Screenwriting: The Sequence Approach: The Sequence Approach

by Paul Gulino

The great challenge in writing a feature-length screenplay is sustaining audience involvement from page one through 120. Screenwriting: The Sequence Approach expounds on an often-overlooked tool that can be key in solving this problem. A screenplay can be understood as being built of sequences of about fifteen pages each, and by focusing on solving the dramatic aspects of each of these sequences in detail, a writer can more easily conquer the challenges posed by the script as a whole. The sequence approach has its foundation in early Hollywood cinema (until the 1950s, most screenplays were formatted with sequences explicitly identified), and has been rediscovered and used effectively at such film schools as the University of Southern California, Columbia University and Chapman University. This book exposes a wide audience to the approach for the first time, introducing the concept then providing a sequence analysis of eleven significant feature films made between 1940 and 2000: The Shop Around The Corner / Double Indemnity / Nights of Cabiria / North By Northwest / Lawrence of Arabia / The Graduate / One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest / Toy Story / Air Force One / Being John Malkovich / The Fellowship of the Ring

363 pages, Kindle Edition

First published May 27, 2014

Reviews

[Daniel Bingham · Rating 2 out of 5]

The useful contents of this book are contained exclusively within the first chapter. The rest of the book consists simply of examples of Gulino's ideas in action. While some of his ideas are useful, he falls into the same trap that most of these kinds of books fall into; you can't make a formula for storytelling. Having read Gulino's examination of Air Force One as if it's the greatest film ever made, I then had to read him ripping into The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring as if it was nothing more than ineffective storytelling. Just because a story doesn't fit neatly into your theories about storytelling, doesn't make it in any way inferior and the arrogance you would have to have to say it does is mind boggling.