No theories! Only actual techniques! The ultimate HOW TO screenwriting book! Creating the ultimate villain, harvesting the audience's secrets desires or hidden fears to create a hit film, how to write a plot twist, the four kinds of suspense, using reversals to keep your descriptions exciting, four ways to explode cliches, the two types of heroes, ten ways to create exciting action scenes, using secrets and lies, weapons for weirdos, instant character identifiers, your script's DNA, 16 steps to better description, pacing secrets, rugpulls, visual characterization, "Popeye" points, and more! "Secrets Of Action Screenwriting" was written by a working professional screenwriter with seventeen produced films. He knows what works!

    The Brothers McMullen went on to win the Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival in 1995, and established the working-class Irish American filmmaker as a talent to watch. In the twenty years since, Burns has made ten more films (She’s the One, Sidewalks of New York, and The Fitzgerald Family Christmas), while also acting in big budget Hollywood movies (Saving Private Ryan), hit television shows (Entourage and Mob City), and pioneering a new distribution network for indie filmmakers online and with TV’s On Demand service (“why open a film in twenty art houses when you can open in twenty million homes?”).Inspired by Burns’s uncompromising success both behind and in front of the camera, students and aspiring filmmakers are always asking Burns for advice. In Independent Ed, Burns shares the story of his two remarkable decades in a fickle business where heat and box office receipts are often all that matter. He recounts stories of the lengths he has gone to to secure financing for his films, starting with The Brothers McMullen (he told his father: “Shooting was the twelve best days of my life”). How he found stars on their way up—including Jennifer Aniston and Cameron Diaz—to work in his films, and how he’s adhered religiously to the dictum of writing what you know, working as if he was just starting out, and always “looking for the next twelve best days of my life.”Chronicling the struggles and the long hours as well as the heady moments when months of planning and writing come to fruition, Independent Ed is a must-read for movie fans, film students, and everyone who loves a gripping tale about what it takes to forge your own path in work and life.

    With true insight, a master teacher of screenwriting pinpoints the story structure reasons most new spec scripts don't sell; then uses scores of examples from popular hit movies to present, step by step, his revolutionary Hero Goal Sequences blueprint for writing blockbuster movies.

    In How to Write a Selling Screenplay, he takes writers through the entire process, from developing a story to finding the best agent. Using an annotated version of an often-optioned screenplay of his own, and citing examples from movies ranging from Casablanca and Lethal Weapon to Sling Blade and The English Patient, he discusses how to create three-dimensional characters, find a compelling story, build an airtight plot structure, fine-tune dialogue, and much more. Keane's tips on the difference between writing for film and television, as well as his advice on dealing with Hollywood movers and shakers, make this an essential companion for people writing their first--or their fortieth--screenplay.

    Flinn's book will teach the reader how to avoid the pitfalls of bad screenwriting and arrive at one's own destination intact.

    For those readers wanting the "how-tos" of Hollywood, "Teach Yourself Screenwriting "is an easy-to-comprehend yet thorough introduction to this art. Here they will get the basics and advice on how to get their work onto celluloid.. . This book covers the techniques and specialized skills used in writing for this visual medium and answers the practical questions often asked by budding screenwriters..

    WITHOUT the quality suffering.

    The most innovative and creative screenwriting book yet, from an author who knows first-hand what it takes to get a movie made.Based on an award-winning website hailed as "smart enough for professional screenwriters and accessible enough for aspiring screenwriters", Crafty Screenwriting is the first book not only to offer a successful screenwriter's tricks of the trade, but to explain what development executives really mean when they complain that the "dialogue is flat," or "the hero isn't likeable." Fresh, provocative, and funny, Alex Epstein diagnoses problem that other screenwriting books barely address, and answers questions they rarely ask, like "Why is it sometimes dangerous to know your characters too well before you start writing," or "Why does your script have to be so much better than the awful pictures that get made every day?" As a development executive who has accepted and rejected countless screenplays, and a produced screenwriter himself, Epstein can take you into the heart of the most important question of all: "Is this a movie?" A crucial book for anyone who has ever wondered what it takes to get their movie made.

    In a field being transformed by technology, Syd  Field shows you what works and why and how to find  new ways to create a truly outstanding film using  four extraordinary examples: Thelma &  Louise, Terminator 2: Judgement  Day, The Silence Of The  Lambs, and Dances With  Wolves.

    The Hidden Tools of Comedy unlocks the unique secrets and techniques of writing comedy. Kaplan deconstructs sequences in popular films and TV that work and don’t work, and explains what tools were used (or should have been used).

    This book follows him through the process of setting up a new TV programme, punctuated with conversations with his agent.

    Most of this instructive and funny book is written in dialogue form and based on film classes Mamet taught at Columbia University. He encourages his students to tell their stories not with words, but through the juxtaposition of uninflected images. The best films, Mamet argues, are composed of simple shots. The great filmmaker understands that the burden of cinematic storytelling lies less in the individual shot than in the collective meaning that shots convey when they are edited together. Mamet borrows many of his ideas about directing, writing, and acting from Russian masters such as Konstantin Stanislavsky, Sergei M. Eisenstein, and Vsevelod Pudovkin, but he presents his material in so delightful and lively a fashion that he revitalizes it for the contemporary reader.

    Linked by the theme of a writer's "first time" -- usually the first time he got paid for his work, but sometimes veering off into other, more unconventional, "first times" -- these always entertaining (and sometimes hilarious) pieces share what it takes to succeed, what it takes to write well, and other aspects of maintaining creativity and integrity while striving for a career in Hollywood. Richard LaGravanese (The Fisher King, The Horse Whisperer, Living Out Loud) confesses that his first paid writing job was crafting phone-sex scripts. Nicholas Kazan (Reversal of Fortune, Matilda) explains why, in Hollywood, an oral "yes" often turns out to be a written "no." Peter Casey writes about the unparalleled pitch meeting for the award-winning series Frasier. Virtually every big-name writer in Hollywood has contributed to this collection, making it essential research material for anyone trying to make it in the entertainment industry, and a perfect read for movie and television buffs everywhere.

    Esper’s first book, The Actor’s Art and Craft, earned praise for describing the basics taught in his famous first-year acting class. The Actor’s Guide to Creating a Character continues the journey. In these pages, co-author Damon DiMarco vividly re-creates Esper’s second-year course, again through the experiences of a fictional class. Esper’s training builds on Sanford Meisner’s legendary exercises, a world-renowned technique that Esper further developed through his long association with Meisner and the decades he has spent training a host of distinguished actors. His approach is flexible enough to apply to any role, helping actors to create characters with truthful and compelling inner lives.

    It is a complete resource for anyone who wants to write and produce for a television drama series or create an original series, as well as for teachers in screenwriting classes and workshops. Offering practical industry information and artistic encouragement, the book is both nuts-and-bolts and inspiration. The Third Edition leads readers into the future and engages provocative issues about the interface between traditional TV and emerging technologies and endless possibilities.