This revised and updated edition is a complete resource for anyone who wants to write and produce for television drama series or create an original series, as well as for teachers in screenwriting classes and workshops. It leads the reader step-by-step through every stage of the development and writing process, offering practical industry information and artistic inspiration.
The Fourth Edition leads readers into the future and engages provocative issues about the interface between traditional TV and emerging technologies. It’s also the single most comprehensive source on what is happening in original television drama around the world, with surveys of 15 countries.
If you dream of making a movie but don’t know where to start or you’re afraid that your film will end up being yet another unseen indie, this is the book for you.
Based on the real-life experiences of Sundance award–winning screenwriter/director Diane Bell, SHOOT FROM THE HEART will guide you through the process of making an indie film successfully ― from writing a stand-out script to raising finance, from getting the most out of your shoot to planning a profitable release.
Broken down into sixteen essential steps, this book provides you with a clear, actionable, real-world plan for turning your filmmaking dream into your reality. The method in this book is available to anyone, anywhere. You don’t need a ton of money or industry connections, you just need to be willing to do the work of each step.
In this book, you’ll find ass-kicking inspiration and motivational tips for the long journey filmmaking is, as well as the practical knowledge and insider’s information you need to make it happen. SHOOT FROM THE HEART will empower you to trust your creative instincts and leave you with no excuses for not making the best film you can. This guide is the only one you need if you seriously want to stop talking about making movies and actually make a great one.
Visual Storytelling covers all major components of creating powerful images including lighting, camera functions, composition and storytelling. However, the main focus of the book is not just creating compelling visuals, but more importantly creating images that inform and move the audience. Images carry emotional weight and Visual Storytelling teaches readers how to harness these emotions to maximize the emotion of the story, while minimizing the amount of dialogue necessary.
What makes Visual Storytelling unique is that it not only covers the theoretical concepts of filmmaking but also the technical elements necessary to achieve the emotional outcome. This combination of theory and practice helps to create well informed and skilled filmmakers.
Grab a camera! Make a difference! Whether you are an experienced filmmaker looking to expose social wrongs or someone who has never made a movie but wants to, this is the book for you.
Recognizing that film is the most powerful form of social and political activism, you will learn the keys to unlock the powers of Filmmaking for Change, from story ideas to production, film festivals through distribution.
Whether you are looking to produce documentary or narrative projects, this is the resource that will help you get your project made!
Suspense with a Camera brings the secrets of suspense out of the shadows. Written for screenwriters and directors by a leading expert on Hitchcock techniques, you’ll have fresh insights on crafting suspense. These ideas have never been published before and share revelations that go far beyond the cliché knives, corpses, and blondes that many associate with Hitchcock.
Every day, millions of teens upload and watch millions of videos on YouTube. Enter the age of digital filmmakers who don’t need a Hollywood studio or millions of dollars of equipment to make their stories come to life. While everyone many have access to the gear, the secrets and tricks that the pros use is where the real magic is found.
Make Some Noise shows the same techniques that The Sound Effects Bible author Ric Viers used to create the sound effects heard in HALO, Call of Duty, Lego Batman, Sons of Anarchy, Lost, and more! This book easily explains how sound works, recording techniques, editing basics, sound design tricks, and 100 sound effects to record at home.
A one-stop film school, this book is packed with information, tips, techniques, and advice covering all aspects of filmmaking as gathered from the author’s years of experience working in short films, features, commercials, and music videos, as well as delivering workshops and lectures to film students of all ages. Everything you need to know – from generating an idea to delivering a finished film – is laid out in an informal and easy to read style.
Find everything from script formatting, choosing lenses, and location scouting, to where best to put the camera to film your scenes, working with actors, recording sound, and editing your shots.
Today’s digital technology allows teens to produce short films with enviable accessibility. But there is a darker side to today’s technology, too: the expectation to live and share your life online, to become an instant success with your first creations. Imagine being free to experiment and play with the medi-um, with a mentor beside you helping you craft solid, professional work that never looks like a home movie. Industry pro Deborah Patz is that mentor.
Much like writers pen journals they don’t publish (aka “writing practice,” as taught by Natalie Gold-berg), Write! Shoot! Edit! mentors teens in “first filmmaking” ― crafting complete, scripted movies in a safe place free from public exhibition and scrutiny, experimenting with the medium, and discovering one’s own visual storytelling voice.
You want to direct and edit, but your friend wants to write? Not a problem. Don’t read the book in order! Just follow the path. Write! Shoot! Edit! is written in three distinct and intertwining paths, so you can experience the book as you want to: as a writer, director / DOP, or editor.
