Screenplay: Writing the Picture, 2nd Edition Kindle Edition

Russin and Downs have written a masterful book! Incredibly, considering the number of good books on the subject there already are, the authors have not only covered all the normal details of screenwriting craft, they have gone above and beyond.For example, in chapter 6, they cover the historical approaches to screenplay structure. They discuss Aristotle (of course!) then go on to Polti's famous 36 dramatic situations then Egri's work; Campbell's `Hero's Journey' comes next and finally the venerable three act structure and its modern interpretation using page numbers a la Syd Field and others. A few computer programs like Brutus are discussed. Most important, they make sense of it all by giving their fantastic concluding opinions in a concluding section title "Form vs. Formula."Here's a snippet from that section that smacked me upside the head:"It's interesting to note that few Hollywood screenwriting gurus have ever sold a movie (and Aristotle never wrote a play). This is because the ability to structure a story and the ability to analyze the structure of a story are two totally different talents. They come from different parts of the brain. Plato pointed out in his Apology that writers are unable to give an exact account of their process. The same is true with top-notch screenwriters: Unlike the story computer Brutus or screenwriting gurus, good writers seldome have an analytical understanding of what they do or how they do it. Instead, they have a practical understanding of dramatic techniques, the basics of several storytelling methods (like Aristotle, Campbell, and the others), and the ability to use a technique or follow a formula if it works, or to abandon all formulas if they don't."The book is filled with such clear and commonsensical information that that fact alone is worth the price of the book. Another example comes quite early in the opening chapters where they point out that the screenwriter is not writing for an audience but for a reader. This is sometimes forgotten, I believe, in many writers' minds.At the end of every single chapter, there are very interesting exercises (1. Describe a leaf floating on a lake. Describe only the leaf, but from your description we should know details about the lake.) that serve to sharpen the writer's sensibilities and skills.Quite honestly, I am so in love with this book, I have two!Highest recommendation.

The vast majority of screenwriting books fall into 2 categories: pretty good, or pretty average. Then there is the occasional book that is horrible - Robert Berman's "Fade In" for example - and the very rare book that is extraordinary. Screenplay: Writing the Picture falls into this last category.The problem with most screenwriting books is that they manage to cover only a small angle of the process, or they try to span the gamut and do it so thinly as to be useless. Writing the Picture succeeds in covering every aspect of writing a screenplay (or any work of fiction for that matter), and presenting the info in a way that makes it sink in to an applicable level - more than any other book available.It's written as a textbook, and will surely work its way into all screenwriting classrooms across the country within the next few years. Aside from the instruction, there are several great appendices, including a list of other screenwriting books that you need to have, specific clich?s to avoid for each genre, where to find scripts and where to attend graduate screenwriting programs.I do have one complaint though. The degree to which these guys pander to political correctness in the use of gender-specific pronouns is truly staggering - I've never seen anything like it. If a subject is of an unspecified gender, they will always go with "she," and on the rare occasion they do use "he" they always write "he or she" or "s/he." They can't even write a simple euphemism like "The main man." They write - and this is not a joke - they write "the main wo/man," and then a page later write "right hand wo/man."Personally, this really annoys me. It's distracting from the text, and approximately 1% of the population actually gives a rip about this anyway. It's unfortunate they chose this route over the much more readable usage in Robert McKee's "Story." In his book he states very simply, right up front, "...I have avoided constructions that distract the reader's eye, such as the annoying alternation of `she' and `her' with `he' and `him,' the repetitions `he and she' and `him and her,' the awkward `s/he' and `her/im,' and the ungrammatical `the' and `them' as neuter singulars. Rather I use the nonexclusive `he' and `him' to mean `writer.'" We have no such luxury in Writing the Picture, which is filled with enough "wo/man's" and "he or she's" to, well, write a book.

I purchased this book long ago when I took a screenwriting class in college. As a student used to information delivered didactically, I found that Screenplay: Writing the Picture was a breath of fresh air! I loved that the second chapter is devoted strictly to proper format, down to specific tab spacing! The middle of the text is dedicated to adjusting your screenplay to make coherent sense and "passable" to screenplay readers. The book is sprinkled with "War Stories" by the authors that serve as wonderful parables for anyone trying to get into the industry or even write a spec screenplay. The book even goes into "formulas" for genre's and gives useful exercises for beginning and even experienced writers.It is a shame that if you type a search for a "screenwriting" text on standard search engines (even Amazon) this book doesn't come up. Thy give you half-baked books by Syd Field that are all theoretical hoo-ha and of no real variance whatsoever. To me, this is the the ONLY SCREENPLAY BOOK TO OWN because it was written by people from "The Business" that know how damned hard it is if not impossible to break into the industry. I would say it is even better than buying Screenwriting software. At least this book shows you how to outline your screenplay on notecards to examine your story arc and how to get an agent on top of the format, unlike software that formats it for you but cannot give you an inside look as to what studio executives look for in screenplays. (Remember, do not put a brass brad in the middle)I may sound like an archaic school teacher, but spend ten bucks on a used copy of this instead of the 100+ dollars you would spend on software that wouldn't really help you grow as a writer.

The last 5 years I have read, worked through and used the information of script writing books, e-books I got here on Amazon. Where I live Film-Schools, Evening Schools are expensive or do not have the right Stuff.SO, teach yourself. You can get many books from Experts and not so Experts.I wrote 21 scripts and keep on writing.This Book GOT IT ALL and I say EVERYTHING. A University course par excellence. If you want to write for Movies, Television, Webisodes and Video Gaming this is the book I would recommend.Easy to read, easy to understand, great examples and exercises, oh and you should see all the titles this Professor has.Best book YET.

A pompous attitude comes through, and with only one section of value to me, I won't be reading the other sections any time soon. Out of date attitude and references. And the formatting is horrendous.Any book that tells you about formatting properly and then doesn't has a problem.

Clearly written and outlined. Excellent screenplay writing resource book.

Pour qui maitrise l'anglais et désire connaitre les bases du screenwriting c'est tout simplement le meilleur livre. Un essentiel simple avec des exemples concrets.