101 Things I Learned in Film School by
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 to make movies as a full-timecareer, or just someone who is interested in film, this book covers it all.
Alternative Scriptwriting by
Alternative Scriptwriting 4E is an insightful and inspiring book on screenwriting concerned with challenging you to take creative risks with genre, tone, character, and structure. Concerned with exploring alternative approaches beyond the traditional three-act structure, Alternative Scriptwriting first defines conventional approach, suggests alternatives, then provides case studies. These contemporary examples and case studies demonstrate what works, what doesn't, and why. Because the film industry as well as the public demand greater and greater creativity, one must go beyond the traditional three-act restorative and predictable plot to test your limits and break new creative ground. Rather than teaching writing in a tired formulaic manner, this book elevates the subject and provides inspiration to reach new creative heights.
What Happens Next by
“Fascinating.” —Los Angeles Times A brilliant, wildly entertaining history of Hollywood from the screenwriters’ perspective In this truly fresh take on the movies, veteran Oscar-winning screenwriter Marc Norman gives us the first comprehensive history of the men and women who penned some of the greatest movies of all time. Impeccably researched, erudite, and filled with unforgettable stories of the stars and scribes, amateurs and auteurs, directors, producers, and legendary moguls, What Happens Next is a unique and engrossing narrative of the quintessential art form of our time.
The Complete Screenwriter's Manual by
The most complete and comprehensive presentation of screenplay format and style ever written,The Screenwriter’s Manualis designed for beginning and intermediate screenwriting students. Written by an author team with extensive professional and academic experience,The Screenwriter’s Manualis the only book that offers a systematic approach to mastering the complexities of writing for the screen. With its step-by step approach, this text is appropriate for readers of all experience levels.
Writing the Romantic Comedy by
From the slapstick shenanigans of Hepburn and Grant in Bringing Up Baby to the sexy repartee of Shakespeare in Love, romantic comedies have delighted filmgoers -- and challenged screenwriters -- since Hollywood's Golden Age. Whether you're a first time screenwriter, or an intermediate marooned in the rewriting process, this thoroughly charming and insightful guide to the basics of crafting a winning script will take you step by step from "cute meet" all the way to "joyous defeat." You'll learn the screenwriting secrets behind some of the funniest scenes ever written; how to create characters and dialogue that set the sparks flying; why some bedroom scenes sizzle and others fall flat; and much more. Writing the Romantic Comedy features case studies drawn from beloved romantic comedies such as When Harry Met Sally, Annie Hall, Tootsie, and The Lady Eve, as well as field-tested writing exercises guaranteed to short-circuit potential mistakes and ensure inspiration.
FrameWork: A History of Screenwriting in the American Film by 
The Literature/Film Reader by For more works on screenwriting, try searching OneSearch by the term "Motion picture authorship."
Classic American Films: conversations with the screenwriters by
Explores the origin and development of classic American films with the screenwriters who composed these great works.
David Mamet by
Author, essayist, playwright, and screenwriter, David Mamet is often referred to as the quintessential American writer. His works are known for their clever and terse dialogue and have earned him a Pulitzer Prize forGlengarry Glen Ross and Oscar nominations forHouse of Games as well asThe Spanish Prisoner,Wag the Dog, andThe Verdict. This comprehensive biography uses extensive theater and film archives to reveal in detail his ideas on writing--including the genesis for many of his plays--acting, and directing. Beginning with his Chicago origins, the work goes on to cover his relationship to Judaism, his reputation for machismo, as well as discussions of and excerpts from early plays and stories that have never before been referenced in print. Also included are interviews with key actors and directors such as William H. Macy, Mike Nussbaum, Robert Brustein, and Neil Pepe.
Mad As Hell by
"That Paddy Chayefsky was the greatest writer ever to emerge from television's fabled "Golden Age" is unquestionable. But that his work for television, theatre, and film firmly places him alongside his most heralded contemporaries - Arthur Miller, William Inge, and Tennessee Williams - is the compelling thesis of Mad as Hell: The Life and Work of Paddy Chayefsky by Shaun Considine." "In Considine's exhaustively researched biography of Chayefsky, we examine the formative roots of the only individual screenwriter ever to win three Academy Awards (for Marty, The Hospital, and Network). From his boyhood in the Bronx to his tumultuous years in Hollywood, Chayefsky emerges here as an ambitious man, devoted in his friendships, hesitant and shy in romance, yet fierce and exacting as a creative force. His genius for capturing the American vernacular elicited classic performances by such legends as Bette Davis, Kim Stanley, and George C. Scott, and his larger-than-life personality garnered him close relationships with such varied notables as Laurence Olivier, Elizabeth Taylor, Kim Novak, Bob Fosse, and playwright Herb Gardner. And for each friendship there also seemed to be a fight: Chayefsky's vengeful brawl with Marilyn Monroe and Arthur Miller, his tempestuous struggles with Edward G. Robinson, Burt Lancaster, Zero Mostel, and Ken Russell, and his politically charged hatred for Vanessa Redgrave are just a few of the conflicts detailed here." "Throughout his fifty-eight years, Paddy Chayefsky was a man in search of understanding - of both himself and his changing world. Unhappily, a sense of fulfillment and of his own identity would remain beyond his grasp until his final days. His hopeful optimism in the 1950s evolved into a resolutely skeptical view of contemporary life, as he confronted in his scripts the military, the medical and television industries, and even man's relationship to God. In Mad as Hell, Shaun Considine gives us, at last, a full picture of a unique latter-century American genius."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved
Some Time in the Sun: The Hollywood Years of Fitzgerald, Faulkner, Nathanael West, Aldous Huxley and James Agee by 
Dashiell Hammett and the Movies by For more works on screenwriters, try searching OneSearch by the term "Screenwriters."
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