101 Things I Learned (TM) in Film School Review

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(More customer reviews)I carry around a little black book--101 Things I Learned in Film School by Neil Landau. Ever since I bought and read it, I have been carrying this excellent book around with me like a good luck charm so I can have Landau's sage wisdom and years of talent/expert advice and experience as a screenwriter/filmmaker at my fingertips. I am sure you will feel the same about its contents--you'll never "lose" this book - it's chocked full of 101 powerful lessons on screenwriting and film for the beginner, intermediate, or advanced student. Even professional filmmakers/screenwriters will benefit from reviewing all of the book's most pertinent ideas and advice to recharge their creativity or focus anew on a project or script.
As a professor of creative writing, I will now use 101 Things I Learned in Film School in all my film/screenwriting classes. Additionally, as the Director of both the Chicago Writers' Workshop and the Los Angeles Writers' Workshop, I am implementing this book into all of our screenwriting and film classes! Forget about spending thousands of dollars on film school when this book can give you so much at a fraction of the cost--expert advice from a master who knows Hollywood and his craft, Neil Landau. I highly recommend 101 Things I Learned in Film School!


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How to set a scene? What's the best camera angle? How does the new technology interact with scenes? And how does one even get the financing to make a movie?These basic questions and much more are all covered in this exquisite packaged book on the film industry and making movies as a profession.Written by Neil Landau, an experienced screenwriter and script consultant to the major movie studios, this is the perfect book for anyone who wants to know about the inner-workings of this industry. Whether it's someone who wants tomake movies as a full-timecareer, or just someone who is interested in film, this book covers it all.

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The Tools of Screenwriting: A Writer's Guide to the Craft and Elements of a Screenplay Review

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(More customer reviews)Forget all of the other books out there...or, buy the other books, but make this one first on your list. Howard and Mabley are both accomplished professional writers and they know their tools of the craft, which they now share with you. This book succeeds immensely simply because it lists the elements of a screenplay and tells how each is best used and why. It has all of the basic elements: Dialogue, Dramatic Irony, etc. But ever heard of "Preparation and Aftermath", "Future and Advertising", "Planting and Payoff", or "Plausibility"? If not, then learn how to include them in YOUR screenplay to make it better, more exciting, and more fulfilling in a dramatic and universal way. Absolutely the best book on screenwriting. Period. Buy it now. I have read it a countless number of times and each time I learn something new or it spurs my imagination to create something new in the world of my screenplay. Please do yourself a favor and get a hold of this book. A masterpiece of screenplay instruction.

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How to Write a Movie in 21 Days: The Inner Movie Method Review

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(More customer reviews)...at least not one that's actually sellable, or that has enough depth and craftsmanship to survive in the real-world marketplace. To think otherwise is to be laughably naive. Having said that, I strongly recommend this book!
Why the discrepancy? Simple. I've been writing for years, off and on. I've read dozens of screenwriting books, and taken a few of the big screenwriting courses. I've started writing about 50 screenplays, and completed about 3 of them.
One of the troubles I had (sound familiar?), is that I would begin writing, get about 30 or 40 pages into it, and then stop. Either I went off-course, I began to hate my concept or characters, thought my writing was atrocious, or came up with "a better idea." The result? Dozens of half-completed screenplays.
A writer writes. And writing is re-writing. You'll never fully appreciate these clichés until you ACTUALLY SIT DOWN AND WRITE! And don't stop!
The script I wrote when I actually APPLIED this book (about 2 years after I bought it) was written in about 48 days. Hmmph! But you know what? It was WRITTEN. It was complete. It was my first, fully-completed screenplay. And it was actually pretty darn good.
Truth be told, when you finish writing the script Viki King helps you get out on paper, it will likely be only a FIRST DRAFT. Chances are, there'll be a lot more work to do. Re-writing. Making it more organic. Adding depth and breadth to your characters. Expanding your subplots and building elements necessary to your story that Viki's book overlooks (things experience will teach you). But if you've never written a screenplay before (or never completed one you like), this book will talk you through it. And it will give you the basic tools needed to actually complete it. Because before you can re-write, hone, and perfect... you need to get it on paper in the first place!
Make no mistake about it. If you buy into the idea that you'll get this book and have a sellable screenplay a month later, you'll be disappointed. You're not a writer. You're a get-rich-quick wishful thinker. Writing screenplays is a tough business, let alone a difficult process. It just doesn't happen overnight.
The power and beauty of this book is its ability (if you actually FOLLOW it) to help you get through the battle that happens inside, when you sit down to write. It will get your script on paper. It will make you a writer. The quality of your writing gets better with experience. Applying the principles of this book will give you that experience.
Also: Others have accused this book of being "spiritual". It's not. It's motivational, it's inspirational, it's conversational. Just what a first-time or would-be writer needs to overcome his battle with himself.
Some people talk. Other people act. Those who act will get value out of this book.
As I write this review, the script I wrote (in, umm, 48 days) is currently in post-production. And the script I'm working on now is even better.
It's a process. And this is a wonderful first step. A wonderful tool to help you through the self-imposed barriers to succeeding at this craft.

