books about films?

[Jeremy Blackman]

As a great foundation..

Syd Field's "Screenplay"

[Film Student]

have to agree with JB...

Syd Field is about as reliable a foundation as those hills that the LA houses were sliding off of last week...

[Myxo]

Ah come on..

It's not that bad.

This is an excellent article[/color] he wrote about Magnolia.

If you're gunna tear something down and call it foundationless, at least explain.

[Gabe]

All these books  I don't have enough time.

Can someone just tell me, who should I believe?

[SiliasRuby]

I found Aristotle's book on screenwriting extremely helpful story wise, also take a look at writing screenplays that sell by Hal Ackerman.

[Gabe]

Everybody has a great Opinion  

But we know what they say about those. . .

[ono]

They're like Borjabahs?

[modage]

since this thread is active i'd like to say i just bought Lynch on Lynch and am looking forward to reading it soon.

[Gabe]

Yes Ono, opinions are annoying.

[Find Your Magali]

Picked this up recently

[socketlevel]

i know a million people have prob brought up "Story" by Robert Magee (or macee?) but that's the only book you need for screenwriting, all others are nothing.  absolute wastes of cash money.

mamet's book on directing is good too, and judith weston's book directing actors is a great one.

-sl-

[kotte]

i know a million people have prob brought up "Story" by Robert Magee (or macee?) but that's the only book you need for screenwriting, all others are nothing.  absolute wastes of cash money.

This is not true. Though Story is great I have one that is as good (or better): Art of Dramatic Writing.

Written in the forties by Lajos Egri it focuses on storytelling, be it a novel, a film or a play. Though the stories he dissects are all plays.

What really gets me here is his theory about the importance of stating a premise. Premise is a statement, idea, theme,  or conviction that your story proves true. For example, the premise of Romeo and Juliet would be something like "Love defies even death." The job of the screenwriter is proving it true. You don't have to start with a premise. It can be a character, an idea or a plot but if you never state a premise you won't have a play. A premise constitutes of three parts...character, conflict and end. "Love defies even death". Love is the character or the force that drives the character into the defying, conflict. And the outcome of that conflict is death.

You might not understand what I'm talking about but I'm telling you...this books a good one.

and judith weston's book directing actors is a great one.

And her second book, Film Directors Intuition is fucking fantastic.[/i]

[jtm]

PTA's summer home?

[soixante]

Schrader on Schrader is hard to beat.  Robert McKee's Story is excellent.

[socketlevel]

i know a million people have prob brought up "Story" by Robert Magee (or macee?) but that's the only book you need for screenwriting, all others are nothing.  absolute wastes of cash money.

This is not true. Though Story is great I have one that is as good (or better): Art of Dramatic Writing.

Written in the forties by Lajos Egri it focuses on storytelling, be it a novel, a film or a play. Though the stories he dissects are all plays.

What really gets me here is his theory about the importance of stating a premise. Premise is a statement, idea, theme,  or conviction that your story proves true. For example, the premise of Romeo and Juliet would be something like "Love defies even death." The job of the screenwriter is proving it true. You don't have to start with a premise. It can be a character, an idea or a plot but if you never state a premise you won't have a play. A premise constitutes of three parts...character, conflict and end. "Love defies even death". Love is the character or the force that drives the character into the defying, conflict. And the outcome of that conflict is death.

You might not understand what I'm talking about but I'm telling you...this books a good one.

and judith weston's book directing actors is a great one.

And her second book, Film Directors Intuition is fucking fantastic.[/i]

i get you, sounds like it ties into three act structure.

i'll check both our for sure!  It's hard to come by anything good which provides new thought, most books just cover things that through a little trial and error, on your own, you'd get anyway.

-sl-