BOOK REVIEW: Screenwriting 434 by Lew Hunter

[Stacy Davidson]

This is the book Richard Donner called "The final word on screenwriting." Dude knows what he's talkin'. The screenwriter of Casablanca advised that if you couldn't take Lew's course at UCLA, you should get his book.

The thing is, when you pick up this book, you're holding a distilled form of Lew Hunter's UCLA graduating screenwriting course in your hands. Prior to writing the it, Lew noted that although bookshelves seemed to overflow with screenwriting books, most of them added up to little more than collections of tips, advice, and unfounded opinions about screenwriting. There was no book that would guide one through the entire process of writing a screenplay, so that was exactly what he set out to write. In my opinion, he succeeded big time.

He starts by providing five movies which will be referenced through the majority of the book. Four of these are movies any self respecting filmmaker or screenwriter has already seen a dozen times: Citizen Cane, Casablanca, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, and E.T. The fifth is his own TV movie Fallen Angel.

He then guides you through the idea phase, discusses the research phase and it's importance, citing his past scripts as examples. He explains the structure of the three-act play (in better detail than I have ever heard), and finally instructs you to write a step outline. He even tells you how to judge your step outline for overall script length, thus saving you major headaches later.

Next, he walks you through your first act, second, and third. He then discusses the re-write and helps you shape and perfect your script.

Here's the really cool part. As he tells you to do these things, he does the same himself. Over the course of the book, you will be in his head as he plans, writes, and re-writes a screenplay himself. When all is said and done, not only will you have written a new script, but you will have read his new script as it has developed in his mind.

I can't express how valueable this book was to me as a student of drama and screenwriting.

If you pick it up, you should also look for Aristotle's Poetics for Screenwriters by Michael Tierno. Poetics being the foundation for the structure of modern drama, Lew constantly refers to it, and this is the most readable and comprehensible version you'll find anywhere. Especially for screenwriters.

Have fun, and remember: a writer writes.
-s

[Mat Nastos]

Per your recommendation, I placed an order for the books today. I love Amazon. It's funny because I've done script doctoring for about 10 films, written 5 of my own and had 3 of those made into films, and I still feel like I have no clue what I'm doing.

It's funny that you mentioned research because I have discovered my love of it with the screenplay for "THE BARROW." I really got into all of the Celt myths, and once I started on the historical research it really helped me with writing. Knowing the facts of the time period and the people has kept the words flowing. I like it and plan to have a longer research period for whatever I write in the future.

M
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Mat Nastos
Nifty Comics
www.niftycomics.com

[Stacy Davidson]

Yeah it's amazing how if you do enough research, it's almost like the background writes the story for you. That's why Hunter suggests that you wait until the research is in to write your first draft, because you can really enrich your story by working in your research on the ground level.

-s