Editorial Product Review:Item Description:A generation of screenwriters has used Syd Field’s bestselling books to ignite successful careers in film. Now the celebrated producer, lecturer, teacher, and bestselling author has updated his classic guide for a new generation of filmmakers, offering a fresh insider’s perspective on the film industry today. From concept to character, from opening scene to finished script, here are easily understood guidelines to help aspiring screenwriters—from novices to practiced writers—hone their craft. Filled with updated material—including all-new personal anecdotes and insights, guidelines on marketing and collaboration, plus analyses of recent films, from
American Beauty to
Lord of the Rings—
Screenplay presents a step-by-step, comprehensive technique for writing the screenplay that will succeed in Hollywood. Discover:
•Why the first ten pages of your script are crucially important
•How to visually “grab” the reader from page one, word one
•Why structure and character are the essential foundation of your screenplay
•How to adapt a novel, a play, or an article into a screenplay
•Tips on protecting your work—three legal ways to claim ownership of your screenplay
•The essentials of writing great dialogue, creating character, building a story line, overcoming writer’s block, getting an agent, and much more.
With this newly updated edition of his bestselling classic, Syd Field proves yet again why he is revered as the master of the screenplay—and why his celebrated guide has become the industry’s gold standard for successful screenwriting.
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Buyer Reviews
Average Buyer Rating:
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Speedy Delivery
This book I ordered too late to have it arrive for the first class I needed it for. It got there early anyway. Awesome speedy service.
Customer Rating: 
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A complete guide...
to the fundamentals of screen writing. The writer lays out the necessary formula needed to craft a script. He nicely spares you the hyper technical and all details desperate writers of ''how to'',love to fill in; leaving you more confused and less inspired then when you began. I recommend wholly.
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A disappointment
Two years ago I was so anxious to read this "most sought after" screenwriting book I could hardly sleep until the Amazon courier knocked on my door. My God... What a disappointment. This book turned out to be the worst book on screnwriting I had ever read (and I read quite a few being a UCLA film student). Is the author seriously suggesting that, for example, plot point 1 MUST happen on a certain page??? That every 10 pages we MUST have a car chase, an explosion, a death - anything to keep the audience interested? Well... Why don't let a good solid story take care of that? The problem is that a good solid story is not usually based on the plot point/page correlations. Many reviewers here have praised Field's book for analyzing the structure of a story. Alas, no. What Field is offering is not a structure but a formula. Rigid, frosen, still formula. Knowing the principles of storytelling is mandatory for a writer; applying a formula without understanding the foundations is simply useless. And not in the least creative. Sadly, in spite of the title, Field does not give the reader any explanation as to what these foundations are. Again, many reviewers said how helpful this book could be for a beginning screenwiter. Frankly, I don't see how. Field does not present a clean solid introduction to what a story is, does not show the driving forces behind a good story - something any writer must know. Field simply offers you crutches. Here, if you fear you story will fall down, use these - make something important happen on page 27 (or is it 29?). Can a truly inspiring script be written by following Field's rules? I seriously doubt it.
Finally, o God, his writing style is so impossibly dull!
Customer Rating: -
Essential Reading for Screenwriters
Some people are able to do creative things inherently, others are not. For those who are not naturally capable of writing screenplays, those who can't quite wrap their heads around what goes into a screenplay or how to even begin writing, then this is the book for you. If you're serious about learning how to become a screenwriter and don't quite know where to begin this book is the perfect start. Field lays out everything from the beginning of finding an idea of what to write, to turning that idea into a story, to coming up with solid and unforgettable characters to put into your story. "The Foundations of Screenwriting" could not be a more appropriate title for this book because Field covers exactly what the title promises. You WILL walk away from this book knowing how to write a good screenplay.
