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Crafty Screenwriting: Writing Movies That Get Made, by Alex Epstein
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The most innovative and creative screenwriting book yet, from an author who knows first-hand what it takes to get a movie made.
Based on an award-winning website hailed as "smart enough for professional screenwriters and accessible enough for aspiring screenwriters", Crafty Screenwriting is the first book not only to offer a successful screenwriter's tricks of the trade, but to explain what development executives really mean when they complain that the "dialogue is flat," or "the hero isn't likeable." Fresh, provocative, and funny, Alex Epstein diagnoses problem that other screenwriting books barely address, and answers questions they rarely ask, like "Why is it sometimes dangerous to know your characters too well before you start writing," or "Why does your script have to be so much better than the awful pictures that get made every day?" As a development executive who has accepted and rejected countless screenplays, and a produced screenwriter himself, Epstein can take you into the heart of the most important question of all: "Is this a movie?" A crucial book for anyone who has ever wondered what it takes to get their movie made.
- Sales Rank: #846011 in Books
- Published on: 2002-10-08
- Released on: 2002-10-08
- Original language: English
- Number of items: 1
- Dimensions: 8.50" h x .65" w x 5.50" l, 1.30 pounds
- Binding: Paperback
- 288 pages
Review
“Alex Epstein brings a screenwriting pro's honesty, skill, and expertise to a field otherwise crowded with how-to-write quacks.” ―John Badham, director of Saturday Night Fever
About the Author
Alex Epstein has worked as a development executive, screenwriter, and television story editor for more than a decade. He has helped develop projects with directors such as Richard Attenborough and John Badham. A graduate of Yale University and the UCLA School of Film and Television, he is the creator of the popular website www.craftyscreenwriting.com.
Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
Chapter One
HOOK
What’s a screenplay? Good question. After all, if you’re going to write one, you ought to know the answer. Right?
You probably already know an answer. A screenplay is writing intended to be turned into film. It’s a hundred-odd pages held together by brass brads, in which you have written down whatever you want the audience to see and hear in your movie.
If it gets made, the director will come up with a whole new vision, the actors will change your dialogue, the editor will concoct another way to order the scenes, and it won’t be "your movie" any more. That’s okay. A screenplay is not a complete work. It is not intended to be appreciated on its own. If a movie were a building, a screenplay would be the blueprint. Nobody settles down in front of a roaring fire with her beloved, a bottle of Chianti, and a nice blueprint. Nobody takes a couple of good screenplays out to the beach — outside of show business, anyway.
That means there is no point writing a screenplay if it isn’t going to get produced.
We all know that, somewhere in the back of our minds, but most of the thousands of screenplays I’ve read in ten years as a development executive were never in any danger of being made into a movie. From the moment the writer conceived them, they were doomed. They may have been well-crafted or poorly crafted, but they were all missing what they needed in order to get made.
This book is about writing movies that get made. Not just popular movies. Art films get made, too. Writing a screenplay that will make a brilliant movie is a good part of writing a movie that will get made, and that’s what most of this book is about. But that’s not all of it. So it’s important to understand what else a screenplay is, if you’re going to go to all the trouble of writing one, because if you don’t, the odds are you’re wasting your time.
Most helpful customer reviews
15 of 15 people found the following review helpful.
The Business of the Craft
By Ars Gratia Artis
It's show business, folks. And in Alex Epstein's book, "Crafty Screenwriting" the emphasis is on the word "business". As someone who has been a development executive, Epstein reminds writers of the bigger picture: a screenplay is just one element in a deal. The screenplay doesn't get made until other elements come together in a package that includes a producer, a director and the star and serious money. He urges the aspiring screenwriter to write his story with the goal of making it an effective selling tool, a catalyst to getting a deal done. Otherwise the chances of the script actually seeing the projector light in the darkness of a movie theater are slim to none.
And how to make the script an effective sales tool? First, says Epstein, it needs a great hook. A hook is the concept of the story in a nutshell that grabs attention and makes people want to know how it turns out. The marketing people come up with hooks called taglines to grab your attention when a movie is released. You need to come up with a hook to grab the attention of a Hollywood player to get the movie made.
