Screenplay: Writing the Picture
by Russin, Robin U.; Downs, William MissouriEdition: 2nd
Format: Paperback
Pub. Date: 2012-03-01
Publisher(s): Silman-James Pr
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Summary
Screenplay is a complete screenwriting course-from initial idea through final script sale-providing in-depth discussions of theme development; story research; script plotting and structuring; character development; dialogue; writing arid rewriting methods; formatting; the ins and outs of marketing and pitching scripts; writing for TV, the Web and video games... and much more.
Author Biography
Robin U. Russin is a Professor of Screenwriting at the University of California, Riverside, where he serves as director of the MFA program in Creative Writing and Writing for the Performing Arts. He has written, produced and directed film, TV, theater and transmedia projects. Russin is coauthor of Naked Play writing. A Rhodes Scholar, he holds degrees from Harvard, Oxford, Rhode Island School of Design and UCLA, where he earned an MFA in screenwriting. William Missouri Downs is an award-winning playwright who has written for film and several NBC sitcoms. His plays have been produced throughout the world and published by Samuel French and Playscripts. He is coauthor of The Art of Theatre and Naked Playwriting. Downs holds an MFA in screenwriting from UCLA.
Table of Contents
| Acknowledgments | p. x |
| Fade In | p. xi |
| Preface | p. xiii |
| The Basics | p. 1 |
| How to Impress a Reader | p. 3 |
| Who Are Those Guys? | p. 4 |
| What Are They Looking For? | p. 5 |
| Writing in Style | p. 14 |
| Final Thoughts | p. 15 |
| Exercises | p. 15 |
| Format | p. 16 |
| Formatting and Formatting Software | p. 17 |
| Setting Up Your Script | p. 17 |
| Exercises | p. 36 |
| Theme, Meaning and Emotion | p. 37 |
| Full of Sound and Fury, Signifying Nothing (Yet) | p. 37 |
| Themes All Right to Me | p. 39 |
| Write from the Heart | p. 41 |
| Papa, Don't Preach | p. 41 |
| How to Reveal the Theme | p. 42 |
| Some Consequence Yet Hanging in the Stars | p. 43 |
| Final Thoughts | p. 44 |
| Exercises | p. 44 |
| The World of the Story | p. 45 |
| Through the Looking Glass (Story and World) | p. 46 |
| The Right (Wo)man at the Right Time in the Right Place (Character and World) | p. 47 |
| Laughing past the Graveyard (Contrast and Irony) | p. 49 |
| Show and Tell (World and Exposition) | p. 55 |
| Been There, Done That (Research and Consistency) | p. 58 |
| Final Thoughts | p. 59 |
| Exercises | p. 59 |
| Character | p. 60 |
| Which Came First, the Honey or the Bee? | p. 60 |
| Geez, You Act like You're in a Movie | p. 61 |
| What on Earth Is He Doing Here? (Character Functions) | p. 62 |
| What's the Situation? (Character and Context) | p. 68 |
| Turn On the Spotlight (Character Elements) | p. 72 |
| The Arc or the Covenant (Character Arc vs. Catalytic Character) | p. 81 |
| Write You Are (Building Characters) | p. 83 |
| A Piece of Sugar (The Shorthand of Dogs, Cats, Children and Tucking in Blankets) | p. 88 |
| Final Thoughts | p. 89 |
| Exercise | p. 90 |
| Story Structure | p. 91 |
| Historical Approaches to Structure | p. 93 |
| Structure Strictures | p. 93 |
| Aristotle and Poetics | p. 94 |
| Plotto and Thirty-Six Dramatic Situations | p. 97 |
| Lajos Egri and The Art of Dramatic Writing | p. 97 |
| Joseph Campbell and the Hero's Journey | p. 98 |
