Customer Reviews

The Complete Idiot's Guide to Screenwriting

5 star:		(25)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

"The Complete Idiot's Guide to Screenwriting" is a phenomenal overview of the increasingly popular field of screenwriting, and it is written with care, compassion, and expertise by Skip Press. Like his earlier book, "Writer's Guide to Hollywood Producers, Directors and Screenwriting Agents," this volume is chock-full of helpful advice, thoughtful analysis, and best of all, LOTS of website resources that would take hours to find on your own. Like the very best books, it will inspire you, as it has me, and I know that the screenplay I'm writing now will be better as a result of my having read this book.

If your budget is limited, buy this book, along with Robert McKee's "Story" and Christopher Vogler's "The Writer's Journey." You'll be well-equipped to begin your own journey with these fine volumes.

Five stars!

What I want to know is, who is the complete idiot of the title? The author or me? After reading THE COMPLETE IDIOT'S GUIDE TO SCREENWRITING, I'm not sure. It is not a complete guide, that's for sure. The author introduces a variety of components and considerations but explores none in depth.

The strengths of the book: before he gets to what and how goes on paper, Press insists that the reader go back to storytelling boot camp and read Aristotle's POETICS and Joseph Campbell's HERO WITH A THOUSAND FACES. He also recommends a number of other resources, including books, websites, organizations and software that can prove helpful.

The weaknesses: the reader whose mission is to learn correct formatting will be frustrated to find that such nuts and bolts information does not really get underway until half way into the book, and should be warned that it is merely an introduction, not exhaustive. While suggesting that there are many ways to offend Hollywood with how a script is formatted or bound, Press waffles on exact rules. Most of his reasoning and support evidence come from half invoked anecdotes that are vague enough to keep him out of the YOU'RE NEVER GOING TO EAT LUNCH IN THIS TOWN AGAIN fire. When he does name names, the stories are very old news, even to those who do not watch "Entertainment Tonight!" In the format of the Complete Idiot's series, the pages are littered with sidebars that distract from the text without providing much more than the author's usual "I know a guy" stories. Typos are a presence.

So, this is what I know as a result of reading this book: my idea is right on, but I am too old, live too far from Hollywood, and don't know anyone there to make it count. I still have no specifics on what Press has scripted that has made it to the big screen. I do know he has written other books on the topic because he promotes them shamelessly.

I've been an agent for many years and have read a great many books on screenwriting. Some offer sound advice, and some don't. This one is at best basic, at worse really really bad. I have no idea who Skip Press is, but it's pretty obvious most of what he's gathered here can be found elsewhere--and written better. One to "skip" over.

Beginning screenwriters... this is a must!

A wonderful piece of information at your fingertips. Skip provides the most important details needed to start, sell or just simply write a script for fun.

The book contains side-notes from Skip himself, providing helpful information on what to do and not to do in Hollywood.

If you're a novice or an expert, The Complete Idiots Guide to Screenwriting should sit in your office.

The Complete Idiot's Guide to Screenwriting, 3rd Edition Covers the topic of screenwriting very thoroughly, and clearly, and is packed full with tidbits of helpful information. It is creatively infused with a caffein of mixed media including clever cartoons, examples of speculative scripts, ample sidebars, and creative summaries at the end of each chapter. The CD included with the book adds another dimension of practical information stacking this book near the top of the list of must-have learning tools for the personal library of the budding screenwriter.

I highly recommend this well-organised book to anyone who wants to learn the rudiments of screenwriting and beyond. I had several ideas for possible screenplays and didn't know where to get started. My daughter is working in the movies, but she was and is busy working on major Hollywood films. She had formal college education on filmmaking. I talked to her several times while reading the book. Every time she gave me advice, it would mirror something I had already read or subsequently read in the book. I am in the process of writing three screenplays following the advice from this book. I also refer to it often, as it is filled with links to other sources of valuable information. As a bonus, when you buy one of Skip Press' books, he sends a regular newsletter filled with interesting and useful information.

When I have to recommend one book to someone who wants to know what's involved in writing for film & TV I always recommend this book. Why? Because it covers not only the mechanics of writing a screenplay (premise, logline, 3x5 cards for scene development, script formatting, etc) but also has a history of how Hollywood and how the writer & screenplay came to be what they are today and some thoughts on where it's going. His section on 'What to Write' covers what kind of stories sell as well as the kind of stories that don't translate to the screen well. His 'Top 10 Mistakes Made by Beginning Screenwriters' is worth the price of the book alone. He also discusses why writing a book may be a better way to get into Hollywood than a screenplay (and you can always do the screenplay later).

He covers all the basics and then some. I particularly liked his explanation of Syd Field's 3 act structure and it's subtleties (and I read this after Syd Field's book). He also warns about "gurus" and "mentors"; there are many out there who are not what they claim to be and how to sort them out. He has examples of query & cover letters as well as advice on getting your script seen. Lots of links to internet resources including his own writers group on Yahoo. Like I said, this book covers it all, and in nice small chunks.

The book is very positive and encouraging and yet at the same time realistic. He tells you how difficult the life of a screenwriter can be. He explains early on that the book was intended to help others avoid mistakes and problems he encountered. He's got a lot of what I call 'Do you really want to do this?' kind of advice. Skip is a genuinely very nice guy and his humility shows on almost every page. He offers no short cuts or magic techniques but instead gives you a grounding in the basics and a picture at how Hollywood works.

I really liked how this book added movie information from an insider. Narrative story history was interesting too.

I have been paging through this book as I been working on projects and find some valuable information for the price of the book. Well worth the purchase!

The Complete Idiots guide to screenwriting, by Skip Press, is a great book for the beginner or novice writer, wanting to do some brushing up. For the reviewer, that mentioned that Skip really didn't get into the proper formating of the screenplay, there are pc programs that do that automatically, the great thing also about this new edition, it comes with a CD of trial programs, and some sample scripts.

He covers the history of the screenplay and moving making, which I found to be very interesting, also his samples of some script pages, with examples, showing how some writers, write their screenplay. Some people, would probably be happy getting done with a first draft. Mr. Press, explains why this is a bad idea, and covers many more of the how tos, and advice on the pitfalls of Hollywood.