<< 1 >>
Rating: 
Summary: A Book to Read
Review: "Tools" is written by an intellectual with many years under his belt. He starts from the bottom up, and teaches you writing from the most basic levels to the most complex of ideas. This book not only improves your screenwriting skills by leaps and bounds, but enriches your movie-going experience.
Rating:
Summary: A Book to Read
Review: "Tools" is written by an intellectual with many years under his belt. He starts from the bottom up, and teaches you writing from the most basic levels to the most complex of ideas. This book not only improves your screenwriting skills by leaps and bounds, but enriches your movie-going experience.
Rating:
Summary: Masterful! Brilliant! Amazing!
Review: Forget all of the other books out there...or, buy the other books, but make this one first on your list. Howard and Mabley are both accomplished professional writers and they know their tools of the craft, which they now share with you. This book succeeds immensely simply because it lists the elements of a screenplay and tells how each is best used and why. It has all of the basic elements: Dialogue, Dramatic Irony, etc. But ever heard of "Preparation and Aftermath", "Future and Advertising", "Planting and Payoff", or "Plausibility"? If not, then learn how to include them in YOUR screenplay to make it better, more exciting, and more fulfilling in a dramatic and universal way. Absolutely the best book on screenwriting. Period. Buy it now. I have read it a countless number of times and each time I learn something new or it spurs my imagination to create something new in the world of my screenplay. Please do yourself a favor and get a hold of this book. A masterpiece of screenplay instruction.
Rating:
Summary: An indispensable Tool.
Review: I can't praise enough this book. The First section explain the Basic about Storytelling, the Second section expose The Screenwriting Tools, the Third Section from the page 100 to the end provide an Analyses of 16 Films using the following tools/elements: Protagonist and Objective, Conflict, Obstacles, Premise and Opening, Main tension, Culmination and Resolution, Theme, Unity, Exposition, Characterization, Development of the History, Dramatic Irony, Preparation and Aftermath, Planting and Payoff, Plausibility, Action and Activity, Dialogue, Visuals, Dramatic Scenes. My conclusions:
1) The information is clear and concise explaining the essential elements of a script
2) The Analyses Section provides examples in depth
3) The book is cheap Is a favorite between my 12 books about Writing, you can't go wrong with this bok even if you are a Pro because the analyses of the films provide you a comparative of the central principles of a good movie.
Rating: 
Summary: Comprehensive and Practical
Review: I think this book stands out from others in the heap of books on screenwriting in several respects.
For one thing, it does a fairly good job of defining the terms being used. There is great confusion in the vocabulary of screenwriting analysis; different authors use different definitions -- or none at all, assuming either the reader already knows what a "premise" is, for example, or it is intuitively obvious and merits no clarification.
Also, whereas other books emphasize a particular element or technique as a sin qua non, if not the sin qua non for creating a marketable manuscript, this book surveys covers all the basic with no particular emphasis or preference for one.
After surveying the basics, the authors apply their analytical schema to 14 notable films from various genres including The GodFather, Rashomon, Annie Hall, sex lies and videotape and Hamlet. Though I don't always agree as to how they apply their schema, it's a practical schema.
Rating:
Summary: ********** TEN STARS! ABSOLUTELY BUY THIS BOOK FIRST!
Review: This book is ABSOLUTELY the best on the subject. And I've read _all_ of them: Field, Froug, Hunter, Seger, Halperin, and many more. The analyses of clasic and newer films are exhaustive and the "Tools" section provides an indispensible guide for any writer. It sits right next to my computer. When I sell my first screen play, David Howard will be the first one I call to say "Thank you."
<< 1 >>
|
