[OLAC-credits] Scenario

[Kelley McGrath]

Thanks, Laura. That is very interesting background on the word scenario in film. Poking around for "scenario script," I found http://www.screenplayology.com/content-sections/screenplay-style-use/1-1/. This includes the quote (with which the author of the web page disagrees): "Originally the screenplay was called a scenario, or continuity script, and consisted of a list of scenes that described the silent action and camera angles."

It does sound like the term scenario is not used very much in contemporary American film. The records I'm encountering are brief, minimal level records and it's very hard to say for sure what is meant. I decided to put scenario as English since the credits are coming from 508 and the rest of the field is in English.

BTW, if you ever want to see the rest of the record for a credit that you're working on, I do have the original files and should be able to dig it up.

Kelley
________________________________________
From: olac-credits-bounces at lists.uoregon.edu [olac-credits-bounces at lists.uoregon.edu] on behalf of Laura Jenemann [ljeneman at gmu.edu]
Sent: Monday, January 06, 2014 12:21 PM
To: olac-credits at lists.uoregon.edu
Subject: Re: [OLAC-credits] OLAC-credits Digest, Vol 2, Issue 1

Hi,

Regarding the English word scenario, "Schirmer Encyclopedia of Film" mentions that the scenario script was adopted beginning in 1908 and that " these scripts served as skeletons for finished films and provided producers with blueprints for production schedules."

See:
"Early Cinema." Schirmer Encyclopedia of Film. Ed. Barry Keith Grant. Vol. 2. New York: Schirmer Reference, 2007. 105-115. Gale Virtual Reference Library. Web. 6 Jan. 2014.

I also ran a search in the AFI Catalog via Film Indexes Online for "scenario."  The most recent credit reference was to "Scenario coord" in Collatoral (2004), and the earliest is Cleopatra (1912).

Based on all of this quick research, it looks like a paper on this word alone could be interesting, though I'm sure that the rest of the list and film historians, linguists and the OED might have covered this ground already.

Regards,

Laura

Laura Jenemann
Film Studies/Media Services Librarian
Johnson Center Library
George Mason University
4400 University Drive MS 1A6
Fairfax VA, 22030
Phone: 703-993-7593
Email: ljeneman at gmu.edu