One of my favorite screenwriting books I've read! She sticks to screenwriting (I'm looking at literally every other so called "screenwriting" book), and SHE is FUNNY. I'm not exactly interested in screenwriting, but this book really motivated me to enjoy the process a lot more! I recommend!
"I don't care what you're doing, you're always writing somewhere in the back of your mind." I don't know how to be objective over a book that is part of my reading list for grad school (*screams) but here we are. Would give it a higher rating but I am a little baby who will not take the chapter about Collaboration as law until I start hustling in the industry.
This book is so annoying to read. The author is constantly quoting other authors at length. Constantly referencing specific details of short films which the author has a direct connection to but no one else has seen. Constantly discussing the definitions of words. Pedantry and filler. Frustrating when your hunting for insight and not finding it.
Not bad, I think there are better books out there for this kind of thing. But wanted to give this one a re-read since I'm starting on some short film ideas.
Half-assed, neoliberal, pseudo intellectual bullshit. Some good screenwriting tips here and there, but they are all buried deep in a mountain of slop. Basically designed to waste your time by forcing you to engage with the author’s eye-rolling boomer egotism. Majority of the short screenplays provided as examples are absolutely terrible.
This book helped me understand the idea of connection through screenwriting (a lot more than the usual screenwriting books that I've read in the past). I was so glad that I got a chapter dedicated to several short screenplays that I can analyse & cross-reference from page to screen. Especially got the chance to read one of Barry Jenkins’s short scripts while there. I have to try that “Le Menu” technique before I start writing a draft.
Easy to understand, easy to applied, intelligently put every aspect of building a good screenplay and share many personal experience of the writer too. In a nutshell, this book is simply 'connected' to us.
I liked this book because of the great screenplays included. I didn't think too much of the epiphany of the author, but perhaps it was revolutionary at the time. I mean... is it novel to believe that connections to the audience (or reader for that matter) are vital?