SoulHonky

Most people gush over Syd Field's book "Screenplay" but personally, I found the screenwriters workshop more helpful.  To me, the toughest part of writing is actually getting an idea out of my head and onto the paper.  This book helps teach structure and also gives you a step-by-step path to move you from concept to actual finished screenplay.  He often talks about the paradigm of a script and gives you a handy diagram. When writing the script for a project during my senior year, I showed my teacher the paradigm diagram of my film.  He looked at it in sheer amazement and even asked if he could keep it.  He walked away staring at it like it was the translation of the Dead Sea Scrolls.

No book can ever teach you how to tell a great story but this book definitely helps in terms of how to put your story together and how to move it from imagination to reality. 

Posted by SoulHonky at 10:18 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The first rule of Hollywood is "Nobody knows anything".  That is basically William Goldman's mantra in his groundbreaking memoir.  The book got Goldman in hot water with some people as he pulled no punches, gave examples of stars behaving badly, and also was merciless on some films, almost giddily pointing out their flaws. 

But perhaps the most interesting part of the book is how Goldman almost seemed to predict the current Marketing Era of film.  While Goldman didn't foresee the script process being as rushed as it is in many cases today, he correctly predicted that sequels would become all the rage and that pre-sold audiences would become more and more important to studio heads (as opposed to quality which would draw in crowds). 

Be sure to pick up the copy of the book that comes with Goldmen's script of "Butch Cassidy & the Sundance Kid".  The book is a quick read but will definitely stay with you.

Posted by SoulHonky at 11:05 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Sidney Lumet's "Making Movies" should be essential reading for anyone interesting in filmmaking.  It goes over through the many steps of filmmaking and offers intriguing insights from one of America's best directors. I probably learned as much from reading this book as I did from my four years at Syracuse's Newhouse School.  (Okay, I learned more at the 'Cuse but I'm not sure I learned more actually useful information).

Some of the lessons are very basic but for some reason they seemed to stick with me more while reading this book.  Something like. "In drama, the characters should determind the story. In melodrama, the story determines the characters." A very basic line but a small tidbit that has always helped me from staying away from writing melodramatic moments into my script. The section on the camera was especially interesting to me but that might be because I never really had training on a film camera (Syracuse focused on the future of cinema DV, which is quickly becoming a thing of the past).

The book is only 11 bucks so it's a cheap and quick read.  Some of the later chapters were a little too technical for my taste but overall, this book is a must-read and is one of the texts I recommend for people trying to learn filmmaking without spending the money to go to film school. 

Posted by SoulHonky at 12:06 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)