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Screenwriting For Dummies (For Dummies (Career/Education)) |  | Author: Laura Schellhardt
Creator: John Logan
Publisher: For Dummies
List Price: $19.99
Buy New: $3.91
as of 11/23/2009 19:39 CST details
You Save: $16.08 (80%)
New (44) Used (24) from $3.58
Seller: bookrascal
Rating:  20 reviews
Sales Rank: 33326
Media: Paperback
Edition: 2
Pages: 360
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.2
Dimensions (in): 9.1 x 7.4 x 0.9
ISBN: 0470345403
Dewey Decimal Number: 808.23
EAN: 9780470345405
ASIN: 0470345403
Publication Date: June 30, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
Write a great script and get it into the hands of the Hollywood players! So you want to be a screenwriter? Whether you want to write a feature film or a TV script or adapt your favorite book, this friendly guide gives you expert advice in everything from creating your story and developing memorable characters to formatting your script and selling it to the studios. You get savvy industry tips and strategies for getting your screenplay noticed! - The screenwriting process from A to Z -- from developing a concept and thinking visually to plotline, conflicts, pacing, and the conclusion
- Craft living, breathing characters -- from creating the backstory to letting your characters speak to balancing dialogue with action
- Turn your story into a script -- from developing an outline and getting over writer's block to formatting your screenplay and handling rewrites
- Prepare for Hollywood -- from understanding the players and setting your expectations to polishing your copy and protecting your work
- Sell your script to the industry -- from preparing your pitch and finding an agent to meeting with executives and making a deal
Open the book and find: - The latest on the biz, from entertainment blogs to top agents to box office jargon
- New story examples from recently released films
- Tips on character development, a story's time clock, dramatic structure, and dialogue
- New details on developing the nontraditional screenplay -- from musicals to animation to high dramatic style
- Expanded information on adaptation and collaboration, with examples from successful screenwriting duos
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| Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 1-5 of 20
 Everything Film School was not September 6, 2009
Nik (Brooklyn, N.Y. USA)
I have spent my time in Film school and was not satisfied with it. There is no scientific formula for writing a great screenplay. There is only the content... But for industry sake, there is a FORMAT for getting the script written, which does not take an entire semester of ones life wasted for something that can be learned from a book. This is your book. You do not need and expensive computer or a writing program (early screenplays were written on type writers *remember those?* and even earlier screenplays were never written - the director talked the actor(s) through the scene). I purchased this book because it was simple. It is also very enjoyable. I would definately recommend this book to screenwriters, even seasoned professionals. (Film Content is not the same anymore). Great book. Don't hesitate to purchase it.
 Screenwriting for Dummies April 19, 2009
Diana L. Montgomery (New York, NY, USA)
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
This book is mediocre at best. Although it includes many aspects of screenwriting, it lacks important information. It does not include details such as the use of storyboarding or the fact that a screenwriter should not divulge too much information to a prospective producer until a release has been signed to protect the writer from plagiarism.
Overall, this is a fair beginners guide, but anyone wishing to break into the business should purchase other books as well.
A Decent Place to Start for Beginners... Could Have Been Better, Though December 5, 2008
musicmanblue1975 (California)
3 out of 6 found this review helpful
This book is a fairly comprehensive guide to writing screenplays. You'll find tips on how to structure your screenplay, advice on how to craft compelling plots and deeper characters, instructions for formatting your script to industry standards, and finally a guide to marketing your script to Hollywood agents and producers. I was going to give this book 4 stars, but ultimately decided on 3 stars due to the author's unfortunate habit of using music metaphors to explain film industry techniques. There are two problems with this... 1) For a reader who has no experience as a composer or a performing orchestral musician, the author's use of one artform (music) to explain another (filmmaking) is completely useless as the analogy will not make any sense and only serve to further confuse the reader 2) In addition to being confusing for non-musicians, these analogies are infuriating to those of us who actually do understand music, because of the author's ignorance of the subject matter. This is most evident in one example (there are many others that I won't take the time to detail) where the author claims that a pause in dialogue is analogous to a grace note in music. She obviously has confused grace notes for rests. A grace note is a short note that precedes a written note, typically used to create an accent. A rest indicates one or more beats of silence. She is way off the mark here, and it makes her look more than a little foolish to those in the know. In summary, I would recommend this book as a starter for beginners, with a warning to ignore her attempts at analogy and focus in on those parts of the book where she explains things in a straight-forward and less colorful manner.
An Excellent Introduction October 17, 2008
SKI (WG FL USA)
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
For those who have little idea of where to start in writting a screen play, this book will get you on the right track. It was worth the money and is helping me think about all the details that a project can enclude.
A good start but not the only resource August 30, 2008
E. S. (MD)
9 out of 11 found this review helpful
I have never written a script before so the "For Dummies" title, I thought, applied to me. However, as much as the book offers a lot on formulating a story, I was looking more for actual tips on structure and acceptable formatting of the physical script. There is very little of that in this book. The majority of the book deals with how to come up with a character, conflict, plot and all the other components of a story (something that I already have). If you are in the same boat as me, I suggest Christopher Keane's book, How to Write a Selling Screenplay.
Showing reviews 1-5 of 20
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