Movies are Just Plays with Cameras and an Editor.

So, I love being a sort-of theatre major. I meet wonderful people and take fun classes, like Script Analysis. Before I was aiming for a BIS, though, I was an English major which was a bit of a disaster on my part. Anyway, I got into a conversation with a Creative Writing major shortly after "Disney's Frozen" came out. Now, anyone who knows me knows that I have issues with the movie. I think that it is incomplete and silly, but it is fun to watch and has some fun characters and one-line quips.

We both agreed that there were some plot holes but then we got into an argument about other things. Then I mentioned something about what I had learned in Script Analysis and the first thing that she said was something about a story is nothing like a script. Now I was a little heated at the moment, but now that I have had time to let everything sink in, I have to say:

A Movie is Just a Play with Cameras and an Editor. 

A play script and a movie script, when placed side by side look remarkably similar. Many plays are made into movies and vice versa. When a book is made into a movie, it takes a scriptwriter to transpose it and before it even hits the production steps, parts are ripped out and changed. When a play (e.g. Roger and Hammerstein's  Cinderella with Brandi and Bernadette Peters) is made into a movie, the scriptwriter and producer and director get together and ask: What can we add to this to make it more fun, more explosive, more it?

So, to the Creative Writing major(s) out there who believe that movies are closer to the novels they are writing than to the plays being put into production, let's see who gets the movie deal first: Cuban Swimmer, or your Great American Novel. (Also, which one gets to stay closest to the original story?)