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The Five C's of Cinematography: Motion Picture Filming Techniques Review

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(More customer reviews)As an amateur just starting to get serious about turning my "home movies" into something people actually WANT to watch, I searched for a long time to find an introductory book that not only told you HOW to do things, but WHY you should do them.
After many disappointments, I found this book. While some of the references (script girl is particularly amusing) are very dated, the text mainly covers technique and avoids technology.
The illustrations and printing style point quite obviously to the book's mid-60s origin. An introduction by someone who remembers what it was like to shoot film in 1908 and knew D.W. Griffith personally should tip you off immediately that this book is something special. Still, the illustrations are clear and help illustrate the text's points very well.
In spite of what many recent amateur (and professional) film makers think, technology does not make your film good, it just makes it easy. TECHNIQUE makes it good. And that's what this book teaches in a very clear, readable, and understandable way.
Very highly recommended if you've had your fill of general introductory texts and are looking for real instruction and explanation for how to actually MAKE a film.

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With the aid of photographs and diagrams, this text concisely presents concepts and techniques of motion picture camerawork and the allied areas of film-making with which they interact with and impact. Included are discussions on: cinematic time and space; compositional rules; and types of editing.

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Screenplay: The Foundations of Screenwriting Review

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(More customer reviews)Reading reader reviews of books on writing for the screen is about like reading reviews of movies: There's a lot of disagreement between the eyes of beholders. I sometimes think I should ask the reviewers at Mr. Showbiz what I should get high on before going to see what they consider a masterpiece.
"Screenplay" was sent to me by a movie producer who asked me to write a screenplay for a book I wrote. When I lamented that I knew nothing about writing screenplays, he said the book he'd just read proved to him I could write; all I needed was to understand some important aspects of the screenplay vs. the book.
I've learned a lot from Syd Field. "Screenplay" clearly showed me the visual aspects of film, "It's all about pictures," Field stresses over and over. If I learned nothing else from him, how to put a screenplay into professional format would make "Screenplay" worth the trip.
Sure, I had to study the book, go back over it several times before I got this, or that. But gosh, diving into writing screenplays isn't like a lesson in Microsoft Windows -- click here, drag that over there.
There's a lot to learn, and Syd Field offers a lot of guidance for the serious student. I don't care if he's never written a screenplay. Some of the very best book editors wrote nothing except editorial marks on others' works. The fabled Scribner's editor of old, Max Perkins, who brought some of their best out of Scott Fitzgerald, Hemingway, James Jones, Marjorie Kennan Rawlings, etc. etc., never wrote a book.
I'll say this: If you want to read a book on screenplays and put it down with the feeling you're ready to roll, don't bother with anybody's book on the subject. But if you really want to learn, if you have the requisite creativity -- AND gritty energy -- you'll get your money's worth from Syd Field's "Screenplay."
Also, his "Four Screenplays" has been very helpful to me. Field has a way of reinforcing things by saying them a different way, in a different setting. I really didn't get his advice to "get into a scene late and get out early" until I read this book. And didn't he pick some dandies? "Thelma and Louise" and "The Silence of the Lambs" are the two I studied most diligently, and what a ride it's been. Two great, great movies, to my mind, both demonstrating what Syd Field repeatedy shows us are important elements of fine screenplays.
One other thing, Field's coaching has put a tiny new edge on my writing skills as regards books, too, a benefit he probably didn't expect a writer would obtain.

