Four Screenplays : Studies in the American Screenplay
Syd Field
Random House Publishing Group
9780440504900
0-440-50490-2
Yes, you canwrite a great screenplay. Let Syd Field show you how.I based Like Water for Chocolateon what I learned in Syd's books. Before, I always felt structure imprisoned me, but what I learned was structure really freed me to focus on the story.Laura EsquivelTechnology is transforming the art and craft of screenwriting. How does the writer find new ways to tell a story with pictures, to create a truly outstanding film? Syd Field shows what works, why, and howin four extraordinary films: Thelma & Louise, Terminator 2: Judgement Day, The Silence of the Lambs, and Dances with Wolves.Learn how:Callie Khouri,in her first movie script, Thelma & Louise,rewrote the rules for good road movies and played against type to create a new American classic.James Cameron,writer/director of Terminator 2: Judgement Day, created a sequel integrating spectacular special effects and a story line that transformed the Terminator, the quintessential killing machine, into a sympathetic character. Thisis how an action film is written.Ted Tallyadapted Thomas Harris's chilling 350-page novel, The Silence of the Lambs, into a riveting 120-page scripta lesson in the art and craft of adapting novels into film.Michael Blake, author of Dances with Wolves, achieved every writer's dream as he translated his novel into an uncompromising film. Learn how he used transformation as a spiritual dynamic in this work of mythic sweep.Informative and utterly engrossing, Four Screenplaysbelongs in every writer's library, next to Syn Field's highly acclaimed companion volumes, Screenplay, The Screenwriter's Workbook, and Selling a Screenplay.If I were writing screenplays . . . I would carry Syd Field around in my back pocket wherever I went.Steven Bochco, writer/producer/director, L.A. Law, Hill Street Blues