This second edition of the widely acclaimed Film Scriptwriting is a truly practical manual for the working writer. It provides all the clear, step-by-step guidance you need to script both fact and feature film and video - from getting and developing ideas to the writing of master scene or shooting script. Featured in this new edition are annotated excerpts from some of today's most successful films, selected to point up principles and techniques discussed. Interviews with working film specialists reveal the things professional directors, producers, story editor, and analysts look for in appraising the scripts that come across their desks.

All writers need to know how to adapt to new technology and thrive in the new opportunities that it provides. This book provides readers with the nuts-and-bolts of scripting for an array of audio-visual (AV) projects, whether it be a simple slide show,a multi-image presentation, a computer-based interactive program, or a major multi-area extravaganza. The book is very readable and would be extremely good for reference. Valerie Bragg, Principa, The City Technology College, Kinghurst, British Journalof Educational Technology, Sept. 1992. - British Journal of Education Technology, September 1992

All writers need to know how to adapt to new technology and thrive in the new opportunities that it provides. This book provides readers with the nuts-and-bolts of scripting for an array of audio-visual (AV) projects, whether it be a simple slide show,
a multi-image presentation, a computer-based interactive program, or a major multi-area extravaganza. The book is very readable and would be extremely good for reference. Valerie Bragg, Principa, The City Technology College, Kinghurst, British Journal
of Educational Technology, Sept. 1992. - British Journal of Education Technology, September 1992

"Techniques of the Selling Writer" provides solid instruction for people who want to write and sell fiction, not just to talk and study about it. It gives the background, insights, and specific procedures needed by all beginning writers. Here one can learn how to group words into copy that moves, movement into scenes, and scenes into stories; how to develop characters, how to revise and polish, and finally, how to sell the product.

No one can teach talent, but the practical skills of the professional writer's craft can certainly be taught. The correct and imaginative use of these kills can shorten any beginner's apprenticeship by years.

This is the book for writers who want to turn rejection slips into cashable checks.

This second edition of the widely acclaimed Film Scriptwriting is a truly practical manual for the working writer. It provides all the clear, step-by-step guidance you need to script both fact and feature film and video - from getting and developing ideas to the writing of master scene or shooting script.

Featured in this new edition are annotated excerpts from some of today's most successful films, selected to point up principles and techniques discussed. Interviews with working film specialists reveal the things professional directors, producers, story editor, and analysts look for in appraising the scripts that come across their desks.

Table of Contents

Preface

Foreward

Film and You

Part One: The Fact Film

The Proposal Outline

The Film Treatment

The Sequence Outline

The Shooting Script

Writing Narration

Part Two: The Feature Film

The Film Story

The Film Character

The Story Treatment

The Art of Confrontation

The Step Outline

Dialogue Devices

The Master Scene Script

Part Three: The Tricks of the Trade

Adaptation and Its Problems

Surviving Story Conferences

The Scriptwriter as Businessperson

What You Should Know About ...

Lessons from the Pros

The Other Side

You and Film

Appendices:

The Storyboard

Judging Screen Time

For Further Reading

Terms You'll Use

Writers' Guild of America

Writers' Guild of Great Britain

The Society of Mechanists considered themselves the inevitable rulers of the universe. But though Operator Forty-four had given up his body and his name to serve the Mek cause, within him existed the seed of memory.

"A jargon-free manual on the basics of developing interesting fictional characters"

Vibrant, believable characters help drive a fictional story. Along with a clever plot, well-drawn characters make us want to continue reading a novel or finish watching a movie. In "Creating Characters," Dwight V. Swain shows how writers can invent interesting characters and improve them so that they move a story along.

"The core of character," he says in chapter 1, "lies in each individual story person's ability to care about something; to feel implicitly or explicitly, that something is important." Building on that foundation--the capacity to care--Swain takes the would-be writer step-by-step through the fundamentals of finding and developing "characters who turn you on." This basic but thought-provoking how-to is a valuable tool for both the novice and the seasoned writer.