This book isn't about me, it's about you. I am a teacher, not a guru. As a wise teacher once said, "With a guru it is all about the guru--his vision and the students' loyalty to him. Whereas with a teacher, it is all about the students learning." You should be reading this book because you, as screenwriters, directors, producers, development executives, critics, historians, students in those disciplines, and just plain movie fans want to learn about screenplays.
Feisty, clever, entertaining, and at times incredibly arch and cutting, Tom Stempel's Understanding Screenwriting delivers a practical how-to (or how-NOT-to) guide to writing a screenplay. Why study a bad screenplay? For the simple fact that it will train you to look for problems in your own work and avoid them in the future.
* Why does Rear Window's success owe more to John Michael Hayes's screenplay than Alfred Hitchcock's directing?
* Why is Bull Durham's "I believe in the church of baseball" one of the great opening lines in the history of movies?
* Why is James Cameron's first draft screenplay for Titanic better than the film?
* What can we learn from Kinsey about writing about sex for American audiences?
* Why is Lawrence of Arabia one of the best examples of "writing for performance" in films, not only the performances of the actors, but also of the director, cinematographer, and composer?
Stempel guides the reader through a cross section of cinema: historical epic, adventure,science fiction, teen comedy, drama, romantic comedy, suspense--films with budgets large and small. Selective in its discussions and (sometimes withering) analyses, Stempel dissects the blockbusters and the bombs, discusses why certain aspects of a screenplay work and others do not, explains the difference between the film we watch and what was, the screenplay, and lays out some of screenwriting's hard and fast taboos, only to give examples of screenplays that break them, with successful results. Full of insight for novice and expert screenwriters alike, Understanding Screenwriting is the perfect book for anyone looking to gain a deeper understanding of how screenplays work.
Customer Reviews:
Avg. Customer Rating: 5.0 / 5.0
A must read for screenwriting students and fans of movies!:
Tom Stempel, or Professor Stempel as many have known him for over thirty years, has written a must read book for all screenwriting students or for anyone who wants to understand screenplays and films on a more in-depth level. Everything from classic films like Lawrence of Arabia, to modern blockbusters like Titanic, and even teenage comedies like the American Pie series are dissected to give the reader a chance to understand how screenplays are structured and to see what works and what does not work.more info
Every screenwriting instructor should use this book!:
Stempel's premise: that screenwriting students can learn just about as much from analyzing bad and so-so scripts as they can from studying the good ones. And, he's right. Using nearly 100 examples (the earliest being 1962's "Lawrence of Arabia"), Stempel guides his readers through plot, story, character, and dialogue and lets them draw their own conclusions. His own writing style is concise, very clever, and wonderfully candid, and the man can spot plot and logic holes at 50 paces. I have recommended this... more info
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