Product Description
•State of the art screenwriting theory and technique from a master
•Author named one of today’s top screenwriting teachers in Creative Screenwriting magazine
Lets cut to the chase. Writing a Great Movie is a practical nuts-and-bolts manual to dramatic writing for film.This hands-on course in screenwriting shows how to create, develop, and construct an original screenplay from scratch using seven essential tools for the screenwriter—(1) Dilemma, Crisis, Decision and Action, and Resolution; (2) Theme; (3) the 36 Dramatic Situations; (4) the Enneagram; (5) Research and Brainstorming; (6) the Central Proposition; and (7) Sequence, Proposition, and Plot—which break the writing process down into approachable steps and produce great results. Jeff Kitchen shares the insider secrets he has developed over years of writing and teaching. Writing a Great Movieis the complete guide to creating compelling screenplays that will sell.
Writing a Great Movie: Key Tools for Successful Screenwriting
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This screenwriting book is written like an infomercial. The author uses so many buzzwords and glittering generalities that you would think he is trying to sell you something. On top of this, Kitchens is consistently vague in the way he tries to explain his ideas and on how screencraft actually works. He also frequently refuses to define the terms he uses, making it impossible for a new reader to fully grasp an approach. It seems like the author is in fact not such an expert on the subject, but rather he is just trying to muck his way through with fluff and air and hoping no one notices.
Strike two. Almost all, if not all, of the ideas and techniques were taken from other books written by other authors. It is doubtful if Kitchens has a single original idea of his own in this book, other than that of bundling all these techniques together in a single source. But seriously, if these ideas are found in a better source, presented by their original creators, wouldn’t it be better to read those books instead of this one?
Strike three. Though the author presents himself as an expert in script analysis, most of his experience is in theatre, not movies. The book is filled with quotes from playwrights and theatre directors, and includes techniques that were created specifically for plays. The author never once acknowledges that theatre and movies are two completely different forms of drama, and thus have far different demands and needs from their scripts.
Rating: 2 / 5
First, a disclaimer: I’m not entirely impartial. I picked up this book after taking Jeff’s workshop, where I had the good fortune not only to learn these tools in person but to see them tried out on my script, which was the example script for the weekend. So I came to “Writing a Great Movie” with a particular familiarity with the tools that it contains, and my experience may not be typical.
All that being said, I give this book my highest recommendation. Jeff’s background is in playwriting and dramaturgy, and the meat and potatoes of these tools come from Aristotle and Price. Aristotle’s unequalled analysis of Dilemma, Crisis, Decision/Action, and Resolution is presented here in a contemporary and eminently practical style. But the real treasure here is the stuff from William Thompson Price, a former lawyer who applied the principle of legal argument to the problem of dramatic construction about a hundred years ago and came up with the Central Dramatic Question and its extension, Sequence-Proposition-Plot. This tool is just an absolute workhorse. Whether you use it on the whole script or just a scene, whether you’re at the crude outline stage or on your twelfth draft, it will give you a quick X-ray of your script in dramaturgical terms and help you jack it up.
There are also some great brainstorming tools for character and situation, and a particularly incisive analysis of theme. Jeff lays all the tools out in the first half of the book, then walks through the process of assembling a script from scratch using the tools. It’s a very practical approach, though you may have to hunker down with it, and naturally you won’t properly understand the tools until you start using them.
If you are a beginning writer, “Writing a Great Script” will not teach you how to write. It doesn’t replace basic stuff like Syd Field, Lew Hunter, or Richard Walter’s superb “The Whole Picture”. I would say Jeff’s book is a palette of extremely robust and versatile tools for the journeyman writer. You can use it like a roadmap if you want and use the tools to methodically assemble your script, but more likely you will mix these tools with whatever your preferred methods of working already are. I can guarantee that if you’re sitting down to write and your intuition is on vacation and the muse left without leaving a forwarding address and you can’t figure out just what the hell to do with your second act, reaching into this book for your tool of choice will get your car back on the highway. Not to mix too many metaphors in there, but you get the point.
In my experience, these are not tidy tools. These are practical tools, the sorts of things that can get you through a garage full of disassembled engine parts or a kitchen full of unfamiliar ingredients. You’ll find yourself using several of them in parallel as you work back and forth from the level of the whole script to the beats of individual scenes.
As far as I can recall, all of the information in Jeff’s class has been recreated in the book. The transmission of ideas is always more effective in person, but it’s all here. I haven’t seen any of his DVDs but I suspect the DVD/book combo would be a great way to get started with these tools. They certainly worked for me: I gave my script a total overhaul using these principles and the resulting draft was a quarterfinalist or better in four out of the six competitions I submitted it to.
I also see that Jeff has written “Script Analysis: The Godfather, Tootsie, Blade Runner” which breaks down the three scripts using the tools here. I have not read it but he uses these scripts as very helpful examples in “Writing a Great Movie” so I imagine that a more in-depth approach combined with re-watching the films would also be a great supplement.
Rating: 5 / 5
I’m a novice screenwriter and found myself completely encapsulated in this book. I wish I had it a year ago when I started my journey into screenwriting. The book in itself is the best classroom for getting at the core of your story and characters. I followed all the strategies and worked them through my script. What happened in the process were all my neurons firing with new ideas and twists. I was coming up with many versions of my script. It was exciting!
Rating: 5 / 5
This book is awesome. I use it mostly just for reference but it has helped direct my way out of mind fog many times. It’s very easy to read and understand. Everything is spelled out, it’s hard not to understand. The only reason I’m giving it 4 instead of 5 stars is because there are a few spots where I wished the auther would go into more detail but even so I found the book to be a bit of a life saver. The information is very neccesary and valuable.
Rating: 4 / 5
The last time I read a book was for my comptia classes for certification in the IT feild. I hate reading but after finding out millionaires read about 16 books a month I changed my mind. I have about 5 movies on tap in my mind from comedy to adventure to horror. My problems is the B and C not A to D. Im a noob to movie writing but not short of great movie ideas. This is the first book I have read on my journey to movie writing. While the book does have you jump around alot its great for people like me. Being a beginner to writing movies having great ideas but underdeveloped and needing more to draw on for substance. This book is great for people like me at this stage of the idea of a movie but needing more direction. My next book is the screenwriters bible. Im only focusing now on format and how to actually write the movie in proper format. My problem isnt what to make a movie about its how to develop a pre-exisiting idea and write it in the proper format.
Rating: 5 / 5