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Featured on this page:
500 Ways to Beat the Hollywood Script Reader: Writing the Screenplay the Reader Will Recommend
by Jennifer M. Lerch
Paperback
Amazon.com: This ultimate insider's guide to screenwriting is designed to get you past the fiercest gatekeepers in
Hollywood: the Hollywood script readers. This small army of freelancers will be among the first to
read and evaluate your script and then to recommend it -- or not -- to the studios, directors, and
stars. Designed for quick and easy access, these 500 points are a step-by-step recipe.
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Advanced Screenwriting: Raising Your Script to the Academy Award Level
by Linda Seger
Paperback
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Adventures in the Screen Trade
Reissue Edition
Paperback
Goldman's classic is still the best and most entertaining peek into how to write for film -- and why you might not want to.
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Alternative Scriptwriting: Writing Beyond the Rules
by Ken Dancyger
Paperback
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American Film Institute Guide to Writing Great Screenplays for Film and TV (2nd Edition)
by Dona Cooper
Paperback
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Aristotle's Poetics for Screenwriters: Storytelling Secrets from the Greatest Mind in Western Civilization
by Michael Tierno
Paperback
An insightful how-to guide for writing screenplays that uses Aristotle's great work as a guide.
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The Art of Adaptation: Turning Fact and Fiction into Film
by Linda Seger
Paperback, 238 pages
Synopsis:
Adaptations have long been the mainstay of Hollywood films -- not only books, but also short stories, plays, musicals, and
true-life experiences. This comprehensive, step-by-step handbook for both aspiring and already established screenwriters
draws on examples from well-known adaptations and includes interviews with some of today's top screenwriters.
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Ask the Pros: Screenwriting: 101 Questions Answered by Industry Professionals
by Howard Meibach
Paperback
From the Author:
This book is the result of countless questions that Final Draft users have been asking us throughout the years. Questions like "How do I get started in the business?", "What do I do when I finish my screenplay?", "Do I need an agent and how do I get one?" We went straight to the Hollywood pros in our database for answers to many questions.
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The Big Picture: Who Killed Hollywood? and Other Essays
by William Goldman
Hardcover
Amazon.com: "The trouble with the Oscar show is that it's too short," William Goldman writes more than once in
these infectiously droll essays about Hollywood stars, box office roulette, vintage movie years, and
the illogic of Saving Private Ryan. Any other writer would be in deep ironical mode saying that,
but the great screenwriter (All the President's Men, The Princess Bride) and giddy movie
enthusiast is hardly a "prevailing view" kind of guy.
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Breakfast with Sharks: A Screenwriter's Guide to Getting the Meeting, Nailing the Pitch, Signing the Deal, and Navigating the Murky Waters of Hollywood
by Michael Lent
Paperback
From Publishers Weekly
"Writing a script, or making a short film, or taking a dozen film theory courses in no way prepares you for what Hollywood is really like," declares Lent, a columnist for Creative Screenwriting Magazine who has worked on nine feature film projects. In this book of "loosely organized" "academic courses," he purports to give novices the skinny on doing business in Tinseltown. Beginning, logically, with "Your Decision to Go Pro," Lent then moves on to "The Script-to-Screen Process" and "The Hollywood Game and Its Players." Lent's guide is above all realistic, and his straight-shooting, no-nonsense tone is often leavened with humor. He's thorough as well, discussing everything from relocating to L.A. and dealing with rejection to making pitches and negotiating contracts. He even tells would-be screenwriters where to rub elbows with their colleagues, listing Tinseltown bookstores, cafes and diners frequented by film folk. Though Lent's book contains little direction on actually writing a screenplay, it's an impressive, useful guide to the larger world of movie-making.
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Cinematic Storytelling: The 100 Most Powerful Film Conventions Every Writer Should Know
by Jennifer Van Sijll
Paperback
What the industry's most succcessful writers and directors have in common is that they have mastered the cinematic conventions specific to the medium.
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Clause by Clause: The Screenwriter's Legal Guide
by Stephen Breimer
Paperback, 201 pages
One of the most powerful entertainment lawyers in Hollywood offers an invaluable guide for screenwriters, agents, attorneys,
and film students which provides easy-to-understand, expert advice on all the legal issues involved in selling a screenplay.
