Screenwriting from the Heart

Screenwriting from the Heart
Author: James Edward Ryan
Publisher: Watson-Guptill Publications
Total Pages: 186
Release: 2000-01-01
Genre: Performing Arts
ISBN: 9780823084197

Screenwriting from the Heart is James Ryan's answer to today's formulaic, by-the-numbers Hollywood films. As a successful screenwriter and teacher, Ryan has distilled the content of his popular workshops into this indispensable guide to developing dramatic and passionate screenplays based on compelling characters. Maintaining that writing by formula results in contrived and untrue screenplays, Ryan's technique is based on the premise that our best work comes from the heart--from the inside out. This book shows screenwriters how to free up the unconscious imagination in order to use what they excavate from deep within themselves to craft a screenplay.

The Heart of the Film

The Heart of the Film
Author: Cynthia Whitcomb
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
Total Pages: 187
Release: 2017-03-31
Genre: Performing Arts
ISBN: 1315513196

Most movies include a love story, whether it is the central story or a subplot, and knowing how to write a believable relationship is essential to any writer's skill set. Discover the rules and laws of nature at play in a compelling love story and learn and master them. Broken into four sections, The Heart of the Film identifies the critical features of love story development, and explores every variation of this structure as well as a diverse array of relationships and types of love. Author Cynthia Whitcomb has sold over 70 feature-length screenplays and shares the keys to her success in The Heart of the Film, drawing on classic and modern films as well as her own extensive experience.

The Screenwriter's Bible

The Screenwriter's Bible
Author: David Trottier
Publisher:
Total Pages: 330
Release: 1998
Genre: Performing Arts
ISBN: 9781879505445

One of the most popular and useful books on screenwriting, now greatly expanded and completely updated. This edition includes a list of resources and contains approximately 100 new entries.

Writing a Great Movie

Writing a Great Movie
Author: Jeff Kitchen
Publisher: Billboard Books
Total Pages: 386
Release: 2006
Genre: Performing Arts
ISBN: 9780823069781

Let’s cut to the chase:Writing a Great Movieis a practical nuts-and-bolts manual to dramatic writing for film. This hands-on course in screenwriting shows how to create, develop, and construct an original screenplay from scratch using seven essential tools for the screenwriter—(1) Dilemma, Crisis, Decision and Action, and Resolution; (2) Theme; (3) the 36 Dramatic Situations; (4) the Enneagram; (5) Research and Brainstorming; (6) the Central Proposition; and (7) Sequence, Proposition, and Plot—which break the writing process down into approachable steps and produce great results. Author Jeff Kitchen—a working screenwriter, renowned dramaturge, and teacher at the University of Southern California’s graduate film school—shares the insider secrets he has developed over years of writing and teaching.Writing a Great Movieis the complete guide to creating compelling screenplays that will sell. • State-of-the-art screenwriting theory and technique from a master • Author named one of today's top screenwriting teachers inCreative Screenwritingmagazine • Great for writers at every level, beginner to established

Turn & Burn

Turn & Burn
Author: Cj Walley
Publisher:
Total Pages: 212
Release: 2022-01-06
Genre:
ISBN: 9781910515860

The Turn & Burn methodology offers practical, real-world advice for quickly turning stories - within any genre - into engaging and authentic movie scripts.

Shoot from the Heart

Shoot from the Heart
Author: Diane Bell
Publisher:
Total Pages: 250
Release: 2018
Genre: Motion pictures
ISBN: 9781615932887

If you dream of making a movie but don't know where to start or you're afraid that your film will end up being yet another unseen indie, this is the book for you. Based on the real-life experiences of Sundance award-winning screenwriter/director Diane Bell, SHOOT FROM THE HEART will guide you through the process of making an indie film successfully -- from writing a stand-out script to raising finance, from getting the most out of your shoot to planning a profitable release. Broken down into sixteen essential steps, this book provides you with a clear, actionable, real-world plan for turning your filmmaking dream into your reality. The method in this book is available to anyone, anywhere. You don't need a ton of money or industry connections, you just need to be willing to do the work of each step. In this book, you'll find ass-kicking inspiration and motivational tips for the long journey filmmaking is, as well as the practical knowledge and insider's information you need to make it happen. SHOOT FROM THE HEART will empower you to trust your creative instincts and leave you with no excuses for not making the best film you can. This guide is the only one you need if you seriously want to stop talking about making movies and actually make a great one.

