Product Description

At last! The classic screenwriting workbook—now completely revised and updated—from the celebrated lecturer, teacher, and bestselling author, Syd Field: “the most sought-after screenwriting teacher in the world”*

No one knows more about screenwriting than Syd Field—and now the ultimate Hollywood insider shares his secrets and expertise, completely updating his bestselling workbook for a new generation of screenwriters. Filled with new material—including fresh insights and anecdotes from the author and analyses of films from Pulp Fiction to Brokeback Mountain—The Screenwriter’s Workbook is your very own hands-on workshop, the book that allows you to participate in the processes that have made Syd Field’s workshops invaluable to beginners and working professionals alike. Follow this workbook through
to the finish, and you’ll end up with a complete and salable script!

Learn how to:
• Define the idea on which your script will be built
• Create the model—the paradigm—that professionals use
• Bring your characters to life
• Write dialogue like a pro
• Structure your screenplay for success from the crucial first pages to the final act

Here are systematic instructions, easy-to-follow exercises, a clear explanation of screenwriting basics, and expert advice at every turn—all the moment-to-moment, line-by-line help you need to transform your initial idea into a professional screenplay that’s earmarked for success.

The Perfect Companion Volume to Syd Field’s Revised and Updated Edition of Screenplay: The Foundations of Screenwriting

*Hollywood Reporter

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #75488 in Books
• Published on: 2006-10-31
• Released on: 2006-10-31
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 320 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9780385339049
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
• Click here to view our Condition Guide and Shipping Prices

Amazon.com Review
Screenplays, according to Field, are not so much written as they are built, and in this book he provides a clear explanation of what raw materials are needed to assemble the modern Hollywood movie script.In this cogently constructed workbook--one of the standards in the industry--Field elucidates the strict three-act structure of screenplays, talks about the nature of character, describes what plot points are and where they must fall, and provides exercises to help the screenwriter take an idea from the first germ of a concept, to outline, to rewritten script.

From the Publisher
Here is your very own hands-on workshop--the book that allows you to participate in the processes that have made Syd Fields workshops invaluable to beginners and working professionals alike.

About the Author
SYD FIELD is the internationally acclaimed screenwriter, producer, teacher, lecturer, and author of several bestselling books. He has been a script consultant for Roland Jaffe's film production company, 20th Century Fox, the Disney Studios, Universal Pictures and Tri-Star Pictures, and was the American Screenwriting Association's first inductee into the Screenwriting Hall of Fame. He lives in Beverly Hills, CA

Customer Reviews

THIS IS THE BIBLE OF THE FILM INDUSTRY
Thee are some serious distinctions to be made about books on screenwriting. Some of them are very good, very theoretical, very serious works. Some of them are throw-away one time reads.

A very few of them are "working" books, books that you will never throw away - books that you will use as reference. And even fewer still are books that you will use over and over again - books that will inspire you everytime you pick them up. Syd Field's "The Screenwriter's Workbook" is one of those rare books. It is the "Bible" of the film industry.

All of Field's books are excellent for this reason - they not only tell you how to write screenplays - they tell you why screenplays are structured in a unique way.

It is understanding structure that is the key to writing movies. All the ideas about character development, the representation of myth, and the history of cinema are necessary to writing good screenplays. But only one thing is really essential and that is a clear understanding of a form that appears simple but is actually very complex.

I still have many of the screenwriting books I have read over the years but Field's books are the only ones I actually USE.I know many other screenwriters, professionals all, who would say the same thing.

Fashion in screenplay writing and thinking about movies comes and goes - and every new writer thinks they have to either read the latest theory or re-invent the wheel - but when you actually write you only want a book that YOU CAN USE. Syd Field never goes out of style because he writes from a serious understanding of the relationship of structure to screenwriting - and it's this relationship that you constantly return to in order to make the writing work.

Buy this book and keep it. You will need it.

Useful after reading Syd's Screenplay
This book is most useful because it makes you work with the structure that Syd Field expounded in his preceding book Screenplay. This book introduces an additional element from the first book - what he calls the "confrontation". It divides the second act into two halves.

Syd Field recommends using 3x5 cards with a sentence describing what happens - one card for each 2 pages of screenplay. It is a method that some people find limiting, others may find it liberating. It allows you to "edit" your movie by shuffling cards before you ever put a word of dialog onto paper.

The book is structured around writing each act in succession. The weakness is that he does not address in enough detail the editing process. This is probably because Syd Field writes from the perspective of a consumer of writing - that is, a reader of screenplays for a studio.

Editing is something that some successful writers know almost nothing about. Examples are Stephen King and Ray Bradbury. They have the genius to write in one draft.

Syd Field gets a lot of bad reviews on Amazon, because he focuses on the three act structure, turning on two plot points. Many would-be writers want to break the mold. Few movies that get made break with the structure (Pulp Fiction being everyone's favorite example of a movie not structured in three acts). Most movies are in three acts.

Useful for Beginner Me
Field's how-to books were recommended to me by another screenwriter and this one seemed to have diagrams and new info. My weakness was on structure. Field gives a pretty formulaic structure with numbers which is working for me right now. It did help me to know where to place scenes and events.

It would have been helpful to have options other than the standard three-act explored or at least mentioned.

If you are looking for structure knowledge, read it but I wouldn't be limited by it.