The great challenge in writing a feature-length screenplay is sustaining audience involvement from page one through 120. Screenwriting: The Sequence Approach expounds on an often-overlooked tools can be key in solving this problem. A screenplay can be understood as being built of sequences of about fifteen pages each, and by focusing on solving the dramatic aspects of each of these sequences in detail, a writer can more easily conquer the challenges posed by the script as a whole.
The sequence approach has its foundation in early Hollywood cinema (until the 1950s, most screenplays were formated with sequences explicitly identified), and has been rediscovered and used effectively at such film schools as the University of Southern California, Columbia University and Chapman University. This book exposes a wide audiences to the approach for the first time, introducing the concept then providing a sequence analysis of eleven significant feature films made between 1940 and 2000.
The Shop Around the Corner / Double Indemnity / Nights of Cabiria / North by Northwest / Lawrence of Arabia / The Graduate / One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest / Toy Story / Air Force One / Being John Malkovich / The Fellowship of the Ring
Customer Reviews:
Avg. Customer Rating: 3.5 / 5.0
Exceptional Approach to Screenwriting:
It's been a little while since I went slightly crazy and started buying screenwriting books machine-gun style. I'm much calmer, thanks. The point is, I've done a bit of reading bout screenwriting. I started with Field and graduated to McKee. Branching out, I discovered some gems (like Teach Yourself Screenwriting and Writing a Great Movie: Key Tools for Successful Screenwriting) but most stuck close to the so-called paradigm of three acts. One, by the way, that I agree with although I may not... more info
very dry:
this is a dry little book that offers virtually nothing new for screenplay structure. it explains rather briefly what the format of a "sequence" is, then provides several examples of films broken down to demonstrate the author's view of the sequence approach. however that is all the author does: list each scene in the section they occur in, without providing any insight whatsoever onto the significance of organizing a script into this structure, nor on any thematic relativity to the same. very academic and... more info
Fairly Decent Introduction to Sequences:
Unfortunately, I had to knock it down two stars. Gulino lost one star for including only a cursory overview of sequences and the second for presenting a piss poor analysis of Fellowship of the Ring. Seriously, a "screenwriting" professor should be savvy enough to understand that Fellowship of the RIngs actually has a fairly solid structure. Gulino's primary error is in a fundamental miscalculation of the protagonist. If you get that wrong, everything else feels unsteady. To be fair, it is... more info
A must for storytellers:
Screenwriting books, like fiction writing manuals, tend to rehash the advice of their predecessors more than offer any new material. So when I picked up SCREENWRITING: THE SEQUENCE APPROACH by Paul Joseph Gulino, and read the tagline "The Hidden Structure of Successful Screenplays," I thought to myself, "Okay, Paul, let's see if there really IS a hidden structure for successful screenplays." The result? A book that utterly and completely blew me away. Gulino defines a "sequence" and why the best... more info
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