The Process

The Process
Author: Clive Frayne
Publisher:
Total Pages: 269
Release: 2019-11-27
Genre:
ISBN: 9781083083012

"The main difference between an early-career screenwriter and a great screenwriter is their process. Screenwriters with an effective and professional process tend to write great scripts."This book teaches a method called process-driven screenwriting. The process is a series of planning steps we take before writing our script. This process works for any kind of movie. It works for Hollywood Blockbusters or experimental art-house films. As long as our intention is to create drama, the process will help us write better scripts. This book doesn't offer a formula or plot-template. Instead, it helps screenwriters find a writing technique that works for them. At the heart of this book is a simple idea... dogma is the enemy of creativity.This book contains a set of practical tools. Tools designed to help writers create drama and to craft great cinematic stories. This is also a book that explores the ideas behind drama, story and what it means to write cinema. Although the tools in this book are simple, the conversation about how we write movie scripts isn't. I have not separated the conversation about writing from the discussion about the tools. That's because the two things are connected. We need tools like this because writing cinematic drama is complicated. It's not possible to separate the process from the challenges of screenwriting. Process-driven screenwriting is very simple. Anyone can learn the basic steps in a short period of time. However, as with any tools, it takes time and practice to master their use. These tools can be used to create simple stories or to craft complex narratives.So, what are these tools? What are the steps? raw idea - our initial inspiration or ideatheme - decide what facet of human experience we're exploringcompass logline - decide who the film is about, when and where it is setchase our fascination to create the world of story - creating a fictional worldcharacter development - populate the world with characterscreate a plot - decide what happens and the order in which the audience finds things outwrite the script - write cinematic drama in a form that is acceptable to the production teamIn reality, everyone is a process-driven screenwriter whether they know it or not. Every writer has a process, even if that process is to stare at a blank page until they have an idea. Every writer's process is unique to them. We do what works best for us. Writers with great processes write great screenplays. In this book, we will look at ways any writer can improve their process without giving up the things that make them unique.

Screenwriting is Storytelling

Screenwriting is Storytelling
Author: Kate Wright
Publisher: Penguin
Total Pages: 292
Release: 2004-10-05
Genre: Performing Arts
ISBN: 9780399530241

While most screenwriting books focus on format and structure, Kate Wright explains how to put story at the center of a screenplay. A compelling story, complete with intriguing characters and situations created with these screenwriting tricks of the trade can become a box office blockbuster film. Screenwriters will learn: - Developing themes within the plot - Using structure to define the story - Creating memorable characters - Establishing moral dilemmas and conflicts - Achieving classic elements of storytelling in a three-act dramatic structure - Mastering different genres

Organic Screenwriting

Organic Screenwriting
Author: Mark David Gerson
Publisher: MDG Media International
Total Pages: 259
Release: 2019-04-20
Genre: Performing Arts
ISBN: 1950189082

Finally! A Book for Screenwriters that Focuses on Creativity, not Rules! "Organic Screenwriting gives us permission to do what we set out to do in the first place: Tell stories from our hearts." – Luke Yankee, writer/producer of TV’s Conversations on Craft Writing for film doesn’t have to feel like an engineered exercise in story-building. Rather, it can be a story-freeing adventure, one that retains all the magic, wonder and awe of movies and make-believe. Learn to craft engaging, compelling, entertaining stories for the screen...spontaneously and without struggle, whether you're a seasoned screenwriter or just starting out. Be the Storyteller You Are...Go Organic: Write Your Screenplay the Natural Way! "What I share here speaks to the core of what I believe, not only about screenwriting but about writing, and that's that creativity is an organic process that relies more on discernment than rules, more on intuition than outlines, more on passion than structure. It's a free-flowing, in-the-moment experience that urges us to turn our backs on cookie-cutter formulas and paint-by-numbers canvasses. It's a realm where Story is king and Muse is both chancellor and court jester. It's a journey where we sit, wide-eyed, in a darkened theater and watch, awestruck, as our screenplay reveals itself to us on the flickering screen." – Mark David Gerson "A seminal work that should be read carefully by any and all aspiring writers for film and television … an enduringly useful reference work." – The Midwest Book Review

The Soul of Screenwriting

The Soul of Screenwriting
Author: Keith Cunningham
Publisher: Continuum
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2008-09-15
Genre: Performing Arts
ISBN: 9780826428691

Uniquely inspired by the work of mythologist Joseph Campbell and psychologist Jean Houston, The Soul of Screenwriting demonstrates how the "screenwriting by numbers" approach that offers templates into which the writer may mechanically drop his or her story idea is fundamentally incomplete. Keith Cunningham maintains that in doing so, one ignores the process of writing. Screenwriting is a long journey and even the most gifted screenwriters get lost along the way. Getting lost, Cunningham reminds us, is part of the process too. What the writer experiences in the act of writing has never been taken into account, yet this is where the screenplay comes from: the writer's here-and-now experience while working on the story. Information-left-brain concepts and techniques about plot structure, character development and orchestration, the dynamics of scenes and sequences-is all necessary. But it is what one does with the information that makes a truly great screenplay. In The Soul of Screenwriting, Cunningham demonstrates that good screenwriting is more than hitting the big "plot points" with exciting action. G ood screenwriting also has integrity and authenticity. It has a "voice," and because it has a voice it speaks to the audience. To gain a voice, the writer needs the heat of creative imagination: passion, commitment, enthusiasm, a drive to know the truth of the characters, and an urge to get to the core of the dramatic conflict without resorting to escapism. These are qualities of the heart, and as Cunningham argues, screenwriting can indeed be, in Carlos Castañeda's phrase, a path with heart.