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Writing a Great Movie: Four Advanced Tools for the Dramatist (Paperback)

by Jeff Kitchen (Author) "I always start my seminars asking why do we go to so much trouble writing a screenplay..." (more)
Key Phrases: Senator Hutchings, Moe Green, New York (more...)

4.8 out of 5 stars See all reviews (11 customer reviews)

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Product Details

Paperback: 289 pages
Publisher: Self (October 16, 2003)
ISBN-10: 0974771511
ISBN-13: 978-0974771519
Product Dimensions: 9.9 x 6.9 x 0.8 inches
Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds

Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars See all reviews (11 customer reviews)

Amazon.com Sales Rank: #945,439 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Back Cover | Surprise Me!

Inside This Book (learn more)

First Sentence:
I always start my seminars asking why do we go to so much trouble writing a screenplay. Read the first page

Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Senator Hutchings, Moe Green, New York, Blade Runner, Initial Act of Aggression, Will Michael, Don Corleone, Immediate Cause, Basic Desire, Key Motivations, Life Sacrificed, Training Day, John Van Horn, Judy Garland, Michael Dorsey, The Same Case, White House, Michael Corleone, Unity of Action, Will Cutter, Bernard Grebanier, David Mamet, Las Vegas, Senator Hutthings, Audience Demand

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Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Back Cover | Surprise Me!

Citations (learn more)

This book cites 35 books:

On Directing Film by David Mamet on page 14, and page 50
Private Eyes by Steven Dietz on page 121
Vincent van Gogh (Artists in Their Time) by Jen Green on page 106
Slave Narratives: A Folk History of Slavery in the United States from Interviews With Former Slaves, Mississippi Narratives by Work Projects Administration on page 116
Leonard Bernstein (20th-Century Composers) by Paul Myers on page 109

See all 35 books this book cites

1 book cites this book:

Script Analysis: The Godfather, Tootsie, Blade Runner by Jeff Kitchen in Back Cover

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Script Analysis by Jeff Kitchen

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	38% buy Writing a Great Movie: Key Tools for Successful Screenwriting 4.6 out of 5 stars (24) $13.57
	24% buy Script Analysis: The Godfather, Tootsie, Blade Runner 3.5 out of 5 stars (6) $9.95
	22% buy Writing for Emotional Impact 4.5 out of 5 stars (27) $19.75
	16% buy the item featured on this page: Writing a Great Movie: Four Advanced Tools for the Dramatist 4.8 out of 5 stars (11)

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Customer Reviews

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Holy Grail for screenwriters, March 14, 2005

By	Scott Schlichter "SSS" (California) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I'm sitting in a room with the only light coming from my laptop.
I've just run into the same roadblock I have crashed into throughout my ten years of writing. It is familiar, but no less frightening.
In the scriptwriting process, this would be equivalent with the green flag at the Indy 500. It is the beginning of the adventure.
It is both exciting and scary. However, I am now in a much better place. I've been given a map. Just keep taking a left and you'll end up at the finish line.

Until I read "Writing a Great Movie: Four Advanced Tools for the Dramatist" I only knew how to punch the gas and hope for the best. That fearful moment of the unknown, and lack of preparation at the beginning of screenwriting is gone. It is still exciting, but no longer terrifying.

Why? This book has given me very simple and straight-forward tools to pre-plan, organize, evaluate, modify, and lay out a map to the end goal -- a dramatic script.

I have studied numerous books. I've taken several classes. This is the ONLY course of study that has solved my specific problem.
I have an idea ... but how do a work it before I sit down to write. In some cases this methodical preparation will tell you that story isn't there. Even more so, it will help work out the problems in advance, while giving you the confidence in the project/idea before you sit down to write.

I've done preparations in the past, but none have given me the confidence to know I've done the work and the story is there.
There is something terrible in sitting down to write -- getting 60 pages in and realizing "I have no idea where I'm going OR what avenue I'm taking to get there".

I offer this book at a cure to those that share this problem.
For me, this book and these tools offer a variety of solutions.
I'm focusing on this "lack of guidance" issue, because I image there are many people who share this problem. And because I've never found another course of study that solves this specific problem.

While I focused on the lack of direction issue, I should note that this book helps in every aspect of dramatic writing. It has helped in building stronger characters, better drama, and more. I utilize these tools with EVERY script I'm writing. And most importantly, the tools have NEVER failed me. I still may write a crappy script in concept, but it is because of the decisions I made rather than a lack of dramatic structure.

