Customer Reviews

The Understructure of Writing for Film and Television

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With so many screenwriting guides focusing on broad brush elements such as story structure, plot points, and archetypal journeys, it's great to find a book which begins by teaching you something practical: how to write a scene. It seems an obvious thing for a screenwriting guide to teach, but 90% neglect it. And it's something that 90% of aspiring screenwriters desperately need to learn. So putting the cart firmly back behind the horse, Brady and Lee first help you build some fundamental skills as a dramatist. Only after the absolute basics of scene writing and dramatic conflict have been mastered do they move on - and because of this, their later chapters on character, crisis, climax, dialogue and theme are infinitely more effective. They all grow out of what has come before them. Every step of the way, Brady and Lee provide straightforward writing assignments which are pitched at precisely the right level to build your skills cumulatively. The text is occasionally a little wordy, and could perhaps be improved by the use of bullet points, diagrams and chapter summaries. But thankfully, every argument is thoroughly justified with nicely worked examples from Oscar-winning or nominated screenplays such as "The Godfather", "Kramer vs. Kramer", "Rocky", "Tootsie", "On The Waterfront", "Fanny and Alexander", "The Graduate" and "A Streetcar Named Desire". By explaining precisely what it is about these scenes/screenplays which make them work, this book give you the key to making your own do likewise. So if you're looking for a book to help develop your practical writing skills - rather than just another superficial introduction to three-act structure - then buy this book. You won't be disappointed.

Larry Gelbart, the award-winning comedy writer who was best known for developing the landmark TV series "MASH," co-writing the book for the hit Broadway musical "A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum" and co-writing the classic movie comedy "Tootsie," reviewed this book and is quoted as saying, "If any aspiring screenwriters read this book - and they all should - I look forward to seeing a good number of well-written films." Sadly, Larry passed away in 2010, but my hope is that Larry may have seen some darn good writing from those who read this book and took the authors' (Ben Brady and Lance Lee) instruction to heart when writing a solid film or television script.

Bradey and Lee are experienced professional writers and teach a successful screenwriting program at California State University, Northridge.
They carefully lead the reader through "development of a premise, treatment, stepsheet...miniscreenplay - essential elements in writing a longer script." Using examples from such great American film screenplays as On the Waterfront, The Godfather and Kramer vs. Kramer one is exposed to great technique while drawing up our own comparative model.

Part One of the book: Getting on Your Feet - sorts out the basics of What is Dramatic Conflict? What is a Scene? Camera Language and Format.
Part Two delves into Developing Character and Conflict - from establishing it, bringing it to crisis, and then achieving Crisis and Climax.
Handling Dialog, Theme, Values and Moral Urgency and Writing the Miniscreenplay rounds out the end of Part Two.

I particularly liked the practical discussions of marketing and copywriting a screenplay and making sure you are in touch with the relevant professional societies as you work yourself "into" the "biz" without getting burned or burned-out!