Providing examples from well-known movies, Field explains the structural and stylistic elements as well as writing techniques basic to the creation of a successful film script

Screenplay: The Foundations of Screenwriting

Humor & Entertainment

Field, Syd

Movies

Delacorte Pr

Everyone has a story to tell, and millions of people across the globe want to write their generation's great screenplay. But what do you do after you've done all the hard work to get your story expressed as a script with solid structure, vibrant characters, scintillating dialogue and industry-standard formatting? Can you truly get it professionally produced? Selling your script to an established producer, studio, network or streaming service can mean a lot of money, so competition is fierce. And all those mysterious people with the power to make your entertainment-industry dreams come true... What do they want from you? Do you need an agent and/or manager to get a sale? In Selling a Screenplay, Syd Field (best-selling author and world-renown lecturer/teacher of screenwriting) gives you an insider's look at the movie and TV industry, packed with essential tips from pros. Read this book and see how Field: 
<ul><li>Breaks down the business side of screenwriting,</li></ul>
<ul><li>Explains what buyers are typically looking for,</li></ul>
<ul><li>Suggests ways to get past the gatekeepers, who winnow down the astronomical mass of written material submitted every year,</li></ul>
<ul><li>Tackles the vital process of conveying your story with great passion and few words - the Art of the Pitch,</li></ul>
<ul><li>Shares personal insights from professional writers whose body of work has garnered honors and wealth - many of whom credit Field's insights for adding to their expertise and success.</li></ul>This is a must-have guide for every aspiring screenwriter, filled with frank, real-life advice from influential Hollywood deal makers and celebrated screenwriters. They all started somewhere!

Selling a Screenplay

Reference

DELACORTE PRESS

Hollywood's script guru teaches you how to write a screenplay in "the 'bible' of screenwriting" (The New York Times)—now celebrating forty years of screenwriting success! Syd Field's books on the essential structure of emotionally satisfying screenplays have ignited lucrative careers in film and television since 1979. In this revised edition of his premiere guide, the underpinnings of successful onscreen narratives are revealed in clear and encouraging language that will remain wise and practical as long as audiences watch stories unfold visually—from hand-held devices to IMAX to virtual reality . . . and whatever comes next. As the first person to articulate common structural elements unique to successful movies, celebrated producer, lecturer, teacher and bestselling author Syd Field has gifted us a classic text. From concept to character, from opening scene to finished script, here are fundamental guidelines to help all screenwriters—novices and Oscar-winners—hone their craft and sell their work. In Screenplay, Syd Field can help you discover: <ul>
<li>Why the first ten pages of every script are crucial to keeping professional readers' interest</li> <li>How to visually "grab" these influential readers from page one, word one</li> <li>Why structure and character are the basic components of all narrative screenplays</li> <li>How to adapt a novel, a play, or an article into a saleable script</li> <li>Tips on protecting your work—three ways to establish legal ownership of screenplays</li> <li>Vital insights on writing authentic dialogue, crafting memorable characters, building strong yet flexible storylines (form, not formula), overcoming writer's block, and much more</li> </ul>
Syd Field is revered as the original master of screenplay story structure, and this guide continues to be the industry's gold standard for learning the foundations of screenwriting.

Delta

Syd Field's timeless manual on visual storytelling is your own, hands-on master-class with the man The Hollywood Reporter called "the most sought-after screenwriting teacher in the world." Field was the very first person to dissect thousands of films and scripts to find the essential narrative structure and shared functional elements underlying screewriting success. Chock full of easy-to-follow exercises and step-by-step instructions honed by Field in packed seminars across the globe, The Screenwriter's Worksbook guides you through the common processes utilized by beginners and working professionals alike when crafting emotionally satisfying scripts for film, television, streaming... and beyond. Engage this workbook's systematic approach and you'll practice: 
<ul>
<li>Defining the central idea on which to build your script, </li>
<li>Crafting your unique narrative structure - based on Field's elegant, now industry-standard, Paradigm - which in one form or another can be found within all viable screen stories,</li>
<li>Imbuing your characters with humanity, vitality and depth,</li>
<li>Writing dialogue that not only moves your story along, but provides skillful insight into every character's psychology,</li>
<li>Reviewing all of the choices you've made to discern what works and what doesn't in order to re-write until your script's story virtually leaps off the page (from the crucial first ten to the final FADE OUT) for professional readers empowered to buy your work. </li>
</ul>Field's expert analysis of notable screenplays reflects the book's core concepts, making the inevitable challenges to great writing clearer, and far more likely for you to overcome. This book is the perfect companion to Syd Field's bestselling classic, Screenplay: The Foundations of Screenwriting.