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The Complete Guide to Standard Script Formats: The Screenplay
by Hilis R. Cole, Judith H. Haag (Contributor)
Paperback
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Crafting Short Screenplays That Connect
by Claudia H. Johnson
Paperback
Exercise-based text puts the student's work at the center of the screenwriting
course. Breaks the complex craft of screenwriting into teachable/learnable phrases.
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Crafty Screenwriting
by Alex Epstein (Author)
Paperback
The most innovative and creative screenwriting book yet, from an author who knows first-hand what it takes to get a movie made.
Based on an award-winning website hailed as "smart enough for professional screenwriters and accessible enough for aspiring screenwriters," Crafty Screenwriting is the first book not only to offer a successful screenwriter's tricks of the trade, but to explain what development executives really mean when they complain that the "dialogue is flat," or "the hero isn't likeable." Fresh, provocative, and funny, Alex Epstein diagnoses problem that other screenwriting books barely address, and answers questions they rarely ask, like "Why is it sometimes dangerous to know your characters too well before you start writing," or "Why does your script have to be so much better than the awful pictures that get made every day?"
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Creating Unforgettable Characters
by Linda Seger
Paperback, 239 pages
Seger is one of the most clear-eyed and gracefully straightforward of current how-to writers.
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Creative Careers in Hollywood
by Laurie Scheer
Paperback
In this candid guide, entertainment industry veteran Laurie Scheer offers a witty and informative inside look at the primary professions in the movie biz. Readers will discover real-life, yet upbeat portraits of the "shredder" jobs of the industry, such as assistant or d-girl, and how they can lead to the "keeper" jobs of actor, agent, or studio executive. Each career overview features a clever analysis of the classic film characters who memorably played these jobs on screen; an insightful rewards-risks assessment of the job; and a brief look at such essential job qualities as durability, length of stay, "food chain value," and desirability factor. Part how-to guide, part historical document, and part social commentary, this book will delight career seekers, Hollywood insiders, and film aficionados alike.
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The Dialogue -- An Interview with Screenwriter Paul Haggis (Amazon Instant Video)
This is just one in the celebrated "Dialogue" series of interviews with top screenwriters. Visit the page to browse the entire series!
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Dr. Format Answers Your Questions
by David Trottier
Paperback
Do you have a question about screenplay format or spec writing? Now you can have all of Dr. Format's prescriptions in one place.
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Elements of Style for Screenwriters
by Paul Argentini
Paperback
Amazon.com: For many first-time screenwriters, the most daunting aspect of getting underway is learning the
proper format. Paul Argentini lends a helping hand with Elements of Style for Screenwriters. It's a
good nuts-and-bolts introduction to the terminology of filmmaking and a step-by-step guide to
making sure your opus is properly formatted.
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Fitzgerald Did It: The Writer's Guide to Mastering the Screenplay
by Meg Wolitzer
Paperback
Amazon.com: Unlike the many screenwriting guidebooks geared toward Hollywood wannabes with little writing
experience whatsoever, this one is intended for writers--particularly fiction writers and
journalists--eager to make the leap to screenwriting. Blessedly absent are the tedious lessons about
how to write; in their stead is an explanation, almost, in unlearning how to write. Wolitzer's fine primer on the craft of screenwriting emphasizes visual drama, action, structure, and,
most of all, overstatement. "In movies," Wolitzer says, "art exaggerates life. Life becomes bigger,
bolder, more brilliantly hued, as well as funnier, more tragic, more action-packed, more filled with
coincidence." Wolitzer also addresses such issues such as treatments,
collaboration, adapting fiction to film, the differences between literary and film agents, and
scriptwriting no-noes.
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Four Screenplays: Studies in the American Screenplay
by Syd Field
Paperback
Synopsis:
The man the Hollywood Reporter called "the most sought-after screenwriting teacher in the world" analyzes four recent
screenplays to show how a great script is written. Field provides frame-by-frame analysis of Thelma and Louise, Terminator 2:
Judgement Day, The Silence of the Lambs and Dances With Wolves--and explains what made the films work and why.
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Gardner's Guide to Animation Scriptwriting: The Writer's Road Map
by Marilyn Webber, Nic Banks, Bonney Ford
Textbook Binding
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Getting Your Script Through the Hollywood Maze: An Insider's Guide
by Linda Stuart
Paperback, 212 pages
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Global Scriptwriting
by Ken Dancyger
Paperback
Global Scriptwriting offers a look at an exciting new phase in screen storytelling, as writers and directors from all over the world infuse traditional forms with their own cultural values to create stories that have an international appeal and suggest a universality among readers, viewers, and listeners. A unique blend of screenwriting technique and film studies, Global Scriptwriting discusses screen stories as they have evolved through the years, focusing first on the basics of scriptwriting, then going on to afford a more sophisticated look at script via different models of scriptwriting: the Hollywood model, the independent model, the national model, and various alternative models. It examines the internationalization of storytelling, and illustrates how particular innovations have helped national screen stories to international success.