| The Three-Act Structure | p. 100 |
| Automated Story Development | p. 108 |
| Final Thoughts | p. 109 |
| Exercises | p. 110 |
| Power and Conflict | p. 111 |
| May the Force Be With You (Power and Conflict) | p. 112 |
| The Orchestration of Power and Conflict | p. 117 |
| Types of Story Conflict | p. 119 |
| Final Thoughts | p. 134 |
| Exercises | p. 134 |
| Beats, Scenes and Sequences | p. 135 |
| Follow the Beat | p. 135 |
| Making a Scene | p. 138 |
| Sequences | p. 149 |
| That's Another Story (Subplot Sequences) | p. 156 |
| Final Thoughts | p. 157 |
| Exercises | p. 158 |
| Scene Cards | p. 163 |
| It's in the Cards | p. 164 |
| Final Thoughts | p. 182 |
| Exercises | p. 182 |
| Entering the Story | p. 183 |
| The Terminator: Man vs. Machine | p. 184 |
| Big Night: Soul vs. Success | p. 187 |
| Exercises | p. 192 |
| The Structure of Genres | p. 194 |
| A Moving (Picture) Experience | p. 195 |
| Courage | p. 197 |
| Fear and Loathing | p. 206 |
| The Need to Know | p. 214 |
| Laughter | p. 220 |
| Love and Longing | p. 229 |
| Final Thoughts | p. 234 |
| Exercises | p. 234 |
| Writing | p. 235 |
| Narrative | p. 237 |
| Keep It Moving! | p. 237 |
| Write Only What We Can See or Hear | p. 242 |
| Describing Characters | p. 243 |
| Describing Locations | p. 244 |
| Final Thoughts | p. 250 |
| Exercises | p. 251 |
| Dialogue | p. 253 |
| The Role of Dialogue | p. 254 |
| How Can I Say This? (Dialogue Techniques) | p. 260 |
| I Was Born in a Log Cabin I Built with My Own Hands… (Exposition) | p. 276 |
| Technical Do's and Don't's | p. 280 |
| For Crying Out Loud! | p. 283 |
| Final Thoughts | p. 284 |
| Exercises | p. 284 |
| Rewriting | p. 291 |
| It's Great! Now Let Me Fix It | p. 292 |
| Taking It Apart and Putting It Back Together | p. 297 |
| Final Thoughts | p. 301 |
| Exercises | p. 302 |
| Marketing | p. 303 |
| Marketing the Script | p. 305 |
| The Writers Guild of America | p. 305 |
| Representation | p. 311 |
| Production Companies | p. 320 |
| Networking | p. 323 |
| Film Schools | p. 326 |
| Final Thoughts | p. 327 |
| Exercise | p. 327 |
| The Pitch | p. 328 |
| To Pitch or Not to Pitch | p. 328 |
| Getting in the Door | p. 331 |
| Final Thoughts | p. 342 |
| Exercises | p. 342 |
| Alternatives | p. 343 |
| Writing for Television | p. 345 |
| Writing a Spec | p. 346 |
| Sitcom Format Guide | p. 352 |
| Writing Comedy | p. 354 |
| You Need an Agent | p. 357 |
| L.A. Is Where You Want to Be | p. 358 |
| Pitching for Television | p. 359 |
| A Life in Television | p. 361 |
| Final Thoughts | p. 362 |
| Writing Webisodes | p. 363 |
| Webi-Premise | p. 364 |
| Webi-Structure | p. 365 |
| Webi-Characters | p. 367 |
| Webi-Pilot | p. 368 |
| Webi-Cheap | p. 370 |
| Webi-Format | p. 370 |
| Webi-Talent | p. 371 |
| Webi-Scripts | p. 371 |
| Writing for Video Gaines | p. 380 |
| You Are There | p. 380 |
| First Things First | p. 381 |
| The Real World: Breaking and Entering | p. 386 |
| Final Thoughts | p. 386 |
| Fade Out | p. 389 |
| Final Thoughts on Becominga Screenwriter | p. 391 |
| Templates | p. 393 |
| Suggested Reading | p. 400 |
| A Few Clichés to Avoid like the Plague | p. 402 |
| Graduate (MFA) Screenwriting Programs | p. 404 |
| Glossary | p. 405 |
| Index | p. 409 |
| About the Authors | p. 424 |
| Table of Contents provided by Ingram. All Rights Reserved. |
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