Quite bluntly, Epstein says, "If your story does not have a hook, you are probably wasting your time writing the screenplay."
So, how to come up with a hook? Epstein offers some suggestions, but like everything else in the creative process, there is no sure-fire formula. After the hook he discusses the title - "Your title is the most important phrase in your entire script", the pitch, the query letter. At the end of the book is a chapter on getting an agent, getting copyright protetion for your work plus two appendices, one a sample option deal, the other a sample of screenplay pages properly formatted.
The bulk of the book is devoted to discussing the nuts and bolts of writing: plot, characters, action, dialogue, etc. Along the way he tilts at a few windmills: one section is titled "The Myth of the Three-Act Structure."
Does Epstein have any new gems of insight about them that haven't been revealed in a dozen other books? Not really, but if I had to recommend books on the particular topics of character, action and dialogue, this book would make my short list. Because he discusses the tried and true clearly and succintly with occasional twists of thought and turns of phrase that cast the tried and true in a new light in this reader's mind. And throughout his discussion, he never loses sight of the goal: punching up the script to make it a more marketable property. As the subtitle of the book says: "Writing Movies That Get Made" -- not just written.
If you're interested in writing scripts as vessels in which to pour your heart, your soul, your unappreciated genius, the ultimate truth of being that only you comprehend -- this book isn't for you. But if you subscribe to the notion that screenwriting is a business as well as a craft, then this is a book you will profit from.
12 of 13 people found the following review helpful.
Simply put - I'm glad I bought this book.
By Yeah
I'm completely new to the "craft" of screenwriting, and I think there's nothing wrong with a book that starts at square one for people like me. I think the book is well-written, and it seems to have been carefully proofread and edited (you'd be surprised by the mistakes I've found in other books). I like how Epstein talks about both the business side of writing and selling screenplays as well as the actual skills and strategies you need to write them. I need to know about both. He makes his points clearly and concisely - he doesn't use five pages to say something that can be said on one page. Makes for a quicker read, without sacrificing information.
Specifically, Epstein covers these topics:
1. Coming up with a "Hook," an exciting idea that can grab the attention of both show business people and audiences.
2. Working out your Plot.
3. Developing your Characters.
4. Writing Action into your scenes.
5. Crafting appropriate screenplay Dialogue.
6. Understanding different movie Genres.
7. Getting writing Help as you learn to improve your scripts.
8. Rewriting and rewriting until you get a great script.
9. Getting your script made into a movie by working with agents, development execs, producers, and the general business of Hollywood.
I read a criticism on one of the previous reviews that pretty much disparages Epstein for only having one writing credit in movies. I don't know what that person's copy of Crafty Screenwriting says, but the cover of my copy reads, "A development executive's real-world approach..." In other words, Epstein never claims you should listen to him because he's a super-accomplished writer with many credits. But he is a development executive. And it's very important to know how development executives think and what they want to see in screenplays. So I think his opinion is valuable.
When I first decided to pursue screenwriting, I thought I had the right idea of how I should proceed and how show business worked. Turns out I was wrong on both counts! If you're just starting out, and you want to know the basics of the business of movie development and the foundations of screenwriting theory, I absolutely recommend this book. But get some highlighters! There's a lot to learn!
7 of 8 people found the following review helpful.
Wish I'd had this book in film school
By A Customer
Finally, a book about screenwriting that isn't drudgery to read. When I was a film student, the screenwriting books I was assigned made the whole process seem more arcane than French grammar. Epstein's book is about how to tell stories that people will want to see on the screen, and reading it is like talking to a very smart, funny person.
He's absolutely right about how scripts need to have a hook to get made, and he explains for the uninitiated how those occasional movies without hooks actually got made (by being a bestselling novels first, being the pet project of a movie star, etc.)
Buy this book. It's a fun read, and it will help you figure out what's wrong with your screenplay (and will save you endless hours of frustration if your hook-less story is doomed to be unproducable).
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