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Gotta Minute? Sell Your Screenplay: Your Guide to the Independent
Film and Television Producer
by Andrea Leigh Wolf
Paperback
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Grow a Screenplay the Natural Way
by George Perez
Paperback
Grow A Screenplay The Natural Way describes a method of writing a motion picture screenplay directly from a short story. The book is divided into three sections, which are: The Introduction; Part I, the story -- contains the short story on which the screenplay is based; Part II, the screenplay -- shows how a movie is written directly from the short story. In effect, the screenplay grows right out of the story! The market for this book is anyone and everyone who ever dreamed of writing a screenplay.
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Hot Property: Screenwriting in the New Hollywood
by Christopher Keane
Paperback
Getting published in any genre but screenwriting may seem like a cinch after
reading Keane's book, which is meant to steer new writers through the
cutthroat world.
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How Not to Write a Screenplay: 101 Common Mistakes Most Screenwriters Make
by Denny Martin Flinn
Paperback
Finally, what may be the last screenwriting book a writer will ever need to buy! Written by a
Hollywood screenwriter, How NOT to Write A Screenplay carefully identifies and examines the
common mistakes screenwriters invariably make when writing a screenplay.
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How to Adapt Anything into a Screenplay
by Richard Krevolin
Paperback
From concept to finished draft a nuts-and-bolts approach to adaptations. Drawing on his own experience and on fourteen years of teaching, screenwriter Richard Krevolin presents his proven five-step process for adapting anything from novels and short stories to newspaper articles and poems into a screenplay.
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How to Build a Great Screenplay: A Master Class in Storytelling for Film
by David Howard
Paperback
Acclaimed USC screenwriting teacher David Howard has guided hundreds of students to careers in writing for film and television. Drawing on decades of practical experience and savvy, How to Build a Great Screenplay deconstructs the craft of screenwriting and carefully reveals how to build a good story from the ground up. Throughout the book, Howard clarifies his lessons through examples from some of the most successful Hollywood and international script-oriented films, including Pulp Fiction, American Beauty, Trainspotting, North by Northwest, Chinatown, and others.
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How to Write a Movie in 21 Days: The Inner Movie Method
by Viki King
Paperback
Amazon.com Recommended Book:
No book can find your ideas for you, but this one provides a great service in helping you discover and develop a story, and to
come up with the completed script. King helps you learn to think cinematically, in the language of the movies, and to keep
asking the essential questions as they work: What's the story? Who is the story about? Do you care about the characters? Does
anyone? King also tries to help you survive not just the structural pitfalls that can derail a script, but also the mental or emotional
whirlpools that can prevent any artist from finishing a project.
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How to Write for Animation
by Jeffrey Scott
Hardcover
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I Could've Written a Better Movie Than That!: How to Make Six Figures as a Script Consultant Even If You're Not a Screenwriter
by Derek Rydall
Paperback
One of the best kept secrets in hollywood is the use of consultants to fine-tune scripts. Whether you are a screenwriter or not, if you have a second sense or insightful knowledge that can improve film storytelling, you may have just found a new way to make over $100,000 a year.
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I Liked It, Didn't Love It: Screenplay Development De-mystified
by Rone Edwards, Monika Skerbelis
Paperback
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Laughing Out Loud: Writing the Comedy-Centered Screenplay
by Andrew Horton
Hardcover
Whoever wrote "Make 'em laugh!" knew that it's easier said than done. But people love to laugh, and good comedy will always sell. With the help of this complete and entertaining guide, writers and would-be writers for film and television can look forward to writing comedy that goes far beyond stereotypic jokes and characters. "Andy Horton's latest book is not only refreshing, insightful, and effortlessly scholarly; it's also imbued with that rare quality so lacking in its field -- a shameless sense of fun." (Herschel Weingrod, screenwriter [Trading Places, Twins, Space Jam, Kindergarten Cop])
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Making a Good Script Great
by Linda Seger
Paperback
Highly recommended. Thoughtful, down-to-earth, filled with good examples of great screenwriting in practice, and especially acute on that particularly tricky aspect of screenwriting: the sub-plot.
