Good books for creating a script out of orginal stroy idea.

[davvy]

Hello Everybody
This place rocks guys!! I just joined this forum and this is my first post. I am originally from India , but now I am living in Montreal, canada since 2 years. I have a MBA qualification. Since the age of 18, I have dreamt of making movies.I have watched Numerous Bollywood and Hollywood movies over the years and tried to understand the art of filmmaking I feel now the time has come when I should start working on my first script. The idea for this movie has been with me since 4-5 years and Iam totally convinced that I can make a very good movie out of it. . Ideally I would like to start working on my script within next two weeks. Before that, I was thinking if I could get hands on some decent books written on scriptwriting by industry experts. I tried checking on amazon and some other sites, but was overwhelmed by the information. One other thing is that my first script/venture would be for the Indian audiences primarily, and therefore I was looking for a book which is not too hollywoodish in approach. If you know what I mean. Iam looking for a book which could tell how to create interesting situations, in the realm of the main story, without having the writer resorting to create forced situations to elicit emotions. I know nobody can teach you art of stroytelling and I have my own various ideas which I would like to convert into interesting scenes, but even then if I could read a genuine book/s on screenwriting, it would be great. So, please suggest some good books on that.
Very soon , I would like to attend one month workshop on filmmaking conducted by NYFA . If anbody has any information on that, I would like to hear that too.
I hope to visit these forums quite often and intend to learn from all of you.
regards
dev

 

[NicklausLouis]

The Screenwriter's Bible by David Trottier

Story by Robert McKee

Poke

 

[kurushdeboo]

"The Hardest Part of Writing is Knowing What to Write." - SYD FIELD

Hello Everybody
This place rocks guys!! I just joined this forum and this is my first post. I am originally from India , but now I am living in Montreal, canada since 2 years. I have a MBA qualification. Since the age of 18, I have dreamt of making movies.I have watched Numerous Bollywood and Hollywood movies over the years and tried to understand the art of filmmaking I feel now the time has come when I should start working on my first script. The idea for this movie has been with me since 4-5 years and Iam totally convinced that I can make a very good movie out of it. . Ideally I would like to start working on my script within next two weeks. Before that, I was thinking if I could get hands on some decent books written on scriptwriting by industry experts. I tried checking on amazon and some other sites, but was overwhelmed by the information. One other thing is that my first script/venture would be for the Indian audiences primarily, and therefore I was looking for a book which is not too hollywoodish in approach. If you know what I mean. Iam looking for a book which could tell how to create interesting situations, in the realm of the main story, without having the writer resorting to create forced situations to elicit emotions. I know nobody can teach you art of stroytelling and I have my own various ideas which I would like to convert into interesting scenes, but even then if I could read a genuine book/s on screenwriting, it would be great. So, please suggest some good books on that.
Very soon , I would like to attend one month workshop on filmmaking conducted by NYFA . If anbody has any information on that, I would like to hear that too.
I hope to visit these forums quite often and intend to learn from all of you.
regards
dev

BOOK:
Screenplay : The Foundations of Screenwriting; A step-by-step guide from concept to finished script (Paperback)
by Syd Field "
(This is "bible" by entire film industries and writers)
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/t...002-0363059-3094438?v=glance&s=books&n=507846

SOFTWARE:
Final Draft 7/Syd Field's Screenwriting Workshop DVD Bundle
(Screenplay writing software)
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/t...-0363059-3094438?v=glance&s=software&n=507846

Dramatica Pro 4 (PC & Mac)
by Write Brothers
(Story Idea / concept Developer / Generator)
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/t...02-0363059-3094438?v=glance&s=software&n=1000

Dear Dev,
Better you do a filmmaking course and you will learn better in that environment. All your doubts about Hollywood / Bollywood will be clear. Remember, you are going to learn the Art of Screenplay Writing not your marketing output Gimmics / Bollywood Formula. It is dead and cliche in Bollywood. All hit movies are Non-formula Bollywood films (75%) like Page 3, Black, Sarkar, Company, Munnabhai MBBS, Parinita, Hum-Tum, Peheli, Bunty Aur Babli, Dil Chahta Hai etc.. while only 25% have formula films like Baghban, Andaaz, Koi Mil Gaya, Kya Kool Hain Hum, Hulchal, Lucky, Main Hoon Naa, Kal ho na ho etc...

Watch few Non-Hollywood good films like "Amelie, Life Is Beautiful, No Man's Land, Run Lola Run, Irreversible" to know the originality / individuality. I don't want to spend time on Hollywood / Bollywood movies because you are already familiar with those films.

