Book Review: "Adventures in the Screen Trade"

"Adventures in the Screen Trade:

A Personal View of Hollywood and Screenwriting"

by William Goldman

I thought this book was brilliant! It was insightful and told of a not unglamorous view of the perils of Hollywood, but more of a realistic take on the stars, directors, producers, and a vast number of technicians and artists that people the sets of the movies. This from the point of view of Mr. William Goldman, the man who wrote the screenplays to such classics as "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid", "A Bridge Too Far", and "All the President's Men".

There isn't a whole lot of gossip, which I am fine with, but there are a few tales that were intriguing and helped explain the relationships between screenwriters and directors, screenwriters and producers, producers and directors, directors and stars, directors and everyone else, and stars and stars.

The book was hopeful as well as depressing in that it gave many warnings about the pitfalls of being a screenwriter. Many people view screenwriters as a necessary evil because, as Mr. Goldman says, many screenwriters are not actually that good at screenwriting....BUT he also says that NOBODY KNOWS ANYTHING. Which means what it says: nobody knows how the movie is going to do until it has been sold to theaters and pushed in front of an audience. Because then it is most definitely out of their hands.

Of the whole book, while the first two sections of it detail Mr. Goldman's experiences, the last part may be the most inspiring to aspiring screenwriters, like myself. This last section discusses a short story that Mr. Goldman had written many eons ago, which he found again, which inspired him to write a short screenplay based on it. Then he goes into detail about how one goes about adapting a written story into a piece meant to be seen. He discusses different ways to go about doing certain characters and certain scenes and even certain sounds. The most important part of this exercise was when he showed the subsequent screenplay to an editor, cinematographer, director, and composer for their views on how it should be filmed. That was very interesting because even Mr. Goldman didn't know what was going to happen because this sort of dialogue doesn't happen in real life. The screenwriter writes the script, hands it to a producer or a director, and that's it. Sometimes he's asked to make some changes or edits, but they never discuss the intentions of each scene, which might be more helpful to the industry if they provided the time to do that.

Overall, this was very interesting and I suggest it to many people and not just screenwriters or writers, but also anyone interested in the movies at all. Here's the book that will tell you in one way or another why some films were dead before they got to the theater. And how they are made which is fascinating. You almost forget that it's work for these people after you see the final product.

Book Review: "Selling Your Story in 60 Seconds"

"Selling Your Story in 60 Seconds:

The Guaranteed Way to Get Your Screenplay or Novel Read"

by Michael Hauge

Whoo! I feel winded and I only typed that title, rather than said it all aloud, which you won't get me to do. I'll cheat and only say the first six words. But what alliteration, try saying those six words three times fast!

But enough about that gargantuan title. The author, Michael Hauge, for those who don't know, is on the Board of Directors of the American Screenwriting Association and on the Advisory Board for ScriptWriter Magazine in London. And he has a wonderful sense of humor that permeates every bit of his work.

While not about the process of screenwriting (that was his last book, "Writing Screenplays That Sell" - which I will read as soon as I can get it), this book is about what the author calls Step 2. It goes thusly:

"Step 1: Write a great story.

"'Step 2: Get lots and lots of people to read it."

This book tells how to do just that. It also makes quite clear that the art of pitching a script (or story - as this book is also meant to help novice novelists as well) perfectly is almost more important than having a completed script for which to pitch! (However, it points out that it's very important to have a complete manuscript if you are pitching.)

The perfect pitch should take 60 seconds or less, and tell the entire contents of your script but have it sound interesting without telling everything so the person you're pitching to wants to know more. It must take 60 seconds or less so the person listening to the pitch will have time to ask questions about the story you're trying to sell and have read. It's complicated stuff and this book delivers the information in an understandable and concise way. It has sections on "The 8 R's of Pitching", "The 10 Key Components of a Commercial Story", "Targeting Your Buyers", and it even has pitching templates for every genre of story.

The reason this book has 4.5 stars instead of 5 stars is because while I enjoyed myself thoroughly when I read it, I know I'm going to have to read this book two or three more times to fully grasp everything, and that's more of my own failing than the book's. This is totally worth getting, specifically if you have a script so polished up that God himself needs sunglasses to read its sublime passages, then yes, you must needs get this book to properly pitch your script to people.

By the by, I should probably mention that some of you might think that this book is useless for you, because "you won't need to pitch when you have an agent to do that for you". But first, you need to pitch your story to the agent. And that agent, though he might take you on, probably has better-paying and easier to sell and pitch for clientele than somebody who hasn't been signed or sold yet. So unless you can convince people that you're the golden goose that they have been looking for (which is kind of what pitching is) you might want to learn how to pitch properly.

Book Review: "The Perfect Screenplay"

"The Perfect Screenplay: Writing it and Selling It"

by Katherine Atwell Herbert

If you are really strapped for cash and can only afford one book on screenwriting, make it this one.

Herbert is witty, humorous, realistic, demanding and charming. She pulls no punches and says that entering the glamorous ranks of Hollywood is like scaling Mt. Everest with only the aid of a toothpick. But it isn't as impossible as you might think, so long as you make your script as perfect as pie.

Herbert tells you how to do so with several carefully marked sections which feature your writer's self-confidence, the creation of your main characters, dialogue, how to send your script off in the most appropriate way, how to conduct yourself with an agent, and how to keep yourself motivated. She even goes into specific detail about the exact size of the brass brads you should use to bind your script (1 1/2 inches). She mentions outside sources to look at, what software to available, and big-name competitions to enter (which I have already taken the liberty of putting on my website ;D .)

A wonderful guide and a wonderful resource for both emerging and established talent.