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Making a Good Writer Great: A Creativity Workbook for Screenwriters
by
Linda Seger
Paperback
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Making Movies
by Sidney Lumet
Paperback
Synopsis:
From one of America's most acclaimed directors comes a book that is both a professional memoir
and a definitive guide to the art, craft, and business of the motion picture. Drawing on 40 years of
experience on movies ranging from Long Day's Journey Into Night to The Verdict, Lumet explains
the painstaking labor that results in two hours of screen magic.
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Opening the Doors to Hollywood: How to Sell Your Idea Story, Book,
Screenplay, Manuscript
by
Carlos De Abreu, Howard Jay Smith
Paperback
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Oscar-Winning Screenwriters on Screenwriting: The Award-Winning Best in the Business Discuss Their Craft
by Joel Engel
Paperback
Joel Engel brings together interviews with the best screenwriters working today, each of whom has won an Academy Award for his or her work, and each of whom shares a wealth of knowledge, insight, and experience about this little understood facet of moviemaking. In each essay, writers such as Alan Ball (American Beauty), Eric Roth (Forrest Gump), Marc Norman (Shakespeare in Love), Tom Schulman (Dead Poet's Society), Kurt Luedtke (Out of Africa), John Irving (The Cider House Rules), and many others explore and explain their craft and technique. Anyone interested in writing, making, or learning about movies will enjoy this behind-the-scenes compilation of wisdom and advice from Hollywood's natural-born storytellers.
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The Perfect Pitch: How to Sell Yourself and Your Movie Idea to Hollywood
by Ken Rotcop, James K. Shea, Marlane McGarry (Editor)
Paperback
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Power Screenwriting: The 12 Stages of Story Development
by Michael Chase Walker
Paperback
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Principles of Adaptation for Film and Television
by Ben Brady
Hardcover
Booknews, Inc.: Veteran television producer and screenwriter Brady explains to aspiring writers and writing teachers
the ropes of turning any narrative into a salable movie or television script. The chapters include the
transition, plot, character, dialogue, camera language, format, and assessing the adaptation.
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Real Screenwriting: Strategies and Stories from the Trenches
by Blake Snyder
Paperback
This ultimate insider's guide reveals the secrets that none dare admit, told by a show biz Veteran who's proven that you can sell your script if you can save the cat!
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Rewrite: A Step-by-Step Guide to Strengthen Structure, Characters, and Drama in your Screenplay
By Paul Chitlik
Paperback
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Save the Cat!: The Last Book on Screenwriting You'll Ever Need
by Blake Snyder
Hardcover
As news of screenwriters getting seven-figure deals leaks to the masses, it's no wonder hundreds of aspiring screenwriters come to Hollywood each day for a chance at easy money and glory. However, the reality is that writing and selling a screenplay is far easier said than done and requires that the author not only write a cohesive and complete script (and not just have an idea for a movie), but that he also have the knowledge of the filmmaking process and industry necessary to market and sell the screenplay. Real Screenwriting: Strategies and Stories from the Trenches provides the real deal on the art, craft, business and everyday life of a screenwriter.
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"Save the Cat Story Structure Software": Further info or to order
Save the Cat! Strikes Back: More Trouble for Screenwriters to Get into ... and Out of
by Blake Snyder
Paperback
Blake Snyder, author of "Save the Cat!" and "Save the Cat! Goes to the Movies," is back with the book countless readers and students have clamored for. Inspired by questions from his workshops, lectures, and emails, Blake listened and provides new tips, tactics, and techniques to solve your writing problems and create stories that resonate. "'Save the Cat! Strikes Back' is Blake's best yet. It expands on his principles of storytelling in a breezy, colloquial style and gives us a deeper personal insight to the relentlessly positive mindset that powered his great success and his generous spirit. Blake's life was far, far too short, but his work and his inspiring legacy will remain timeless." --Rick Drew, movieScope Magazine
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Screen & Stage Marketing Secrets
by James Russell (Editor)
Paperback
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Screen Teen Writers: How Young Screenwriters Can Find Success
by Christina Hamlett
Paperback
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Screenplay: The Foundations of Screenwriting
by Syd Field
Paperback
The most widely-used primer in screenwriting, particularly useful for its explanation of three act structure.
