Publisher's Synopsis
Have you ever thought about writing your own movie but didn't know how to get started? In Watch Movies, Learn Screenwriting, Joan Erskine uses eight award winning films to show how to watch popular movies as a way to learn screenwriting. Geared towards beginner screenwriters, from the very start, you'll be working on your screenplay! The range of movies cited cover blockbuster, lighthearted dramas (Jerry Maguire), dark tragedies (Monster), animated Academy Award winners (Up), thrillers (No Country for Old Men), ensemble gems (The Jane Austen Book Club), dark comedies (Bad Santa), family favorites (Home Alone), serious dramas (Million Dollar Baby) and award winning, low budget independents (Little Miss Sunshine), and shows the author's nonjudgmental passion for all types of Hollywood storytelling. Here's how it works: The Guidebook (Part I) explains movie basics, such as theme, characters and dialogue and the Workbook (Part II) helps you come up with your idea, your characters and a plan for what happens in your story. Next, the Essential Moments Screenplay Outline (Part III) shows how the screenwriters plotted these terrific films by creating specific types of events at key moments and you'll also find space to write what will happen in your story at these moments. The Essential Moments Screenplay Outline will help you kick start your story in the first act; generate tension from beginning to end; engage the audience; and continually propel the narrative towards a satisfying ending. The result-you'll have a well plotted summary to guide you as you write your screenplay. Finally, you'll begin writing your screenplay on the Screenwriter's Initial Draft Paper (Part IV)- thirty-two specially graphed pages "borrowed" from the Screenwriter's Initial Draft Pad. These paper templates will guide you to write characters' names, dialogue, and actions precisely where they belong on the page of a screenplay according to the film industry approved format. As you write, you'll effortlessly learn this essential format that turns the complicated process of describing who, where, when, and what is happening into an easy-to-read, standard system producers, directors and actors recognize. And to answer any questions you might have about formatting, the complete set of formatting rules as illustrated on the Screenwriter's Initial Draft Pad are also included in this section. Watch Movies, Learn Screenwriting contains everything you need to get started on what you've always wanted to do, but never thought you could. The last part of this book-Resources and Opportunities-helps you cross the finish line. Final drafts must be typed and in this section, you'll find information about computer programs that format your screenplay as you type. Stop hesitating! This book will teach you how to turn your idea for a movie into an actual screenplay!
