Writing for Visual Media / Edition 4

by Anthony Friedmann

Overview

This updated edition of Writing for Visual Media will enable you to understand the nature of visual writing that lies behind the content of all visual media. This unique kind of writing must communicate to audiences through content producers, since audiences don’t read the script. Most media content provides a solution to a communication problem, which the writer must learn to analyze and solve before writing the script.

The new edition strengthens the method for creating content and writing in the correct language and established format for each visual medium, including commercial communication such as ads and PSAs, corporate communications, and training. An extended investigation into dramatic theory and how entertainment narrative works is illustrated by examples and detailed analysis of scenes, scripts and storylines, saving you designed to save writers from typical pitfalls and releasing your creative powers of invention. Writing for Visual Media will help you to develop an improved foundation for understanding interactive media and writing for non-linear content, while gaining the tools to effectively connect with your audience like a professional.

Purchase of this book includes access to the companion website, www.focalpress.com/cw/friedmann (coming June 5), which provides:

• Sample scripts and video clips of those produced scripts
• An interactive glossary of camera shots, movements, and transitions
• Storyboards, scripts, screenplays, and links to industry resource
• Instructor materials such as PowerPoint lecture slides, a sample syllabus, and a test bank.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780415815857
Publisher:	Taylor & Francis
Publication date:	04/28/2014
Edition description:	Revised
Pages:	472
Product dimensions:	8.50(w) x 10.90(h) x 1.10(d)

About the Author

Anthony Friedmann has an M.A. in English from Harvard University and a B.A. and Ph.D. in English and Comparative Literature from Columbia University, and was trained as a filmmaker at the London School of Film Technique. After twenty-one years of writing, producing, and directing film, multi-image, and video, he has taught video production, interactive multimedia, and scriptwriting at various colleges and universities. He continues to do technical writing, write for corporate clients, newsletters, and develop independent projects for film and publishing. His work ranges from feature films to corporate video for English, American, and French clients. Bartleby, which he wrote and directed, won Special Jury Prize at the San Sebastián Film Festival in 1971. He is a member of the British Academy of Film and Television Arts, the Writers’ Guild of Great Britain, and the Broadcast Education Association.

Table of Contents

Introduction
Chapter 1: Describing One Medium Through Another
Chapter 2: A Seven-Step Method for Developing a Creative Concept
Chapter 3: Describing Sight and Sound
Chapter 4: The Stages of Script Development
Chapter 5: Ads and PSAs: Copywriting for Visual Media
Chapter 6: Corporate Communications: Selling, Telling, Training, and Promoting
Chapter 7: Documentary and Nonfiction Narrative
Chapter 8: Visual Storytelling: Dramatic Structure and Form
Chapter 9: Writing Techniques for Long-Form Scripts
Chapter 10: Television Series, Sitcoms, and Soaps
Chapter 11: Writing and Interactive Design
Chapter 12: Writing for Interactive Communications
Chapter 13: Writing for Video Games
Chapter 14: Writing for Mobile Media Platforms
Chapter 15: You Can Get Paid to Do This

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

"Friedmann's seven-step review for developing creative concepts is worthy of a read by professional and budding writers....Writing for the Visual Media is an important contribution to our understanding of the challenges and skills needed for survival as a visual writer."—Charles Feldman, BEA Journal

Editorial Reviews

"Worth its weight in gold... ! It doesn't get any better than this: Here we have a master teacher -- Anthony Friedman, bringing 21 years of writing, producing and directing experience to bear writing the third edition of this very impressive text…An impressive book that delivers what it promises…an essential purchase for anyone interested in writing for the visual media." R. Neil Scott, Author, Former Professor & User Services Librarian at Middle Tennessee State University (MTSU)

"An engaging textbook that trains, entertains and concentrates on contemporary writing issues in an accessible way. This book delivers a treasure trove of valuable, well-written information aspiring writers can use to familiarize themselves with the challenges of visual media." Jared Castle, marketing and public relations consultant, writer

"A comprehensive, well-structured, and well-written introduction to writing for electronic and digital screens wherever they might be found." Nathaniel Kohn, University of Georgia

"…a critical text that is accessible for students. This textbook provides comprehensive examples and exercises to push students to engage with real-world examples that will be needed once they become professionals. Broken down into five parts, this book allows lecturers to focus on critical concepts either in order, or in smaller chunks. The section on Interactive and Mobile Media is a welcome addition to a mediated world that is going global with the use of a Smartphone!" Dr. Ann Luce, University of Portsmouth, UK

"Anthony Friedman is a master at his craft for writing for a variety of media. He is also a master when it comes to explaining his methods to the average lay man. I thought the book was brilliantly put together…I feel this book is well worth the purchase price, and the time spent reading." Stephanie Manley, editor of CopyKat.com

"If my journalism students could only have three textbooks during their journalism academic career, I’d be pleased to know that "Writing for Visual Media" was one of them. From producing PSAs to defining target audiences to writing for interactive and mobile media, and finally, marketing oneself in this ever-changing media landscape, this text has the tools that journalism and new media students need now and tomorrow." Deidra Jackson, Instructor of Journalism, University of Mississippi Meek School of Journalism and New Media

From the Publisher