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On DVD: "Syd Field's Screenwriting Workshop": Further info or to order
The Screenplay Sell: What Every Writer Should Know
by Alan Trustman
Paperback
The truth about the movie business and why it's so tough to crack it, by the
writer of The Thomas Crown Affair, Bullitt, They Call Me Mr. Tibbs, The Next Man.
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The Screenwriter's Bible: A Complete Guide to Writing, Formatting, and Selling Your Script
by David Trottier
Paperback
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Screenwriters' Masterclass: Screenwriters Talk About Their Greatest Movies
Edited by Kevin Conroy Scott
Journalist and film industry insider Kevin Conroy Scott presents an invaluable screenwriting masterclass featuring extensive, never-before-published interviews with acclaimed screenwriters ranging from Hollywood pros to top writers in the US and European independent scenes. Each interview guides the reader through the entire creation process: how the writer handled the painstaking process of creating a three-dimensional world out of their imagination, what worked and what didn't in the finished film--and why, collaborating with directors and actors, and the revision process.
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Screenwriters on Screenwriting
by Joel Engel
Hardcover
Midwest Book Review: The best screen writers in the business examine film-making processes and writer's contributions to film efforts, using a question-and-answer format to explore such issues as writer controls over screenplays, characterization, and plot. An excellent guide to screen writing achievement, politics and realities.
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The Screenwriter's Problem Solver: How to Recognize, Identify, and Define Screenwriting Problems
by Syd Field
Paperback
Fixing a screenplay that seems dazed and confused might seem like Mission: Impossible, but you've got to have courage under fire. By identifying symptoms in the writing, Field isolates about 20 different screenwriting problems, each related to plot, character, or structure (after all, what else is there?). His fixes generally involve getting to know your characters or story better, through the use of automatic writing, biographical sketches, and the like. For examples of spectacular screenwriting, he offers excerpts from the screenplays for Thelma and Louise, The Shawshank Redemption, Pulp Fiction, Apollo 13, and Silence of the Lambs. Field is a man of many mantras: "Writing is rewriting," "Film is behavior," "Drama is conflict," "Action is character." But his advice is so useful that you'll forgive him his facile phrasemaking. And you'll thank him for persuading you that, yes, "a problem is an opportunity, a challenge that will allow you to ultimately improve your craft." --Jane Steinberg
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The Screenwriter's Survival Guide: Or, Guerrilla Meeting Tactics and Other Acts of War
by Max Adams
Paperback
Adams courteously assumes that you can already write or that you can at least get your hands on one of the zillions of books about writing techniques. She concentrates on what you really want to know. For example: The screenwriter's uniform is (and this is unisex): jeans, high top sneakers, a plain T-shirt, and a loose casual jacket . . . And the sneakers are always frighteningly clean, as in "they may be sneakers, but by gum, they glow like they just came out of the box." Other topics include pitching, the etiquette of "getting read," and the care and feeding of agents. Adams also provides lists of screenwriters' directories and organizations, a generic release form, format examples for cover pages and query letters, and other useful resources.
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The Screenwriter Within: How to Turn the Movie in Your Head into a Salable Screenplay
by D. B. Gilles
Paperback
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Screenwriting 101: The Essential Craft of Feature Film Writing
by Neill D. Hicks
Paperback
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Screenwriting for Film and Television
by
William Charles Miller
Paperback
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Screenwriting four Geniuses
by William D. Wolff
Paperback
"Screenwriting four Geniuses" is a parody of self-help books, purporting to teach its readers how to make millions of dollars, effortlessly writing blockbuster screenplays for Hollywood. The title is a humorous take-off of the "for Dummies" series.
But more than being merely a collection of jokes and gags, "Screenwriting four Geniuses" is a barbed, satirical and highly literate commentary on the greed- and fear-based mentality prevalent in the world of Hollywood filmmaking.
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Screenwriting from the Soul: Letters to an Aspiring Screenwriter
by Richard W. Krevolin, Jeff Arch
Paperback
There are many books on the art of screenwriting, but none approaches the subject from the unique perspective of a dialogue between expert and novice. Written with wit and style in the form of an ongoing series of letters between a highly experienced, successful, but tired professor and a screenwriting novice, Screenwriting from the Soul is a heartfelt exploration of the screenwriting world.
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Screenwriting Updated: New (and Conventional) Ways of Writing for the Screen
by Linda Aronson
Paperback
Dealing as it does with the new genre of multi-story films, this a welcome new addition to the how-to library.
