Ray’s Male Heterosexual Dance Hall screen play is divided into scenes. Contrary, Touchstone USA is broken into various acts that the audience needs to relate or connect.
“Touchstone USA” could not be a screen play. Similarly, Ray’s could not be a good stage play. Indeed, stage plays make bad screen plays. This is basically due to the fact that stage plays cannot take advantage of the locations that can be used on the screen. The stage play tend to be cramped into a few locations the reason behind it being to reduce scene changes. This is fine and sounds clever as far as stage play is concerned. However, if Ray’s was made a screen play the audience would have gotten really bored looking at the same room for the entire play time. It is true that screenplays can come from supplementary literary creative works but it’s hard to translate a screenplay into a stage play. Additionally, in Ray’s play some actors walk in, say one or two lines and then vanish. This is essential to break the tedium of watching the very same people for a long time as it normally happens in stage plays where the set of actors is predominantly limited. However, the sad truth is that the visual media is well known for neglecting the vital aspects that lie at the bottom of each of their creations. Therefore, converting the screen play to a stage play or the stage play to a screen play might lead to loss originality of the literary works and the message might not be delivered as previously intended by the original writers of the scripts.
In Ray’s screen play, the characters often speak in monologue for minutes to express their inner feelings and lives and these are often the high points of the play. Their past experiences are brought to the attention of the audience and this helps the audience to link various scenes and past memories. “excited”, “Depressed into phone”. There are occasions where the characters take time to inaudibly recall particular episodes that they once went through. In Touchstone, the actors do not engage in any form of monologue. Any form of flashback is either expressed by the characters themselves or by change of lights. Additionally, the characters use dialogue to conceal some facts.
Apparently, in the play script it appears very easy and possible for the actors to interact with the audience as compared to the screen play where actors-audience interaction is particularly not possible since they are on different platforms.
In conclusion, the screen play “Ray’s Male Heterosexual Dance Hall” and the stage play “Touchstone USA” have many similarities and if not keen, one might find it rather challenging to differentiate the two. Nevertheless, the differences override the similarities thus making it a great misconception for anyone to claim that the two are interchangeable or similar. It is easy to isolate one from another. The unique choice of the media abetted the writers of the two works to successfully accomplish their envisioned goals and objectives.