Customer Reviews

Secrets of Film Writing

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A Hollywood insider, Tom Lazarus has taken the time to organize his book into understandable parts. He begins with what could be the earliest expectations of the novice writer. Then as he develops the approaches to writing and the usual twists and turns that a writer would encounter in writing a script, he adds the personal comments, anecdotes, and metaphors that entertain as well as elucidate the writer's growth and development and challenges.

Like William Goldman's more autobiographical "Which Lie Did I Tell" Lazarus puts his heart, mind, and strengths right on the table. He writes like a good friend telling you almost everything you want and need to know. He has the guts to tell you what will and will not work. I applaud him for that. As a writer of a How To book, he took the time and risked the emotional upheaval of writing from the heart to give us the goods. He also revised this book enough times to make it easy and fun to read and understand. This book is what you need to know to write a good script. Period.

Thank you for a great book, Mr. Lazarus!

I wasn't sure what to think of this book at first. It's a little unorthodox, a little unorganized, a little rambling. But I think there is a method to Lazurus' madness. He manages to bring his ideas across in easily digestable chunks. My one complaint is that the book reads a little more like a rough draft rather than a polished manuscript.

Of all the screenwriting books I own (that would be all the big ones and some of the not-so-big-ones) this most clearly brings out what it is really like to be a living, breathing screenwriter. Lazurus is one. He's not the pedantic Syd Field (who to my knowledge has never sold a script) or the methodical Michael Hauge, but what he offers in pragmatism makes up for any shortcomings in presentation.

-rdg3

All readers will be pleased with Tom Lazarus' SECRETS OF FILM WRITING, since it affords all budding screenwriters a welcome alternative to the much maligned three-act structure paradigm. Lazarus, author of five produced feature films, including STIGMATA, allows us to enter his screenwriting mind vicariously: the reader follows Lazarus' thought processes as he teaches screenwriting principles and reinforces them via examples from scripts he has written and/or directed. Best of all, no lesson is omitted. We learn about the traditional three-act structure, and then Tom Lazarus takes us through a screenwriting program unparalleled in screenwriting pedagogy: not only do we learn by reading from a plethora of examples from Lazarus sold/produced scripts, but we also learn key insights from reading some of Lazarus revisions: e.g. five different drafts of one piece of writing. I bought SECRETS OF FILM WRITING today and couldn't put it down until it was finished. I'm sure I'll read it a dozen times. Buy Lazarus' book immediately, read it several times, and add it to your permanent screenwriting reference library: books by Jennifer Lerch, Denny Martin Flinn, David Trottier, Irwin R. Blacker, Paul Argentini, Richard Walter, William Froug, William Goldman, Cristopher Vogler, Michael Hauge, and many other wonderful screenwriting instruction books. Yet despite this long and distinguised list of screenwriting authors, this much is for sure: Lazarus SECRETS OF FILM WRITING is a unique source book in form and content. What an exciting addition to screenwriting pedagogy...a wondrous new paradigm in screenwriting instruction!

To not being repetitive to what other reviewers have written, I want to add, that this book is first of all, written by a produced screenwriter with his movie Stigmata, so what he writes is based in his actual experience of writing screenplays, being rejected once and again, pitching sessions, until he hit his dream, so for me, this is a book with authority, full of resources and smart advice. I remember that once I had a doubt on how was the correct way to write a phone conversation, so first I tried other more technical books I have, but I couldn't find it, so I tried this and I found it. I have a suggestion for this and other great screenwriting books, PLEASE ADD AN INDEX.

Though it has a few decent points, this book feels like a vanity press publication that, in the main, is little more than the author ranting about how Hollywood doesn't appreciate his immense genius, even though that genius has produced nothing other than Stigmata (a film, I should add, whose deep, dark secret - the Gospel of Thomas - is so secret that it has been available as a paperback for many, many years). At one point he claims that most books about screenwriting are merely cynical attempts for failing screenwriters to make a fast buck. He adds that this book is not one of them. He is wrong, it is.

Secrets of Film Writing by Tom Lazarus is a great (and perhaps the best) second tier book on screenwriting. By that I mean, it is not among the first three or so books to read if you want to start down that road of long-shot dreams of writing a script and selling it. Those first tier books I recommend are: Michael Hauge's Writing Screenplays that Sell (for my time and money better than the Syd Field books), Sidney Lumet's Making Movies, and (a real sleeper this one) Jon Boorstin's Making Movies Work.
Tom Lazarus's book is a breezy page turner that gives its many insights with economy and clarity -- exactly the style that we all should use in writing scripts. Like a good movie, it has a narrative drive that helps by making the hints entertaining. And it doesn't try to give you hundreds of insights, just three dozen or or so. But the "yield" of key jewels to routine advice is higher than almost any other screenwriting book.
For example on page 53, Lazarus says "try to write an 80 to 85 page first draft" (finished scripts usually end up at 110 to 125 pages long). This does so many things: forces a focus on the spine of the story, eliminates tons of distractions and marginal sub-plots, and leads to real discipline. Then you read that short first draft and figure out where to add depth to the characters, how to twist the plot again, and where to place nuance in scenes without stretching the total length beyond boredom. My experience as an aspiring screenwriter is that we amateurs always try to add too much too soon. We should value economy and clarity above all else. Like Tom Lazarus shows us in this book.