Everyone wants to become a writer, an actor or a director but they are more unemployed than any other film / tv technicians. Hollywood / Bollywood only worship successful people. They know there are no derth of New Talents but they don't want to take risks. They pick-up Outstanding Talents from Indie Films. So, you will have to prove your mark by your own with Outstanding Talent, Hardwork, Luck, Opportunity, Marketing factors. Wishing you good luck. Please don't leave your graduation studies or job for script writing.

 

[WriteumCowboy]

What POKE said. Those two books are the foundation of good writing, and forget anything by Syd Field. He's cliched and old hat.

Actually, "The Complete IDIOT'S Guide to Screenwriting", by Skip Press is a good one to have as well.

Taking a Filmmaking class is a great idea, but if you love to write, you'll need the screenwriting books and courses so you can "create" a story before you try to "tell" it.

 

[clive]

Actually, to be honest I don't think it's possible to learn to write movies from a book.

There you go, I said it out loud. I've been meaning to for years and now it's out

So, the real question is how do you learn?

I think there are two ways:

1) Write short films, make them yourself and learn from your mistakes, and then having made about ten or so really bad films then try to pick up hints from books. (I think this process takes about seven years and most people give up before getting to their first good story)

2) Find a more experienced screenwriter and co-write three or four films short films with them. Then co-write a feature. Use this as your training process. Talk to other screenwriters on this forum a lot. (This process takes about three years)

If, however, you are determined to do it yourself here is a quick and free guide to writing a film script.

1) Before you start writing scenes get your story (your plot) or what happens in the film down on paper. One way to do this is to break the film down into incidents and to put each incident on a different file card. So your first card may read "John is a lumber jack, who lives in a log cabin in Nova Scotia. One morning he get's a letter that says 'I know everything written on it.'" Card two "John starts to pack his bags, but as he leaves the door a helicopter arrives. Out comes Major Woody, who tells John they need him back to come back for one more mission" etc. etc.
The key to this process is for each scene to naturally follow on from the previous and for each scene to have an important role in your story. When you've finished doing this, go through the cards and decide if you can cut any of the scenes without spoiling the story. To make a decent feature film you should be looking to have somewhere between fifty and one hundred incidents. Not only that, the story shold usually have a single central character and a goal for that chracter to achieve that brings her or him into conflict with others. (Conflict can be emotional and isn't always about gunfire).

2) Now you have your plot put a rubber band around the stack of cards and lock them away in a drawer for at least thirty days. Having taken a break from the story come back with fresh eyes and see if it still looks as good (It won't). Rewrite the scenes you don't like and restructure the story. An intersting exercise is to shuffle the cards and then try laying the storyline out from the random cards. Sometimes this leads to big breakthroughs.

3) Get a big pin board and pin up the incident cards in order. Now switch on the computer and starting with your first scene start writing. Scripts are laid out in a particular way. Professional writers in the UK use Final Draft script writing software because that is now considered the industry standard. This lays out the script for you, but reading other scripts prior to starting your first is always a good idea. There is no reason at all why you shouldn't write your script on any old piece of word processing software, providing you've done some reasearch into layout. If in doubt ask specific questions in this forum.

4) Film is a visual medium, therefore everything that you visualise in your head has to get onto the page. Your readers will not know what the inside Mary's Deli looks like, whether it is posh or run-down, whether the staff look like Baywatch babes or trailer trash. Description is important. However, it's vital that you don't get into writing specific shots (That's the director's job) so, "We cut to a close up of a nipple" isn't considered good form. (This is a case of do what I say, not what I do, as I'm always stepping over that line. It's one of the problems of being a writer/director).

5) When you write dialogue there are two things to remember
a) Every character has a unique way of speaking, if you can't take the name labels away from the dialogue and still tell which is which character you've got the dialogue wrong.
b) Dialogue is there to move the story forwards and for no other reason, the line you like because it's clever is the line you need to cut.
The rule with dialogue is write the script and then go back and cut half of it. Put the script away for two weeks and then come back and cut half as much again. A script cannot be too lean.

6) When you've completed your masterpiece find a reputable script editor and pay them to give you a script report. When you get the script notes you are allowed two hours of calling the script editor every name under the sun (not to their face), you may even hit trees. After those two hours go back, reread the report and then start from number one again, because the issues laid out in the report will all relate to structure, character and dialogue.

Hope this helped.

 

[WriteumCowboy]

Clive said..."Actually, to be honest I don't think it's possible to learn to write movies from a book. "

Could not disagree more with you. Why so many people hate book learning is amazing to me. When someone like Robert McKee writes a book on his experience with screenwriting, they need to be thanked fo sharing their expertise with us who want to learn. Everything I do well, whether it's an innate talent or just something I wanted to do well, came through others teaching me the best way to do it, and most of the time it involved book learning. Books are great, because if you forget something, you can go back to your library and pull out the book and use it for reference. That way I do not have to memorize every aspect of structure.