The Screenwriter's Workbook: Exercises and Step-by-Step Instructions for Creating a Successful Screenplay, Newly Revised and Updated

Literature & Fiction

From concept to character, from opening scene to finished script.. Here are easily understood guidelines to make film-writing accessible to novices and to help practiced writers improve their scripts. Syd Field pinpoints the structural and stylistic elements essential to every good screenplay. He presents a step-by-step, comprehensive technique for writing the script that will succeed.•Why are the first ten pages of your script crucially important?•How do you collaborate successfully with someone else?•How do you adapt a novel, a play, or an article into a screenplay?•How do you market your script?

Screenplay: The foundations of screenwriting

Everyone has a story to tell, and millions of people across the globe want to write their generation's great screenplay. But what do you do after you've done all the hard work to get your story expressed as a script with solid structure, vibrant characters, scintillating dialogue and industry-standard formatting? Can you truly get it professionally produced? Selling your script to an established producer, studio, network or streaming service can mean a lot of money, so competition is fierce. And all those mysterious people with the power to make your entertainment-industry dreams come true... What do they want from you? Do you need an agent and/or manager to get a sale? In Selling a Screenplay, Syd Field (best-selling author and world-renown lecturer/teacher of screenwriting) gives you an insider's look at the movie and TV industry, packed with essential tips from pros. Read this book and see how Field: 
<ul><li>Breaks down the business side of screenwriting,</li></ul>
<ul><li>Explains what buyers are typically looking for,</li></ul>
<ul><li>Suggests ways to get past the gatekeepers, who winnow down the astronomical mass of written material submitted every year,</li></ul>
<ul><li>Tackles the vital process of conveying your story with great passion and few words - the Art of the Pitch,</li></ul>
<ul><li>Shares personal insights from professional writers whose body of work has garnered honors and wealth - many of whom credit Field's insights for adding to their expertise and success.</li></ul>This is a must-have guide for every aspiring screenwriter, filled with frank, real-life advice from influential Hollywood deal makers and celebrated screenwriters. They all started somewhere!

Selling a Screenplay: The Screenwriter's Guide to Hollywood

Random House Publishing Group

Understanding how and why screenplays work is one of the surest paths to writing your own successful script. Few people have known this better than Syd Field, who dissected thousands of films and screenplays in order to discern the vital elements that all great screenplays share. His books, lectures, workshops, and classes brought clarity and confidence to a great many accomplished screenwriters, a quartet of whom are featured in this one book: 
<ul><li>Callie Khouri, in her first film script - Thelma &amp; Louise - rewrote the rules for road movies by challenging long-entrenched gender stereotypes to create a revolutionary American classic.</li></ul>
<ul><li>James Cameron, writer/director of Avatar and Titanic, is also responsible for Terminator 2: Judgement Day, in which he crafted a sequel integrating innovative special effects and storyline that transformed the Terminator - a quintessential killing machine - into a sympathetic character. This is how spectacular action films are written.</li></ul>
<ul><li>Ted Tally adapted Thomas Harris' chilling 350-page bestseller, The Silence of the Lambs, into a riveting 120-page script - a critical lesson in the specialized art and craft of adapting novels for film.</li></ul>
<ul><li>Michael Blake, in Dances with Wolves, achieved every writer's dream as he translated his own epic novel into an uncompromising film. Learn how he leveraged the theme of transformation as a spiritual dynamic in this memorable work of mythic sweep.</li></ul>Informative and utterly engrossing, Four Screenplays belongs in every writer's library, next to Field's highly acclaimed companion volumes: Screenplay: The Foundations of Screenwriting, The Screenwriter's Workbook, The Screenwriter's Problem Solver and Selling a Screenplay.