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Script Magic: Subconscious Techniques to Conquer Writer's Block
by Marisa D'Vari
Paperback
From the Inside Flap: If you've ever spent hours staring down a blank page or a blinking cursor on an empty computer
screen - and what writer hasn't - this book may be the answer to your prayers.
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ScriptBuddy Screenplay Format Guide
by ScriptBuddy
Pamphlet
You'll never have to pore over dozens of screenplay books to find the answer to formatting questions. ScriptBuddy has done all of the research for you.
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The Script Selling Game: A Hollywood Insider's Look at Getting Your Script Sold and Produced
by Kathie Fong Yoneda
Paperback
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Selling a Screenplay: The Screenwriter's Guide to Hollywood
by Syd Field
Paperback
First he told readers how to write it, then he told them how to perfect it. Now Syd Field takes them behind the movie moguls'
closed doors and shows how to sell a screenplay.
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Selling Yourself As a Scriptwriter in Hollywood: A 12-Step Marketing Plan for New & Used Screenwriters
by Peter W. Smith
Paperback
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Short Film Scriptwriter's Handbook
by Short Film Bureau (Editor)
Paperback
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Stanley Kubrick and the Art of Adaptation: Three Novels, Three Films
by Greg Jenkins
Paperback
Greg Jenkins's thorough and highly readable analysis of several Kubrick films and the original works on which they're based is both an exploration of the process and its end result. Jenkins chose Kubrick for several reasons. He is an eminently successful director-screenwriter whose oeuvre holds great critical and pop culture interest. Kubrick adapted 10 of his 12 commercial films (as of 1993) and has been vocal in his views on adaptive art, and finally, his ability to "control and safeguard his projects is exceptional among directors."
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Story: A Guide to Screenwriting
by Robert McKee
Hardcover
The long awaited book based on McKee's hugely popular seminars. McKee's story-based approach is a good complement to Syd Fields' more structural approach, and is soundly rooted in lots of classic screenwriting examples. What's more, Amazon.com offers the book at a great price!
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This Business of Screenwriting
by
Ron Suppa
Paperback
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The Tyranny of Story: Audience Expectations and the Short Screenplay
by Ric Beairsto
Paperback
The Georgia Straight:
Because it dares to suggest that the short fiction film is a worthy artistic medium in and of itself, Ric Beairsto's The Tyranny of Story: Audience Expectations and the Short Screenplay is an invaluable addition to the small library of books on the screenwriters craft. It belongs on every aspiring scenarist's "how to" shelf.
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Which Lie Did I Tell?: More Adventures in the Screen Trade
by William Goldman
Hardcover
Amazon.com: Fans of the two-time Oscar-winning writer (Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, All the
President's Men) have anxiously waited for this follow-up since his career serpentined into a
variety of big hits and critical bombs in the '80s and '90s. Here Goldman scoops on The Princess
Bride (his own favorite), Misery, Maverick, Absolute Power, and others. Goldman's
conversational style makes him easy to read for the film novice but meaty enough for the
detail-oriented pro. Like most sequels, Which Lie follows the structure of the original. Both Goldman books have three
parts: stories about his movies, a deconstruction of Hollywood (here the focus is on great movie
scenes), and a workshop for screenwriters. With its juicy facts and valuable sidebars on what makes good screenwriting, this
is another entertaining must-read from the man who coined what has to be the most-quoted adage
about movie-business success: "Nobody knows anything."
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The Whole Picture: A Screenwriter's Handbook
by Richard Walter
Paperback
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The Writer's Guide to Writing Your Screenplay: How to Write Great Screenplays and Movies for Television
by Cynthia Whitcomb
Paperback
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The Writer's Journey: Mythic Structure for Writers
by Christopher Vogler
Paperback
At the beginning of The Writer's Journey, Christopher Vogler asserts that "all stories consist of a few common structural elements found universally in myths, fairy tales, dreams, and movies." Some may be hard-pressed to accept this idea (and will wonder how storytellers from Homer to Shakespeare to Robert Altman might respond to the proposition). Others may imagine that since Vogler uses movies like the Star Wars trilogy and The Lion King to defend his mythological philosophy, he is, unwittingly, listing the reasons why Hollywood films of the last 20 years have been so unimaginative. But there's no doubt that Vogler's notion, based on psychological writings by Carl Jung and the mythmaking philosophy of Joseph Campbell, has been profoundly influential. Many screenwriters have used Vogler's volume to understand why certain scenarios sell, and to discover a blueprint for creating mythic stories of their own.