That being said, it is always a good idea to get it on video or film, but if you have not done enough homework to tell a good story, the audience will just yawn and say, "another indie filmmaker with a camera...", which is more likely true than not these days.

Anything worth spending time and money on is worth doing well, instead of "I made a movie!" just to stroke your personal ego.

I hear a lot of filmmakers brag about how little they spend on the making of a movie, and too many times I'm thinking..."yeah. It looks like it, too".

Before I shot my first short film, I did a LOT of research on a topic I already knew well. I saved up a LOT of money to shoot it, and in the end, thre remarks include " I can see where you spent $17,000 on the 15 minute film." The production values are there and are evident.

Studying to be a good writer is important. Books are an excellent investment in both time and money.

WC

 

[clive]

Interesting.

I've obviously failed as a writer to communicate clearly in this instance, because I'm not against book learning per se.

I'm just of the opinion that writing for film is only learnt thorugh years of experience and that a good co-writing partnership is a great way for a novice to get into screenwriting. In my experience book learning only really gets useful once you've a working knowledge of how a screenplay is written. The process of learning to write only moves forward through continuous positive feedback. A book can't do that for you, whereas working with someone else, making films to see the results and working with a professional script editor can.

Of course I could be wrong about this and I'm always open to new ideas, and as this thread was set up by a novice screenwriter looking for advice I'd be really interested in your top tips for writing a great screenplay.

I'd be more than happy to discuss the merits of book learning over experience in a new thread though.

 

[Unknown Screenwriter]

book learning...

Clive said..."Actually, to be honest I don't think it's possible to learn to write movies from a book. "

Could not disagree more with you. Why so many people hate book learning is amazing to me. When someone like Robert McKee writes a book on his experience with screenwriting, they need to be thanked fo sharing their expertise with us who want to learn. Everything I do well, whether it's an innate talent or just something I wanted to do well, came through others teaching me the best way to do it, and most of the time it involved book learning. Books are great, because if you forget something, you can go back to your library and pull out the book and use it for reference. That way I do not have to memorize every aspect of structure.

That being said, it is always a good idea to get it on video or film, but if you have not done enough homework to tell a good story, the audience will just yawn and say, "another indie filmmaker with a camera...", which is more likely true than not these days.

Anything worth spending time and money on is worth doing well, instead of "I made a movie!" just to stroke your personal ego.

I hear a lot of filmmakers brag about how little they spend on the making of a movie, and too many times I'm thinking..."yeah. It looks like it, too".

Before I shot my first short film, I did a LOT of research on a topic I already knew well. I saved up a LOT of money to shoot it, and in the end, thre remarks include " I can see where you spent $17,000 on the 15 minute film." The production values are there and are evident.

Studying to be a good writer is important. Books are an excellent investment in both time and money.

WC

What I got out of Clive's post was that books are fine... Read them. Study them. But don't expect to write a great (or even good) screenplay from having done so. The only real way to accomplish that is to WRITE.

Certainly, you can learn all about screenwriting from reading a book but you can't really sit down and start writing a screenplay from having read it. At least that's what I got out of his post and I agree.

Make no mistake... I have every screenwriting book out there and when I find that I don't have a particular book, I buy it. I even scrounge eBay for old and out of print screenwriting books because I'm a crazy man when it comes to structure.

Unfortunately, where I think all the books fall short is taking someone through the process step by step. No book in my mind does this competently and I have most of them.

You have to sit down and read through them all and take the parts away from them that really resonate with you... The parts that make sense. Sometimes reading several books will make sense out of an earlier book that you've read.

I think the best way to start writing is to read other screenplays... Read the screenplays from movies that you wish you could make. I cannot tell you how much I have personally learned from reading an early draft of the THE FUGITIVE (let me know if anyone would like a copy sent to them. It's a PDF file).

But still, most of the books don't tell you how to formulate your story... How to take your IDEA and write a story around it. That's just so damn important and the books simply do not tackle this like they should.

Additionally, I find it difficult to get experienced screenwriters to SHARE. LOL. Seriously, if you ever get one that will; milk it for all you can... Most that I have met, think they have the golden ticket and want to keep it for themselves but I usually find this isn't true anyway.

I've said it here a hundred times and I will say it again... Figure out what kind of structure works for YOU. Once you find the kind of screenplay structure that YOU are comfortable with, most of the secrets of screenwriting will become CLEAR and life becomes so much easier. I personally had to make up my own structure because I've never been comfortable with the ones I've read... But whether you use someone elses or formulate one of your own, once you find one that you're comfortable with, the writing becomes so much easer...

filmy