Showing titles in Screenwriting

Theme park designer Margaret Kerrison shares tips and tricks for writers on teams tasked with bringing a narrative to life. How do you take an idea from inspiration to manifestation? How do you move from telling a story to creating a world? In this book, the first of its kind written specifically for writers, Kerrison lays out the craft of immersive storytelling, using case studies to show what works and highlighting the essential role of the writer on a creative team. Ready to take the kernel of an idea and turn it into a full-fledged experience? This book gives you the blueprint.

There are nearly 50,000 screenplays registered with the Writer’s Guild every year. And 99 percent of them suck. But they don’t have to. That’s why I decided to write this book. So before you head out to another hundred-dollar screenwriting conference to learn how to write a screenplay or buy another paint-by-the-numbers 3-act script formula give my book a try. I can’t guarantee you’ll sell your script.

A great script is only as good as the effort you put into your career, but there is little information for the aspiring screenwriter about how to break in. Even those who study TV or film in college are taught to simply “get a production assistant job.” But then what? Anton Schettini provides a rare insider’s glimpse of the modern-day network and streaming TV writers’ room. Here, you will find practical advice, career path strategies, and first-hand accounts for how to establish your network, grow within it, and acquire the necessary tools to become a TV writer.

In a new edition of this popular guidebook, filmmakers Alan Rosenthal and Ned Eckhardt show listeners how to utilize the latest innovations in equipment, technologies, and production techniques for success in the digital, web-based world of documentary film.

No one knows the writer's Hollywood more intimately than William Goldman. Two-time Academy Award-winning screenwriter and the best-selling author of Marathon Man, Tinsel, Boys and Girls Together, and other novels, Goldman now takes you into Hollywood's inner sanctums...on and behind the scenes for Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, All the President's Men, and other films...into the plush offices of Hollywood producers...into the working lives of acting greats such as Redford, Olivier, Newman, and Hoffman...and more.

In 1953, a young Ray Bradbury is summoned to Ireland by the brilliant but terrifying titan of cinema, John Huston. His mission: capture on paper the fiercest of all literary beasts - Moby Dick. But from the moment he sets foot on Irish soil, the author embarks on an unexpected odyssey. As Bradbury works and wrangles with the renowned director to craft a workable screenplay so filming can begin, he also develops a love affair with the beautiful, mysterious land of Ireland and its inhabitants.

There is one sure-fire way of improving your novel fast...You may know the fundamentals of how to write fiction. You may be more than competent in plot, structure and characters. But if your dialogue is dull it will drag the whole story down...Don't sabotage your chances of selling your work to readers or publishers because the dialogue is unexceptional. Dazzle them with what the characters say. How to Write Dazzling Dialogue will give you the tools to do it.

Following up his perennially best-selling writers' guide Story and his inspiring exploration of the art of verbal action in Dialogue, the most sought-after expert in the storytelling brings his insights to the creation of compelling characters and the design of their casts. Character explores the design of a character universe: The dimensionality, complexity and arcing of a protagonist, the invention of orbiting major characters, all encircled by a cast of service and supporting roles.

This revised and updated edition is a complete resource for anyone who wants to write and produce a television drama series or create an original series, as well as for teachers in screenwriting classes and workshops. It leads listeners step-by-step through each stage of the development and writing process, offering practical industry information and artistic inspiration. This edition also takes listeners into the future, engaging provocative issues about the interface between traditional TV and emerging technologies.

In the perfect companion piece to his first book, Blake Snyder delivers even more insider information gleaned from a 20-year track record as one of Hollywood's most successful spec screenwriters. Designed for screenwriters, novelists, and movie fans, this book gives listeners key breakdowns of the 50 most instructional movies from the past 30 years. From M*A*S*H to Crash, Alien to Saw, and 10 to Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Snyder reveals how screenwriters in the past tackled the same challenges faced by screenwriters today.

We all love stories. But why do we tell them? And why do all stories function in an eerily similar way? John Yorke, creator of the BBC Writers' Academy, has brought a vast array of drama to British screens. Here he takes us on a journey to the heart of storytelling, revealing that there truly is a unifying shape to narrative forms - one that echoes the fairytale journey into the woods and, like any great art, comes from deep within. From ancient myths to big-budget blockbusters, he gets to the root of the stories that are all around us, every day.

In Dialogue, Robert McKee offers in-depth analysis for how characters speak on the screen, on the stage, and on the page in believable and engaging ways. From Macbeth to Breaking Bad, McKee deconstructs key scenes to illustrate the strategies and techniques of dialogue. Dialogue applies a framework of incisive thinking to instruct the prospective writer on how to craft artful, impactful speech.

Eric Edson has developed a new tool for bringing depth and passion to any screenplay or novel - the 23 Actions All Great Heroes Must Take. It's an easy-to-understand paradigm that provides writers and filmmakers the interconnecting, powerful storytelling elements they need. With true insight, this accomplished screenwriter and university professor pinpoints the story structure reasons most new spec scripts don't sell.

Every aspect of screenwriting is covered with an authority and credibility never seen in any book to come before. Told with honesty, humor, and vulnerability from the real-world perspective of a working, professional screenwriter, Kill the Dog reveals the secrets of what it takes to have a successful career as a Hollywood screenwriter.

This is a short book, with just one goal - to teach you the simple principles you can use right now to design a powerful scene before you write it. If you've already written your novel, you can use these same principles to make each scene better.

Super Structure represents over two decades of research on what makes a novel or screenplay entertaining, commercial, original, and irresistible. Contrary to what some may think, structure is not a nasty inhibitor of creativity. Quite the opposite. Properly understood and utilized, structure is what translates story into a form audiences are wired to receive it.

Most screenwriting books tend to focus on story structure, scene writing, navigating the business, and other parts of the craft that come after the initial choice of the central concept for a story. Multiple Emmy- and Golden Globe-winning writer/producer Erik Bork (HBO’s Band of Brothers) takes a different approach. His experience in the industry and as a screenwriting professor and coach have led him to recognize that it's the selection of the initial idea that is the most important part of the process - with the most impact on the project's chance of success.

Bull Durham, the breakthrough 1988 film about a minor league baseball team, is widely revered as the best sports movie of all time. But back in 1987, Ron Shelton was a first-time director and no one was willing to finance a movie about baseball—especially a story set in the minors. The jury was still out on Kevin Costner’s leading-man potential, while Susan Sarandon was already a has-been. There were doubts. But something miraculous happened, and The Church of Baseball attempts to capture why.

Veteran script consultant Jill Chamberlain discovered in her work that an astounding 99 percent of first-time screenwriters don't know how to tell a story. What the 99 percent do instead is present a situation. In order to explain the difference, Chamberlain created the nutshell technique, a method whereby writers identify eight dynamic, interconnected elements that are required to successfully tell a story. Now, for the first time, Chamberlain presents her unique method in audiobook form with The Nutshell Technique: Crack the Secret of Successful Screenwriting.

What are the secrets for writing a great ending for your novel? How do you leave readers so satisfied that they'll want another book by you, right now? What tools and techniques can shape your last 50 pages into a powerful, unforgettable experience? Listen to this audiobook, and you will come away with a thorough knowledge of why great endings work and how to create them for every novel you write.