Start making scripted films today so that you can be the overnight success of tomorrow!
A fun, insightful insider’s look at the nuts and bolts of writing action movies, from concept to completion, by a professional screenwriter and professor of screenwriting. Full of witty anecdotes from the front lines (and tricks of the trade from between the lines), Crash! Boom! Bang! promises an enjoyable and educational read for writers and students of all levels. Although bullets and bloodshed abound in cinema, the lessons within will benefit screenwriters of all kinds of movies.
Filmmaking can be a complicated and risky adventure, but Making the Magic Happen shows you why directing a movie is actually simpler than you think. The trick is to properly learn the “craft” of filmmak-ing first, and then adapt your logistical and creative skills to the “art” of filmmaking.
This is a comprehensive bible to low-budget film producing for emerging and professional producers. Structured to guide the reader through production meetings, every aspect of the film-production pro-cess is outlined in detail. Invaluable checklists ― which begin 12 weeks before shooting and continue through principal (and secondary) photography and postproduction ― keep the filmmaker on track and on target. Ryan is co-producer of James Marsh’s Man on Wire, winner of the 2009 Academy Award for Best Documentary
“What lurks in the shadows, just below waking consciousness?”
Subtext can be the most important element in text and in a performance. It’s an unseen force that speaks directly to the reader’s unconscious, deepening meaning and understanding. Great subtext reveals more than simple dialogue and action and is at the heart of the best books and films. It is what glues us to the screen.
This book goes far beyond dialogue, action, gestures, genre, and images. Written by one of the foremost script consultants in the world and the most prolific writer on screenwriting, this new edition adds new examples with chapters on analogy and love, and provides deeper explanations of how subtext works beneath the text. This edition has been expanded to be relevant to all fiction writers.
Unlike film guides that list films alphabetically, give production facts, and offer rather dry descriptions, this book is designed to help people better understand themselves, their loved ones, and their romantic situations… or lack thereof. Scientific studies show that couples who watch romantic movies together and then discuss them and their feelings about them have a much higher “stay-together rate” than couples who enter traditional therapy. This fun and colourful rom-com movie guide can help people find the perfect film to match their mood, put them in a different mood, bring up things hard to talk about, or generally improve their romantic well-being.
For over six years, The Woman in the Story has been the go-to resource for writers who want to be gender-mindful when they figure how to create female characters. Inspired by female psychology and gender issues, this how-to book casts a refreshingly honest and empowering women-centric light on every stage of the screenwriting process.
Through balancing interviews with working ASC cinematographers and the technical, aesthetic and historical side of cinematography, this text guides directors toward a more powerful collaboration with their closest ally, the cinematographer.
In the long-awaited sequel to his surprise bestseller, Save the Cat!, author and screenwriter Blake Snyder returns to form in a fast-paced follow-up that proves why his is the most talked-about approach to screenwriting in years. In the perfect companion piece to his first book, Snyder delivers even more insider’s information gleaned from a 20-year track record as “one of Hollywood’s most successful spec screenwriters,” giving you the clues to write your movie.
Designed for screenwriters, novelists, and movie fans, this book gives readers the key breakdowns of the 50 most instructional movies from the past 30 years. From MAS*H to Crash, from Alien to Saw, from 10 to Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Snyder reveals how screenwriters who came before you tackled the same challenges you are facing with the film you want to write — or the one you are currently working on. Writing a “rom-com”? Check out the “Buddy Love” chapter for a “beat for beat” dissection of When Harry Met Sally… plus references to 10 other great romantic comedies that will make your story sing.
Want to execute a great mystery? Go to the “Whydunit” section and learn about the “dark turn” that’s essential to the heroes of All the President’s Men, Blade Runner, Fargo and hip noir Brick — and see why ALL good stories, whether a Hollywood blockbuster or a Sundance award winner, follow the same rules of structure outlined in Snyder’s breakthrough method.
If you want to sell your script and create a movie that pleases most audiences most of the time, the odds increase if you reference Snyder’s checklists and see what makes 50 films tick. After all, both executives and audiences respond to the same elements good writers seek to master. They want to know the type of story they signed on for, and whether it’s structured in a way that satisfies everyone. It’s what they’re looking for. And now, it’s what you can deliver.
He’s made millions of dollars selling screenplays. Now “one of Hollywood’s most successful spec screenwriters” tells all in this fast, funny and candid look inside the movie business. Save the Cat is just one of many iron-clad rules for making your ideas more marketable and your script more satisfying and saleable, including:
This ultimate insider’s guide reveals the secrets that none dare admit, told by a showbiz veteran who’s proven that you can sell your script if you can save the cat.