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Writing for Animation, Comics, and Games
by Christy Marx
Paperback
Writing for Animation, Comics, and Games explains the practical aspects of creating scripts for animation, comics, graphic novels, and computer games. It details how you can create scripts that are in the right industry format, and follow the expected rules for you to put your best foot forward to help you break-in to the trade. This book explains approaches to writing for exterior storytelling (animation, games); interior/exterior storytelling (comics and graphic novels), as well as considerations for non-linear computer games in the shortest, pithiest, and most economical way.
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Writing Drama
by Yves Lavandier
Paperback
Writing Drama is an invaluable tool for screenwriters as well as theatre writers (or indeed anyone interested in the process of . . . writing drama!). It's also a fantastic book for producers and development executives, as it analyzes in detail those tools -- like dramatic irony or the real three-act structure -- which are often ignored or misunderstood by mainstream literature on the subject. Whether you're a writer, a development executive or a producer, if you're bored with rigid rules -- or were never totally convinced by them -- and are looking for more flexible yet efficient tools, then Writing Drama is for you.
Available from the publisher:
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Writing the Killer Treatment: Selling Your Story Without a Script
by Michael Halperin
Paperback
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Writing Science Fiction and Fantasy Television
by Joseph Nazzaro
Paperback
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Writing the Action-Adventure Film: The Moment of Truth
by Neill D. Hicks
Paperback
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Writing the Romantic Comedy
by Billy Mernit
Paperback
From the slapstick shenanigans of Hepburn and Grant in Bringing Up Baby to the sexy repartee of Shakespeare in Love, romantic comedies have delighted filmgoers -- and challenged screenwriters -- since Hollywood's Golden Age. Whether you're a first time screenwriter, or an intermediate marooned in the rewriting process, this thoroughly charming and insightful guide to the basics of crafting a winning script will take you step by step from "cute meet" all the way to "joyous defeat."
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Writing Screenplays That Sell
by Michael Hauge
Paperback, 325 pages
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Writing Short Films: Structure and Content for Screenwriters
by Linda Cowgill
Paperback
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Writing Television Sitcoms
by Evan S. Smith
Paperback
With twenty years in the business--as a writer, programming executive, and university
instructor--Evan Smith knows what it takes to get from spec script to sitcom success.
Here he offers the first published description of Premise-Driven Comedy, the writing
method he has developed and popularized; tips from writer-producers who have worked
on series from "Frasier" to "The Cosby Show" to "Roseanne;" a complete story outline from
the series "Home Improvement;" explicit advice on how the business works and how to
get an agent; and script layout guidelines for all three sitcom formats.
Further info or to order
Writing Television Comedy
by Jerry Rannow
Paperback
How to "jump start your funny bone" is the theme of this humorous, eye-opening guide to
conceiving, writing, and marketing a winning TV sitcom. The book tells how to construct a
story outline, develop character and dialogue, format scripts, pitch producers, and work
with studio executives, producers, directors, agents, and actors.
Further info or to order
Writing the Character-Centered Screenplay
by Andrew Horton
Paperback
Further info or to order
Writing the Thriller Film: The Terror Within
by Neill D. Hicks
Paperback
Further info or to order
Writing the TV Drama Series: How to Succeed as a Professional Writer in TV (2nd edition)
by Pamela Douglas
Paperback
This 2nd edition of Douglas's hit book gives the latest inside scoop on obtaining success in this highly competitive industry. This second edition takes readers inside Lost, Grey's Anatomy, Battlestar Gallactica, and CSI: Miami, as well as the great shows covered in the first edition.
Further
info or to order
Writing Treatments That Sell: How to Create and Market Your Story Ideas to the Motion Picture and TV Industry
by Chi-Li Wong, Kenneth J. Atchity
Paperback
In this entertaining guide, writer-producers Ken Atchity and Chi-Li Wong tell readers everything they need to know to create an effective and salable treatment--one that includes such key elements as a compelling conflict, likable characters, plot twists, a climax, and visual drama.
Further info or to order
Your Screenplay Sucks!: 100 Ways to Make It Great
By William M. Akers
Paperback
A lifetime member of the Writer's Guild of America who has had three feature films produced from his screenplays, Akers offers beginning writers the tools they need to get their screenplay noticed.
Further info or to order
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