21st-Century Screenplay: A Comprehensive Guide to Writing Tomorrow's Films

by Linda Aronson

Overview

The 21st-Century Screenplay is a comprehensive and highly practical screen-writing manual. An eagerly anticipated successor to the author's internationally acclaimed book Scriptwriting Updated, it covers classic to avant-garde scripts, from The African Queen and Tootsie to 21 Grams, Pulp Fiction, Memento, and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.

Whether you want to write features, shorts, adaptations, genre films, ensemble films, blockbusters, or art house movies, this book is your road map, it takes you all the way from choosing a brilliant idea to plotting, writing, and rewriting a successful script. Featuring a range of insider survival tips on creativity under pressure, time-effective writing, and rising to the challenge of international competitions, The 21st-Century Screenplay is essential reading for newcomers and veterans alike.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781935247036
Publisher:	Silman-James Press
Publication date:	02/01/2011
Pages:	490
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 8.90(h) x 1.30(d)

Table of Contents

List of figures viii

List of development strategies x

Foreword xii

Preface xv

Part 1 Getting Ideas 1

Chapter 1 Creativity and general problem solving 3

Chapter 2 Triggering good ideas fast from screen models 15

Chapter 3 Triggering good ideas fast from other models 26

Chapter 4 What film are we in? 31

Part 2 Conventional Narrative Structure 43

Chapter 5 Overview of conventional narrative structure 45

Chapter 6 Planning a conventional, three-act structure 61

Chapter 7 Normality and disturbance (the set-up) 68

Chapter 8 Action line or relationship line? 72

Chapter 9 Protagonists and characters who seem like protagonists but are not 78

Chapter 10 One protagonist, many antagonists 86

Chapter 11 Characterisation 91

Chapter 12 The plan and first-act turning point 99

Chapter 13 The second act 104

Chapter 14 The third act: Climax, resolution, symbolism and myth 113

Chapter 15 Structural analysis of The Piano 120

Part 3 Practical Plotting 127

Chapter 16 The nature of the task 129

Chapter 17 Close plotting: Beats, interweaving and condensing 133

Chapter 18 Plotting: Tips, traps and rewriting 144

Chapter 19 Genres with particular plotting problems 155

Part 4 Parallel Narrative 165

Chapter 20 An introduction to parallel narrative 167

Chapter 21 Six categories of parallel narrative 171

Chapter 22 Which structure suits my film? 177

Section 1 Tandem narrative 182

Chapter 23 Tandem narrative: An introduction 182

Chapter 24 The macro in tandem narrative 188

Chapter 25 Writing your tandem narrative film 194

Chapter 26 City of Hope: Tandem narrative case study 203

Section 2 Multiple protagonist narrative 207

Chapter 27 Multiple protagonist narrative: An introduction 207

Chapter 28 Multiple protagonists: Preliminary plotting 218

Chapter 29 Multiple protagonists: Plotting the group action line 222

Chapter 30 Multiple protagonists: Plotting relationship lines 228

Chapter 31 Plotting issues in multiple protagonist quests, reunions and sieges 235

Chapter 32 American Beauty: Multiple protagonist social siege 242

Section 3 Double journeys narrative 246

Chapter 33 Double journeys 246

Section 4 Flashback narrative 252

Chapter 34 Flashback: An introduction 252

Chapter 35 Simple flashback forms 254

Chapter 36 Complex or double narrative flashback: An introduction 271

Chapter 37 Thwarted dream and case history flashback 278

Chapter 38 Flashback: Protagonists, antagonists, and the enigmatic outsider 287

Chapter 39 Autobiographical voice-over flashback 301

Chapter 40 Planning a double narrative flashback film 304

Chapter 41 Case studies of flashback films: Hybrids and oddities 313

Section 5 Consecutive stories narrative 328

Chapter 42 Consecutive stories narrative: An introduction 328

Chapter 43 Consecutive stories: Stories walking into the picture 334

Chapter 44 Consecutive stories: Different perspectives 337

Chapter 45 Consecutive stories: Different consequences 342

Chapter 46 Consecutive stories: Portmanteau films 347

Chapter 47 Consecutive stories: Fixing journey stories with a portmanteau (Homer's Odyssey) 370

Section 6 Fractured tandem narrative 376

Chapter 48 Fractured tandem: An introduction 376

Chapter 49 Pace, connection, meaning and closure in fractured tandem 380

Chapter 50 Fractured tandem: The structure of 21 Grams 386

Chapter 51 Four fractured tandem films 397

Part 5 Lost in the Telling: Films with Structural Flaws 409

Chapter 52 Conventional narrative films with structural flaws 411

Chapter 53 Parallel narrative films with structural flaws 419

Part 6 Getting It on the Page 443

Chapter 54 Scene writing: Exposition, backstory and subtext 445

Chapter 55 Dialogue 449

Chapter 56 Treatment/outline writing and the script as an instruction manual 467

Index 476