Customer Reviews

Screenwriting for Dummies

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Screenwriting for Dummies provides comprehensive information about how to construct a screenplay, from concept to pitch, but its most valuable aspect is Schellhardt's coverage of film structure. She shows the bones of a good screenplay in a manner that doesn't seem so much formulaic as archetypal: a movie starts with its status quo, hits an inciting incident; its protagonist forms a plan of action at plot point one, hits the high or low of his story at the midpoint, renews his efforts at plot point two, and earns his reward, or tragedy, in the conclusion. Schellhardt clued me in to the pattern, and now, when I sense a movie petering out or losing its focus, I have a notion why it happened.

Schellhardt also covers outline writing in detail and takes a couple of pages to discuss the purpose and interleaving of subplot, as well as the usual stuff about formatting and marketing. This has not only become my favorite book on screenwriting, but has proven useful in my evolving understanding of plot in fiction.

Laura Schellhardt, author of the book, spells it all out. I am always daunted when I set out to write a screenplay, but this book allowed me to break down that process into managable tasks. This book covers it all from the pre-writing phases of research, character development, outlines and plot structure to the writing phase of screenplay format, scene development and overall layout and ends with suggestions on how to further develop and revise your work when it is finished and eventually sell it. I recommend this book to anyone, as it covers topics that will make any screenwriter's work (whether beginner or pro) fuller and richer and the process all the more simpler.

I have never written a script before so the "For Dummies" title, I thought, applied to me. However, as much as the book offers a lot on formulating a story, I was looking more for actual tips on structure and acceptable formatting of the physical script. There is very little of that in this book. The majority of the book deals with how to come up with a character, conflict, plot and all the other components of a story (something that I already have). If you are in the same boat as me, I suggest Christopher Keane's book, How to Write a Selling Screenplay.

I bought it 1 month ago and I haven't finished it yet. it's more of a reference book. I refer to it quite a bit. her writing has flow and easy to understand. I personally don't like "dummies" series but this one is good.

I wish she had a CD with it for search and indexing. this book has lots of information, I orginally planned to finish it in a week and I am still reading it.

I haven't bought it for actually writing a script but for a project I am working on.

probably the best I've seen so for.

cheers

This book is a great resource for anybody who's ever wanted to write in film. It gives you a great method for writing with a structure, good examples, and information on how to get your script looked at. The only reason for 4 stars instead of 5 is that it gives a lot of outside links to publishing newspapers and Hollywood industry insider reports online and there were two table of contents instead of one, that was a little confusing when I was referring back to it, later.

This book is very helpful. It has lot of tips. Links to web sites. The book explains in detail the most important techniques to be a good screenwriter. In addition, it shows how to submit a script, how to present it and the most important, to whom present it.

It is a great book for people interested in begining a screenwriter carrer.

I have spent my time in Film school and was not satisfied with it. There is no scientific formula for writing a great screenplay. There is only the content... But for industry sake, there is a FORMAT for getting the script written, which does not take an entire semester of ones life wasted for something that can be learned from a book. This is your book. You do not need and expensive computer or a writing program (early screenplays were written on type writers *remember those?* and even earlier screenplays were never written - the director talked the actor(s) through the scene). I purchased this book because it was simple. It is also very enjoyable. I would definately recommend this book to screenwriters, even seasoned professionals. (Film Content is not the same anymore). Great book. Don't hesitate to purchase it.

This book is a fairly comprehensive guide to writing screenplays. You'll find tips on how to structure your screenplay, advice on how to craft compelling plots and deeper characters, instructions for formatting your script to industry standards, and finally a guide to marketing your script to Hollywood agents and producers. I was going to give this book 4 stars, but ultimately decided on 3 stars due to the author's unfortunate habit of using music metaphors to explain film industry techniques. There are two problems with this... 1) For a reader who has no experience as a composer or a performing orchestral musician, the author's use of one artform (music) to explain another (filmmaking) is completely useless as the analogy will not make any sense and only serve to further confuse the reader 2) In addition to being confusing for non-musicians, these analogies are infuriating to those of us who actually do understand music, because of the author's ignorance of the subject matter. This is most evident in one example (there are many others that I won't take the time to detail) where the author claims that a pause in dialogue is analogous to a grace note in music. She obviously has confused grace notes for rests. A grace note is a short note that precedes a written note, typically used to create an accent. A rest indicates one or more beats of silence. She is way off the mark here, and it makes her look more than a little foolish to those in the know. In summary, I would recommend this book as a starter for beginners, with a warning to ignore her attempts at analogy and focus in on those parts of the book where she explains things in a straight-forward and less colorful manner.

This book should be retitled "Writing a book for dummies". It concentrates WAY too much on creating a story and writer's block. If you already know how to write a decent story you're not going to like this book. It doesn't get in2 screenwriting until Chapter 15, and there are only TWO pages of screenwriting format. I was expecting at least a chapter of format, considering the title. False advertising. I'd look into other books.

For those who have little idea of where to start in writting a screen play, this book will get you on the right track. It was worth the money and is helping me think about all the details that a project can enclude.