The Screen Writer, produced in cooperation with the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, is a short film from 1951 that gives viewers a look at the job of the screen writer. Part of a series of shorts on the key jobs required to make a film, this film explains how an original story is found by an agent, taken to a studio’s story editor, which then leads to the story being adapted into a script by a screen writer. The film also discusses the jobs screen writers have gone on to do. The film opens with scenes of a live-theater stage and a modern sound stage (00:22). A film set sits idle and empty (01:15). A screen writer smokes a cigarette in his office while working on a script (01:30). The film shows short clips from a handful of films as well as the marquee signs for a number of theaters. An agent goes through stories to get rid of the ones that are not suitable for the screen (03:22). There is a shot of a film set (04:33). The film then shows clips from movies that are directed by the film’s screen writer (05:36): The Lost Weekend, Family Honeymoon, The Treasure of the Sierra Madre, Every Girl Should Be Married, and A Letter to Three Wives. The film also shows clips from several films that are produced by screen writers, including Key Largo, The Great Gatsby, and Yellow Sky. Next, the film discusses some of the screen writers who went on to become the production heads of film studios, men like Darryl F. Zanuck and Dore Schary. The film then ends with film clips from The Bachelor and the Bobby-Soxer, The Red Shoes, and Miracle on 34th Street.