The sensitive screenwriter

From “Spotlight on Depiction of Health and Social Issues: A Resource Encyclopedia for the Entertainment Community,” published in 1994 by the Entertainment Industries Council, a nonprofit organization whose trustees include Laurence A. Tisch, Aaron Spelling, and Barry Diller. The encyclopedia, which is distributed to television and film writers and directors, features lists of “depiction suggestions” for writers to consult when addressing issues such as drugs, alcohol, AIDS, and children of alcoholics. The guide states that the lists “are not meant to limit the creative process” but instead are intended to reinforce “the tradition of our industries to create dreams, trigger emotions, and help humankind explore a world that is better than the headlines would lead us to believe.”

TERMINOLOGY FOR ALCOHOL AND OTHER DRUGS

• To emphasize that alcohol is a drug, please use a phrase such as “the abuse of alcohol and other drugs” rather than “substance abuse.”
• There is risk associated with all alcohol or drug use. Therefore, please refer simply to “use” rather than “responsible use.”
• The term “use” should be employed when referring to alcohol consumption by people who should not drink alcohol: youth, pregnant women, recovering alcoholics, and operators of motor vehicles.
• “Mood-altering” tends to be a weak and inaccurate description of the powerful effect that drugs have on the mind. It is recommended that the phrase “mind-altering” be used.
• In order to focus attention on circumstances and environments, the phrases “youth at risk for alcohol and other drug use” and “youth in high-risk environments” are preferable to the phrase “high-risk youth.”
• When referring to illicit drugs, please do not describe them as “hard” or “soft,” because these terms can imply that some drugs are virtually harmless.
• Since a person does not need to be drunk to be physically impaired, it is suggested that a phrase such as “alcohol-impaired driving” be substituted for “drunk driving.”
• Using the term “accident” when referring to an alcohol- or drug-related collision suggests the incident could not have been prevented or that no one was at fault. Use of the word “crash” (i.e., “drug-related crash” or “alcohol-related crash”) is preferred.

CAR-SAFETY AWARENESS

• Safety-belt messages can be incorporated subtly through dialogue and sight gags.
• Buckling up can be specified in descriptions of driving scenes.
• Buckling up can contribute an extra dimension to characters and define their motivation and behavior, perhaps conveying an obsession or idiosyncrasy.
• It's a fact: many more police officers are killed or injured in car crashes than in shootings or assaults. Consider demonstrating this by depicting officers receiving severe or fatal injuries in crashes rather than assaults.
• As air bags become increasingly commonplace, you may want to consider having your safety-belted characters who survive crashes be saved by air-bag devices.

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SEE ALSO: Motion picture authorship; Social problems in mass media; Television authorship

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