Four Screenplays: Studies in the American Screenplay: Thelma & Louise, Terminator 2, The Silence of the Lambs, and Dances with Wolves

Problems plague every screenwriter, and even most pros' first drafts inevitably need a bunch of rewrites. Good writers don't despair; they see their problems as creative springboards to make every subsequent draft better. But how do you know what truly isn't working in your screenplay? And even when you've figured that out, how do you know exactly what changes to make to improve it?In this comprehensive, step-by-step guide, best-selling author Syd Field (Screenplay Hook professional readers by writing the most powerful version of your script's first ten pages, and The Screenwriter's Workbook) helps you identify and remedy common screenwriting problems. Field provides professional secrets that make movies brilliant - secrets that can elevate the quality of your screenplay, and aim it for success. Using The Screenwriter's Problem Solver, you'll learn to: 
<ul><li>Understand how great stories work regarding: structure, feeling, entertainment value and more, </li></ul>
<ul><li>Hook professional readers by writing the most powerful version of your script's first ten pages, </li></ul>
<ul><li>Use a "dream assignment" to liberate elusive parts of your creative self, overnight, </li></ul>
<ul><li>Leverage action to build character, the way Quentin Tarantino does,</li></ul>
<ul><li>Recover when you "hit the wall" - and overcome writer's block forever.</li></ul>Syd Field's ground-breaking work discerning the deep structure of successful screenplays is based on decades of study - encompassing thousands of scripts and films. This is the stuff that doesn't change - even as wildly popular trends, like superhero movies, come and go - because the fundamental elements that make stories resonate with audiences are rooted in our shared humanity. Field's insights about screenwriting are not only practical, they're also expressions of compassion and wisdom. You may find that some of the solutions you uncover using Field's approach to writing can apply to other challenging aspects of your life as well.

The Screenwriter's Problem Solver: How to Recognize, Identify, and Define Screenwriting Problems

Why are some movies truly great? What makes an actor legendary? Which elements of successful screenplays move people's hearts more than others? Syd Field spent a lifetime seeking answers to these questions. His bestselling books on the art and craft of visual storytelling have become the film industry's gold standard, direct from the man The Hollywood Reporter called "the most sought-after screenwriting teacher in the world." In Going to the Movies, Field tells his deeply personal story, sharing insights and experience gleaned from an extraordinary career. Using a spectrum of classic movies -- from Citizen Kane to The Matrix, from Casablanca to Pulp Fiction -- Field provides a guided tour of the core components common to all notable films. These building blocks are fundamental; they transcend time and culture, rooted in the human psyche and our shared need to define ourselves through storytelling. Syd Field's profound perspective on filmic stories was the first of its kind. Discover the celebrated filmmakers, films, and stars that shaped Field's unique understanding of the medium, including: 
<ul><li>Jean Renoir, the remarkable French director who steered his young Berkeley protégé away from medicine into film,</li></ul>
<ul><li>A dazzling young Francis Ford Coppola, directing his thesis film at UCLA,</li></ul>
<ul><li>An amazing summer with Sam Peckinpah, as he describes the screenwriting techniques behind his western masterpiece, The Wild Bunch.</li></ul>
 Rich in anecdote and wisdom, Going to the Movies will both entertain and inform, enhancing every moviegoer's appreciation of the magic behind the silver screen.

Going to the Movies: A Personal Journey Through Four Decades of Modern Film

Biographies & Memoirs

Arts & Literature

Dell Publishing

From concept to character, from opening scene to finished script.. Here are easily understood guidelines to make film-writing accessible to novices and to help practiced writers improve their scripts. Syd Field pinpoints the structural and stylistic elements essential to every good screenplay. He presents a step-by-step, comprehensive technique for writing the script that will succeed. •Why are the first ten pages of your script crucially important? •How do you collaborate successfully with someone else? •How do you adapt a novel, a play, or an article into a screenplay? •How do you market your script?

Screenplay: The Foundations of Screenwriting; A step-by-step guide from concept to finished script

Dell

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Field, Syd. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Field, Syd

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Field, Syd. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Screenplay: The Foundations of Screenwriting

Selling a Screenplay

Screenplay: The Foundations of Screenwriting

The Screenwriter's Workbook: Exercises and Step-by-Step Instructions for Creating a Successful Screenplay, Newly Revised and Updated

Screenplay: The foundations of screenwriting

Selling a Screenplay: The Screenwriter's Guide to Hollywood

Four Screenplays: Studies in the American Screenplay: Thelma & Louise, Terminator 2, The Silence of the Lambs, and Dances with Wolves

The Screenwriter's Problem Solver: How to Recognize, Identify, and Define Screenwriting Problems

Going to the Movies: A Personal Journey Through Four Decades of Modern Film

Screenplay: The Foundations of Screenwriting; A step-by-step guide from concept to finished script