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Writing Movies for Fun and Profit: How We Made a Billion Dollars at the Box Office and You Can, Too Review

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(More customer reviews)This book is full of practical, professional advice on how to swim with the sharks in the very weird world of Hollywood screenwriting. In many ways it's more about the business of writing and selling movies, than it is about how to write. But I've got lots of books on writing; this is the first one that's quite like this.
Not surprisingly, since Lennon and Garant are comedy guys, it's a very funny book. It's easy to read, in a self-mocking conversational tone, and it seems like they're telling real, often embarrassing stories that actually happened to them. There are details that I've never seen in other screenwriting books, like how to tell if you've "made it," based on your studio parking spot; how to take notes from executives and movie stars; what script arbitration is, and how to win at it; and how to get fired with a gracious smile, and then get hired again.
They're also obsessed with In n Out Burger, and dedicate many pages to printing its secret menu and all the locations in Los Angeles. At first I didn't get what that had to do with movies. But whatever. It's part of their guide to living in Los Angeles, so I guess it makes sense?
"Writing Movies..." is unapologetically NOT about "art" or anything at all high-minded, so if that's what you're looking for, the writers are happy to send you elsewhere. I believe they suggest "gazing longingly out the window at the moor." They also say that if you follow their system, you'll soon think of "Oscar Season" as "Ski Season," because the kind of movies they're talking about will never win any Academy Awards anyway. Probably not a book for Documentarians, or Art House types. But if you like your popcorn movies, and if you're looking for tons of practical advice for going into the business of making them, it seems like a genuinely great book.
Also, I can't wait to try to sell some the "free movie ideas" in the back of the book. Somebody's got to do it...

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Finally, a guide to screenwriting by two guys who have actually done it (instead of some schmuck who just gives lectures about screenwriting at the airport Marriott). Robert Ben Garant and Thomas Lennon's movies have made over a billion dollars at the box office—and now they show you how to do it yourself! This book is full of secret insider information about how to conquer the Hollywood studio system: how to write, pitch, structure, and get drunk with the best of them. Well . . . maybe not the best of them, but certainly the most successful of them. (If you're aiming to win an Oscar, this is not the book for you!) But if you can type a little, and can read and speak English—then you too can start turning your words into $TACK$ OF MONEY! This is the only screenwriting book you will ever need because all the other ones pretty much suck. In these pages, Garant and Lennon provide the kind of priceless tips you won't find anywhere else, including: • THE ART OF PITCHING • GETTING YOUR FOOT IN THE DOOR • TAKING NOTES FROM MOVIE STARS • HOW TO GET FIRED AND REHIRED • HOW TO GET CREDIT AND ROYALTIES! AND MOST IMPORTANT: • WHAT TO BUY WITH THE HUGE PILES OF MONEY YOU'RE GOING TO MAKE! Writing Movies for Fun and Profit will take you through the highs and lows of life as a professional screenwriter. From the highs of hugging Gisele Bundchen, and getting kung fu punched by Jackie Chan, to the soul-crushing lows of Herbie: Fully Loaded. READ THIS BOOK—and you'll have everything you need to make your first billion the old-fashioned way—by "selling out" in show business! A portion of the authors' proceeds from this book are being contributed to the USO of Metropolitan Washington, a private, nonprofit organization dedicated to serving active duty military members and their families in greater Washington, D.C., region.

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