The Screenplay

Providing examples from well-known movies, Field explains the structural and stylistic elements as well as writing techniques basic to the creation of a successful film script.

The development of a film script is a long and complex process, initially creatively driven by the writer, but managed by a producer or development executive. This text examines the process and considers how to create the best processes and environments for developing stories and concepts for film.

Every award-winning short film begins life with a clever idea, a good story and a screenplay. Patrick Nash analyses the process of writing short film screenplays and gives advice on: Story and structure Ideas generation Plot and pace Screenplay format Dos and don'ts Eliciting emotion Dialogue and subtext Character design Protagonists and antagonists Character motivation and goals Conflict, obstacles and stakes Clichés and Stereotypes Beginnings, middles and ends Hooking the viewer Screenplay competitions Loglines, outlines and synopses Rewriting and length Practicalities and budgets The book also includes a number of award-winning scripts and interviews, advice and contributions from their award-winning screenwriters and a discussion of the benefits to writers of writing short screenplays.

WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY TOM STOPPARD Our most esteemed living playwright adapts the most famous love story ever written in the screenplay for the new Focus Features film Anna Karenina, directed by Joe Wright, starring Keira Knightley and Jude Law. Tolstoy’s brilliant novel, tracing the tragic love affair between Count Vronsky and the unhappily married Anna, has moved readers for generations. Now, award-winning playwright Tom Stoppard re-imagines what Vladimir Nabokov called “one of the greatest love stories in world literature” for the screen. In an impeccable match of talent between source and adaptation, Stoppard projects Tolstoy’s powerful contrasts between city and country, love and death, happiness and unhappiness. The result is beautiful, stirring, and at once old and new. A special introduction by Stoppard offers a glimpse into the process behind his remarkable interpretation.

Being There and the Evolution of a Screenplay provides an insightful look at the drafting of one of Hollywood history's greatest scripts. Being There (1979) is generally considered the final film in Hal Ashby's triumphant 1970s career, which included the likes of Harold and Maude (1971) and Shampoo (1975). The film also showcases Peter Sellers's last great performance. In 2005, the Writers Guild of America included Being There on its list of 101 Best Scripts. Being There and the Evolution of a Screenplay features three versions of the script: an early draft by Jerzy Kosinski, based on his 1970 novel; a second by long-time Ashby collaborator and Oscar-winner Robert C. Jones, which makes substantial changes to Kosinki's; and a final draft written by Jones with Ashby's assistance, which makes further structural and narrative changes. Additionally, the book features facsimile pages from one of Kosinski's copy of the scripts that include handwritten notes, providing readers with valuable insight into the redrafting process. For each version, Ashby scholar Aaron Hunter adds perceptive analysis of the script's development, the relationships of the writers who worked on it, and key studio and production details. This is both a presentation of the script of Being There, and a record of the process of crafting that script – a text that will be of interest to film fans and scholars as well as writers and teachers of screenwriting. Evolution of a Screenplay is the first book of its kind to so amply demonstrate the creative development of a Hollywood script.

Reading and Writing a Screenplay takes you on a journey through the many possible ways of writing, reading and imagining fiction and documentary projects for cinema, television and new media. It explores the critical role of a script as a document to be written and read with both future readers and the future film it will be giving life to in mind. The book explores the screenplay and the screenwriting process by approaching the film script in three different ways: how it is written, how it is read and how it can be rewritten. Combining contemporary screenwriting practices with historical and academic context, Isabelle Raynauld provides key analytical tools and reading strategies for conceptualizing and scripting projects based on the impact different writing styles can have on readers, with various examples ranging from early cinema to new media and new platforms throughout. This title offers an alternative, thought-provoking and inspiring approach to reading and writing a screenplay that is ideal for directors, producers, actors, students, aspiring screenwriters and readers interested in understanding how an effective screenplay is created.

From concept to finished draft-a nuts-and-bolts approach to adaptations Aspiring and established screenwriters everywhere, take note! This down-to-earth guide is the first to clearly articulate the craft of adaptation. 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. Used by thousands of novelists, playwrights, poets, and journalists around the country, this can't-miss process features practical advice on how to break down a story into its essential components, as well as utilizes case studies of successful adaptations. Krevolin also provides an insider's view of working and surviving within the Hollywood system-covering the legal issues, interviewing studio insiders on what they are looking for, and offering tips from established screenwriters who specialize in adaptations. * Outlines a series of stages that help you structure your story to fit the needs of a 120-page screenplay * Explains how to adapt anything for Hollywood, from a single sentence story idea all the way to a thousand-page novel * Advises on the tricky subject of just how faithful your adaptation should be * Features helpful hints from Hollywood bigwigs-award-winning television writer Larry Brody; screenwriter and script reader Henry Jones; screenwriter and author Robin Russin; screenwriter and author Simon Rose; and more

There are hundreds of books on the market, all trying to teach you how to write a screenplay. Several of them are excellent and useful books. But never - until now - has there been a screenwriting manual written in the form of a screenplay. Our hero, the aspiring screenwriter Danny, is hopelessly in love with Bebe, a hot young starlet. But Bebe won't go out with Danny until he proves that he can write a brilliant screenplay for her. Helped along the way by a mysterious guide (Virgil) with seemingly magical powers, Danny travels to Screenwriting Hell to see what happens to writers who never make the grade. Virgil teaches him the tricks of the trade, the fundamental techniques that all screenwriters have to master, no matter how great their ideas. But there's something a little strange about Virgil, and Danny is never sure whether to trust him or not... As well as the screenplay itself, the book includes an introduction explaining how to get the most out of the screenplay, the log line, the synopsis, character bios, the treatment, and "The Pitch" - a short scene that shows the author pitching his screenplay to a big-shot producer.