If you've ever heard the expression or phrase: "What's on your typewriter?", this comes from the early days of Hollywood and screenwriters who used typewriters and when Hollywood itself was at the peak of the silver screen movie business. Ever since the computer took over the industry, this expression or phrase was adapted or altered to say: "What's on your computer?" This expression is for when you or someone wants to ask a professional or aspiring screenwriter in the business what project (if any) they are working on. They would then turn around and respond accordingly. If you aren't aware, the standard typeface for writing screenplays was in the courier font; it was also the same font used in typewriters. So, you can see where this standard originated from. We are now learning that the pandemic has not only caused people and other professionals to find ways to save money, but was also hobbies like rediscovery of vintage technology like the typewriter. So, should screenwriters return to the simpler time where typewriters were the primary tool for writing screenplays and has reigned supreme?
I remember learning typing for the first time on a manual typewriter. I also remember using one when my maternal grandfather had one in his house, and it was one of those electronic daisy wheel typewriters that allowed you to type one sentence out and then printed it automatically on a piece of paper. The keyboard was that of a computer keyboard as was the tactile feedback that it gave for the time period it was manufactured in. My maternal grandfather was a humble professor and lived in an area with lots of trees and fauna.
The typewriter, as I recently came to realize, offers a few notable benefits over something like a computer or a tablet of today. One such benefit addresses our fast growing concern for privacy: No hacking, no compatible software or firmware updates to contend with, or security patches for that matter, and no spying from big brother or his Uncle Sam. No Internet access to distract us from the pantheon of information or social media stuff that people are so addicted to these days. Typing words directly onto the page is all that is needed, whether you are typing up an original copy of what you're working on for yourself or to be sent to an intended recipient. While this is a benefit onto itself, if you do need to make multiple copies of said original document, there is always the option of heading out to your local photocopy/xerox store and paying a small fee to accomplish this.
Why bother though? Why bother when a screenwriter can use software to easily format their screenplay to industry standards to begin with, save and send it to the intended recipient(s) at the click of a button via email? There is nothing stopping a screenwriter from continuing on with this trajectory, but to quote a recruiter: "If you keep doing what you've always done, you'll get what you've always gotten." To be honest, this statement or affirmation resonates in me in a few different levels as it should for a lot of you screenwriters reading this article: We can continue to deal with distractions from social media and other Internet content that is making us lethargic, or we can become who we screenwriters are born to be. I (for obvious reasons) choose the later. It will afford us the opportunity to exercise patience when writing our screenplay, which is a key qualification for any screenwriter to possess.
Now that we've taking a look at the white knights of the round when it comes to typewriters, let's turn our flaming eye from the towers of Mount Doom and towards the dark lord of their misfortune. I give you the darkest of them all: constantly remembering the margin or tab settings for each screenplay element when you get to it. This dark lord may be defeated and with Mount Doom felled, patience will once again reveal itself to be the Frodo Baggins that brought in a new age and a new instrument of sorcery to help screenwriters once more who shall be there and back again with another Baggins. So go ahead my screenwriting shirerings, type away your adventures while Gandalf the wise guides you through Fangorn forest while the tree beards show you to the path to the other side, and to Minas Tirith.
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