the key differences in storytelling between plays and films

What drives the story forward

Plays

• Story advances through human action in real time.

• Confrontation, decision and speech are the engines.

• Momentum comes from tension between people sharing space.

Films

• Story advances through selection and juxtaposition.

• Cuts, camera movement and image sequencing do narrative work.

• Momentum comes from what is shown — and what is withheld.

How information is delivered

Plays

• Information is often revealed directly: through dialogue, confession, argument, silence.

• The audience hears what characters hear.

• Knowledge is usually shared, not curated.

Films

• Information is curated.

• The camera decides what the audience knows and when.

• Point of view can shift invisibly and instantly.

Point of view

Plays

• POV is relatively stable and communal.

• Even monologues are public acts.

• The audience sees the whole stage, even when focusing selectively.

Films

• POV is fluid and subjective.

• A close-up can privatize a thought.

• The audience’s attention is directed shot by shot.

Scale of story

Plays

• Favor psychological and moral scale over physical scale.

• The smallest action can feel enormous.

• Intimacy is the spectacle.

Films

• Favor physical, spatial and temporal scale.

• Movement across locations creates narrative sweep.

• Spectacle is often literal.

Use of language

Plays

• Language creates action: threats, promises, refusals change the world.

• Rhetoric, repetition and rhythm shape story.

• Speech can substitute for image.

Films

• Language clarifies or punctuates what images suggest.

• Subtext is often visual.

• Dialogue is frequently minimized.

Time and causality

Plays

• Time is mostly continuous.

• Cause and effect are experienced bodily and immediately.

• Ellipses are felt as absences.

Films

• Time is plastic.

• Flashbacks, montage and crosscutting create meaning.

• Cause and effect can be rearranged.

Conflict and resolution

Plays

• Conflict often remains unresolved or morally complex.

• Endings can be open, ambiguous or cyclical.

• The audience leaves with questions.

Films

• Conflict tends toward closure.

• Endings resolve plot mechanics.

• The audience leaves with answers or catharsis.

The role of the audience

Plays

• The audience is a witness.

• Their attention and reaction shape the event.

• Storytelling is reciprocal.

Films

• The audience is a viewer.

• The story unfolds regardless of response.

• Storytelling is one-directional.

The core storytelling difference

Plays tell stories by putting people in a room and letting pressure do the work. Films tell stories by deciding what you see, when you see it and for how long.

Or, more simply:

• Plays ask: What happens when we cannot cut away?

• Films ask: What happens when we do?