Customer Reviews

Writing the Short Film, Second Edition

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I had to write a note because the 2 previous reviewers were rather unfair. I've been reading the 2nd ed though and there may be some difference. I've certainly read my share of film books and numerous plays, how-to-write plays, and screen play writing books (Syd Field, Micheal Tierno, Michael Stracynski, etc.) I'm looking at them on my shelf at present.

First of all, this book is NOT about writing Hollywood screenplays, the cover tells you that. Instead, it makes a number of good suggestions for other resources and in writing a short play I found it very useful because of these references and its short descriptions of the mockumentary and various approaches to conceptualizing visual stories.

I also teach a filmmaking course for ESL students and this was a very useful book. It is not a how-to-nuts-and-bolts book however and I suppose this is why the other two reviewers slammed it.

All I can say is look through a book carefully before you buy it.

Greg

As a graduate film student, I found this book to be very unhelpful. The elements you would expect from a screenwriting textbook (clear discussion of basic structure, character development, etc.) are missing or hidden in clumsily-worded chapters.

There is little overall stucture to the book as a whole, and each chapter itself is a frustrating read. Even the directions for the exercises are unclear. It is an uninformative, confusing waste of time that will leave you no wiser about what makes a good short screenplay.

Is it too much to ask for a book on writing to be well written?

Writing the Short Flim was tedious. Reading the book was like trying to run underwater. The writers talked and talked and talked yet managed to say little if anything at all. The end result if feeling as if your brain had been smashed out of your skull with a hollow, plastic baseball bat.

There were some helpful insights, however they are few and far between. In fact, it came down to one useful bit of information per 20 pages. 20 pages of tedious, headache inducing rambling for one sentence of useful information.

There are many other writing books that are much more helpful: Syn and Syntax. Story by Robert McKee. Writing for Emotional Impact by Karl Iglesias. Writing Short Scripts by William H. Phillips. And David Mamet's Three Uses of the Knife.

I had to write too because of the two unfairly low reviews and I fear many people might miss out on this beautiful gem of a book.

This is an excellent text book. I have read many books on screen writing, I have a whole book case full of them. Robert McKee, Lajos Egri, and many other great books on telling stories. But they are theory. This book takes you by the hand with its exercises and assignments and helps you actually write a screenplay.

This book is about writing screenplays for short films. It is clearly designed to be a companion to a semester course. There are warm-up exercises, and assignments you should ideally discuss with others in class.

The exercises and assignments are designed to help you write a screenplay. They generally first let you brainstorm and come up with many ideas, then underline the parts you think are important, put these ideas away for at least a day and then write some part of a screenplay based on your brainstorm, using only essential details. That approach really works well! It was a huge eye-opener for me.

The book will have you going to various locations and experiencing them, taking notes for your story, studying people out there, brainstorming, writing, revising and coming up with fantastic ideas. It is absolutely brilliant!

This book has been immensely useful to me and I can highly recommend it.

The book was brand new and arrived in the exact date that it should've arrived. I'm very happy with this purchase.

I don't understand why other reviewers were so negative about this book. I have found it pretty useful. It basically works on the premise of providing examples and setting exercises for readers to develop a script. The short films discussed are all extremely good and the exercises quite helpful. All in all, it is a well-organised 'crash course', which can be useful for self-study, and readers will be able to notice progression in their writing skills fairly soon. A good read. I definitely recommend it.