Screenwriters' Masterclass

by Kevin Conroy Scott

The secret of writing a successful screenplay is sought after by ever-growing numbers of scribes and enthusiasts. "Screenwriters' Masterclass" offers state-of-the-art advice in that line, through interviews with nineteen of the leading scriptwriters of our day whose insights are invaluable to any aspirant. Each interview guides the reader entertainingly through the creation process of the film; how the writer handled the painstaking process of creating a three-dimensional world out of their imagination; what worked - and what didn't - in the finished film; and, most importantly, why that was so. In the process, each interview is a valuable case history, offering film buffs an uncommon glimpse behind the scenes of from Oscar-winner Ted Tally, recounting life on-set with Jodie Foster and "Hannibal the Cannibal" on "The Silence of the Lambs", to Robert Wade and Neil Purvis coming up with new ways for James Bond to "Die Another Day". Represented alongside the Hollywood pros are the leading screenwriters from the US independent and European scenes, including some of the most inspiring new talents in from Carlos Cuaron ("Y Tu Mama Tambien") and Chris Weitz ("About a Boy") to Wes Anderson ("Rushmore") and Alex Garland ("28 Days Later").

Genres: Film, Writing, Nonfiction

Paperback

First published December 15, 2005

Reviews

[Basim Mahmoud]

Ok, lets steal it PDF

[?0?0?0 · Rating 4 out of 5]

Be warned sane people and animal lovers: skip the interview with Guillermo Arriaga unless you want even more evidence of humanity's capacity for stupidity. This man would cower behind abducting and killing human beings if his culture deemed it right and then call every person who thinks he's doing something wrong "stupid PC people" - this person defends hunting because it's a contradiction and if other people do not hunt those non-hunters are, "going against nature" and are "stupid" and must be part of some "pc mob" and to go even further he actually says he finds it "sad that in some countries hunting is frowned upon" and basically just keeps spouting shit a five-year-old would say, or, worse, a fascist, and, since he loves contradictions, the man was expelled from a fascist school as a kid so that makes his blind following of sick cultural rules all okay because "human beings are just contradictions" - what insight from the guy who wrote the pretentiously titled "21 Grams" and wrote the pretentious from start-to-finish "Babel" - so, unless you too want to feel like committing murder, and not on some poor, unsuspecting, defenceless animal, skip that interview.

Uh. So, this book collects interviews with a lot of talented screenwriters and some decent ones with an odd choice or two but as a whole, "Screenwriters' Masterclass" is a surprisingly enjoyable read and not beholden to the traps of typical screenplay books ala McKee or Syd Field who somehow still make money by just pointing out the obvious and then attaching their terms or older terms to ancient storytelling devices and try and swindle poor college students out of money they could be using to buy marijuana. No, this book just talks to the writers, asking most of them the same questions and getting, for the most part, startlingly different answers. Some of the advice may be common knowledge and not useable but a good portion of the answers could be useful, in fact, a lot more useful than throwing Syd Field's book at every person who takes an intro to creative screenwriting or enters film-school expecting to learn something. If you like Haneke, he's got plenty to say, as always, or if he's not your thing, there's Alexander Payne, Wes Anderson, David o Russel, Alex Garland, and Darren Aronofsky, to name a few. The questions are not hard hitting but Kevin Conroy Scott does make sound choices on what to ask and those that are interviewed are here to help, too, not to try and disguise their craft or answers with witticisms. So, yes, this book could be better, it could have a better selection of writers, and it needs to be updated (it's 12-years-old at the time of this writing), but compared to the crap your professor is most likely going to make you buy, if this is an option, and you have a choice, go for it and for everyone else, if you find this in a library or for cheap or on your big-brained, tiny-footed lover's bookshelf, read it, why not?

[Vincent Eaton · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some stimulating stuff. Did not read all interviews as some were films I did not know nor directors I was aware of, so details less intriguing. Some writerly stimulation was had.

[Karen Madej · Rating 5 out of 5]

The only book I have read cover to cover so far for my creative writing course. I picked up so many tips that were relevant to my writing!