The only reason I would not endorse this book, is that I fear it will create a lot more competition in the script writing world.
I'll set my self-centered fear aside and suggest this script for anyone that is interested in writing.

Scott Schlichter

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12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Best book on building your story, book or screenplay., July 6, 2004

By	Jeffrey L. Armbruster (Rancho Santa Margarita, CA USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This is the best book on writing a story for a film. It provides the techniques that you will need for breaking a 3 act script into sequences, then writing the sequences, instead of trying to write the entire script. It will help you keep your story focused on the logic of your conflict, and your story's direction. You'll want to supplement this book with: "Screenwriting: A Sequence Approach," by Paul Gulino, which goes into greater detail about screenplay sequences, and "Advanced Writing," by Wells Draughon. Yes, you'll want all 3 books. Kitchen's book is a powerful book on how to build your story. Few writing books address building a story. This one does, and it is excellent. This book works for screenplays or novels.

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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Get your screenplay right the first time, November 4, 2004

By	Andy Shrader "Los Angeles Film School" (Hollywood) - See all my reviews

Jeff Kitchen has taken classic drama theory and built it into useful screenwriting tools, teaching the type of drama, conflict, and dilemma that the inventors of Hollywood used.
He puts the horse firmly before the cart, not the other way around. If you take the time to plan out your screenplay and build it from the bottom up, with a firm dramatic foundation, then it won't have to take you fifteen drafts to get it right. Kitchen shows you how to construct your plot, infuse it with compelling Dramatic Action and Dilemma to keep the audience on the edge of its seat, and how to hold the structure together from beginning to end.

Most useful for me are his Sequence tool, which insures that-as no less than Aristotle demands-one scene follows the next in a cause-and-effect way from your first scene to your last. And his Proposition/Plot tool, which makes sure that your protagonist and antagonist respond equally to each other's actions, building and building to a climactic fight-to-the-finish (a term which, to be sure, Kitchen applies even to films like "Tootsie").

One of the best pieces of advice I've heard from a professional working screenwriter is to never spend more than three months tweaking a script. In WRITING A GREAT MOVIE, Jeff Kitchen gives you the tools to get it dramatically right the first time.

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Most Recent Customer Reviews

3.0 out of 5 stars Useful tools but hopelessly confusing
Question: When is a plot not a plot? When is a sequence not a sequence?

Answer: When a playwright provides a book on screenwriting that exploits dramatalurgical... Read more

Published on September 23, 2006 by DCM

5.0 out of 5 stars Want 'dramatic' improvement in your writing?
This is the best book on dramatic screenwriting I've come across. I've read most of the major screenwriting books in print and, though they all have their good points, Jeff's... Read more

Published on December 4, 2004 by Alex Kuzelicki

5.0 out of 5 stars Understanding Your Story
Jeff Kitchen's book is truly a "find." There are tons of books on writing, but so few of them focus on the most critical element to successful fiction writing: having a solid... Read more

Published on November 30, 2004 by Michael J. Jett

5.0 out of 5 stars A must for screenwriters
As a novice I found this groundbreaking to my education in film creation. Screenwriting is an art of word to visualization, and can be extremely complex when dealing with the... Read more

Published on November 19, 2004 by Peter L. Thanos

5.0 out of 5 stars Writing a Screenplay is now as easy as baking a cake.
The first time I read Jeff's book it came in bits and pieces as a series of handouts for his course. Read more

Published on November 18, 2004 by Chuck L.

5.0 out of 5 stars Probably the most important screenwriting book around
I've taken courses by McKee, Hague, Truby, Freeman, and others, read countless books, and given an ear to almost anybody else who had a word about screenwriting. Read more

Published on November 11, 2004 by Jonathan

5.0 out of 5 stars Jeff Kitchen is a Master
My screenwriting partner and I attended a workshop taught by Jeff Kitchen and purchased this book. We used it as a roadmap to structure our first screenplay, which is now done and... Read more

Published on October 5, 2004 by Elizabeth Vrato

5.0 out of 5 stars One of the best books on screenwriting ever!
Without a doubt, Jeff Kitchen's Writing a Great Movie is one of the best books on the process of screenwriting to come along in a long time. Read more

Published on August 29, 2004 by Sergio Mims

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