Secrets of Film Writing by Tom Lazarus is a great (and perhaps the best) second tier book on screenwriting. By that I mean, it is not among the first three or so books to read if you want to start down that road of long-shot dreams of writing a script and selling it. Those first tier books I recommend are: Michael Hauge's Writing Screenplays that Sell (for my time and money better than the Syd Field books), Sidney Lumet's Making Movies, and (a real sleeper this one) Jon Boorstin's Making Movies Work.
Tom Lazarus's book is a breezy page turner that gives its many insights with economy and clarity -- exactly the style that we all should use in writing scripts. Like a good movie, it has a narrative drive that helps by making the hints entertaining. And it doesn't try to give you hundreds of insights, just three dozen or or so. But the "yield" of key jewels to routine advice is higher than almost any other screenwriting book.
For example on page 53, Lazarus says "try to write an 80 to 85 page first draft" (finished scripts usually end up at 110 to 125 pages long). This does so many things: forces a focus on the spine of the story, eliminates tons of distractions and marginal sub-plots, and leads to real discipline. Then you read that short first draft and figure out where to add depth to the characters, how to twist the plot again, and where to place nuance in scenes without stretching the total length beyond boredom. My experience as an aspiring screenwriter is that we amateurs always try to add too much too soon. We should value economy and clarity above all else. Like Tom Lazarus shows us in this book.

This book was a nice surprise. I hadn't heard anything about it when I stumbled upon it in a local bookstore. I scanned it and decided to buy it and I haven't been disappointed.

Instead of throwing a lot of theory and rules at us, Lazarus takes the reader "inside" to see how a working screenwriter writes. Reading the book felt like having a conversation where you finally get to ask someone earning a living as a writer, "How do you do it?"

I have lots of books on screenwriting. Among my favorites are books by Richard Walters, William Froug, Michael Hagge, and Linda Seger. I'm adding Lazarus' "Secrets of Film Writing" to my list of favorites and highly recommend it to anyone looking for entertaining, real world advice.

One thing that screenplays, novels, stage-plays, and just about every other form of literature have in common are authors who are so self-absorbed that they're incapable of telling an adequate story because they let their work descend into exercises in wish-fullfillment and confessionals. In his book "Secrets of Film Writing," Tom Lazarus proves inept at creating a half-way competent study of the screenwriting because he's apparently too interested in talking about himself. Now, I don't have a problem with writers bringing in personal experience when discussing their craft, in fact I found Stephen King's "On Writing" an absolute joy because of the autobiographical sections. Lazarus however doesn't seem to know what kind of book he's trying to write and through the process of reading this thankfully thin book, I was constantly wondering where it was going. It's interesting that Lazarus doesn't talk a lot about structure in his ramblings because this book certainly lacks it.

The book is essential a bunch of "expert" tips from Lazarus on screen-writing mixed in with personal stories and rants about the film industry. As I delved into the book however, I didn't feel like I is learning from an expert in his craft but rather an incredibly insecure individual who's had a limited and frustrating career in filmmaking and is now trying to find a way to earn some extra money during a career slump. This isn't projection as Lazarus talks about the numerous projects he's failed to get going and his recent decision to switch agents. He talks about his career changes in an optimistic tone but frankly he seems a lot more impressed with his career and accomplishments than most of his readers are likely to be. There were countless times over the course of the book where it seemed that Lazarus was starting to say something useful only to then delve into another pointless "insider story" which had very little to do with the topic at hand. It gets worse as the book goes on and Lazarus feels the need to tell us about his directing career which apparently is limited to soft-core porn (I'm not making this up). Even worse is a long rant at how Hollywood doesn't seem to respect his interest in "erotica" and how fair it is that they shun soft-core porn but don't mind exploitative violence. There's nothing wrong with this argument but does Lazarus really think it belongs here? I guess it's better than a later rant about how much he hates vomiting in movies...

When I started reading this book, I was initially relieved because Lazarus wasn't marching in lock step with all the other screen-writing gurus and re-gurgitating tired lessons about the three-act-structure and where a plot point should be introduced. Unfortunately, it seems that Lazarus isn't really trying to present an alternative look at the craft of screen-writing but is rather just spouting out a vague list of advice mixed in with a ton of "insider" information that seems to be there only so Lazarus can convince himself he's had a worthwhile career. I'm not in a position to pass judgment on anyone's career but it seems odd that his only real feature is "Stigmata" and he makes numerous references to all his scripts that HAVN'T been produced while he's trying to lecture his reader on how to write successful screenplays.

I don't know if any screen-writing books are worth the money. I tend to believe that probably continual writing mixed with a serious study of great film and literature is far more important than any book. Nevertheless, I often find something useful or at least a unique persective in most of the screenwriting books I've read. "Secrets of Film Writing," has neither of these. If you want a series of generally unremarkable antequdotes and detours into the joy of directing soft-core porn then you may like this book. If you want a book from which you'll actually bring something away from about the craft of screenwriting, look elswhere.

This book is a clever, insightful, informative little treasure chest of information and advice on excellent screenwriting. It begins by explaining that organization is key for writing a good script. He then proceeds to explain in detail the elements of log lines, plot development, character development, dialogue, structure, word usage, rewriting and more. His writing is informative and humorous at the same time making this book a quick, easy, worthwhile read.

Author, Tom Lazarus is a knowledgable, experienced screenwriting instructor at UCLA who wrote the movie Stigmata.