Syd Field: Four Screenplays, Kartoniert / Broschiert

Beschreibung

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 .

Rezension

"I based Like Water For Chocolate on what I learned in Syd's books. Before, I always felt structure imprisoned me, but what I learned was structure really freed me to focus on the story." - Laura Esquivel

Klappentext

Yes, you can write a great screenplay. Let Syd Field show you how.

"I based Like Water for Chocolate on what I learned in Syd's books. Before, I always felt structure imprisoned me, but what I learned was structure really freed me to focus on the story."-Laura Esquivel

Technology is transforming the art and craft of screenwriting. How does the writer find new ways to tell a story with pictures, to create a truly outstanding film? Syd Field shows what works, why, and how in four extraordinary films: Thelma & Louise, Terminator 2: Judgement Day, The Silence of the Lambs, and Dances with Wolves.

Learn how:

Callie Khouri, in her first movie script, Thelma & Louise, rewrote the rules for good road movies and played against type to create a new American classic.
James Cameron, writer / director of Terminator 2: Judgement Day, created a sequel integrating spectacular special effects and a story line that transformed the Terminator, the quintessential killing machine, into a sympathetic character. This is how an action film is written.
Ted Tally adapted Thomas Harris's chilling 350-page novel, The Silence of the Lambs, into a riveting 120-page script-a lesson in the art and craft of adapting novels into film.
Michael Blake, author of Dances with Wolves, achieved every writer's dream as he translated his novel into an uncompromising film. Learn how he used transformation as a spiritual dynamic in this work of mythic sweep.

Informative and utterly engrossing, Four Screenplays belongs in every writer's library, next to Syn Field's highly acclaimed companion volumes, Screenplay, The Screenwriter's Workbook, and Selling a Screenplay.

"If I were writing screenplays . . . I would carry Syd Field around in my back pocket wherever I went."-Steven Bochco, writer / producer / director, L. A. Law, Hill Street Blues

Auszüge aus dem Buch

Chapter One

The Phenomenon of Thelma and Louise :

Callie Khouri

When Thelma and Louise was first released in the spring of 1991, I
was conducting a screenwriting workshop for Austrian filmmakers in
Vienna, a city of great beauty and culture, the home of Mozart,
Beethoven, Goethe, Schiller, Strauss, Mahler, and Freud, to name just
a few, and more recently, the homeland of Billy Wilder and Arnold
Schwarzenegger.

That spring MGM was in financial turmoil and executive chaos, and it
was possible that many films that were on the verge of release might
be locked up in legal limbo until the traumatic events could play
themselves out.

One of the films that was affected was a moderately budgeted film
called Thelma and Louise , starring Susan Sarandon and Geena Davis,
written by Callie Khouri, and directed by Ridley Scott, director of
such highly stylized films as Blade Runner , Black Rain , and Aliens .

But after the legal hassles had been somewhat resolved and the film
finally opened, everybody in the Austrian film industry was talking
about Thelma and Louise . Word of mouth spread very quickly, and I was
asked a million questions about it. I simply attributed the hype to
Hollywood and promptly forgot about it.

When I returned home several weeks later, people were still talking
about Thelma and Louise , and it continued to be the subject of
discussion and debate. It even made the cover of Time . I didn't know
what the film was about, but it seemed everybody had an opinion about
it, and nobody agreed about anything. I liked that.

So I finally went to see Thelma and Louise . I had no idea what to
expect, so I put all my expectations on the seat beside me and spent
the first ten minutes thoroughly enjoying myself. I thought it was a
comedy.

Then came the scene with Harlan in the parking lot. He has Thelma
spread out against a car, and he's going to rape her. It's starting
to turn ugly. He shoves her face down on the hood of a car, spreads
her legs open, shoves her dress roughly above her hips, and starts
ripping her panties. Wait a minute, I thought, this is getting
serious. I thought it was a comedy, and now this is happening.

When Louise comes out, gun in hand, and forces Harlan to stop, I was
on the edge of my seat. And when she actually blows him away, shoots
him in the chest, I was shocked.

As that green '66 T - Bird barrels out of the parking lot, I didn't
know what to expect. I was set up to watch a comedy, and now this
happens. But the great thing was that it worked! This film literally
grabbed me by the scruff of the neck and forced my attention to be
focused on the screen.

Suddenly I understood what everybody had been talking about. This
film was fresh and funny, the relationships insightful, the humor
laced believably through the dramatic situation. Every moment took me
deeper and deeper into the characters and story. I experienced the
film scene by scene by scene, and I trusted the screenwriter and
director to take me where they wanted me to go - the ending.

I don't see too many films like that.

As the film progressed, I still thought it was a comedy, and it took
me a while to realize that these two women had committed a murder,
and somehow they were going to have to deal with the consequences of
their actions.

How is this movie going to end? I asked myself. I can usually spot
the ending within the first few minutes, but in Thelma and Louise I
didn't have a clue. It was only when Hal climbed into the police
helicopter to join the chase that I knew how it was going to end. I
knew they were going to die; I didn't know how it would happen, but I
knew I didn