"Back to selectionAfter Syd Field's Screenplay was published in 1979, an entire cottage industry sprung up in Hollywood. Screenwriting manuals and classes, overnight gurus and other (often predatory) enterprises promised impressionable aspirants a breakthrough if they just practiced a particular architecture of rules to write their dream spec feature. The next migration happened to the blogosphere in the Aughts, and in the teens, a plethora of screenwriting podcasts blossomed."
"Cutting through the clutter in 2011, John August ( Big Fish, Corpse Bride) and Craig Mazin's ( Chernobyl, The Last of Us) " Scriptnotes "'s podcast has developed a formidable following over 700+ weekly episodes; there's even a dedicated threads ranking and debating its best content. Hard as it is to imagine a book that radically condenses 14 years of spirited discussion on all imaginable aspects of the craft and industry into a highly accessible, easy to deep-dive manual,"
"True to a smart script, the book's plentiful white space makes it easy on the perusing eye, with 21 nugget-filled chapters covering protagonists and heroes (and their distinction); how plot holes emerge when you disturb the sacrosanct ratio among causality, correlation, coincidence and convenience; and nitty-gritty stuff like considering how each character would tell a joke and succinct yet stern advice for those who give notes."
The book condenses fourteen years of Scriptnotes podcast material into an accessible manual organized across 21 concise chapters. It pairs high-level principles and practical techniques, covering protagonists versus heroes, causality versus coincidence, and common plotting pitfalls. The manual addresses scene-level details such as how each character would tell a joke and offers firm, usable advice for giving notes. Each chapter includes a "First Person" subsection with guest tips from industry figures. The longest chapter breaks down a film step by step, and the layout emphasizes white space and nugget-sized entries for easy skimming or deeper study.
Read at Filmmaker Magazine
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