The Art and Science of Screenwriting

by Philip Parker

In an age where many see screenwriters as the storytellers of the new century and everyone appears to be trying to write a screenplay, this book provides the framework for you to write a great screenplay. It goes beyond the concerns of act structure and the merits of story-driven – as opposed to character-driven – screenplays to tackle the real complexities of writing a compelling screenplay.

This second edition
• the different layouts for film, television, documentary and corporate screenplays
• a detailed analysis of what is required from a premise, an outline, a step outline, a treatment and a first draft
• a simple stage by stage guide to the inevitable re-write
• tips on finding an agent.

This new approach to writing for film and television covers everything from finding an idea to writing a finished screenplay. The author's framework, 'A Creative Matrix', brings together all the elements of screenplay writing - from story, character, theme, and dramatic structure to plot, genre, tone and style in an understandable way that is easy to follow. His analysis includes illustrating what comprises a good thriller, identifying the different types of sit-com, and showing the qualities of a screen romance that both works and convinces.

The author uses examples from across European, American and World Cinema, as well as television, and this revised edition now contains a comprehensive index.

Genres: Nonfiction, Writing, Film

224 pages, Paperback

First published February 1, 1999

Reviews

[Alicia Grega · Rating 4 out of 5]

A little dry on literary theory as there are a lot of sentences dedicated to explaining what I thought was obvious. The breakdown of genre is valuable. It's also refreshing to read a screenwriting book that is more about the craft and less about namedropping and personal memoir.

[Juan · Rating 5 out of 5]

A diferencia de otros textos sobre escritura de guion, Philip Parker profundiza en el pensamiento necesario para aborar la escritura para pantalla. No da fórmulas ni afirma "verdades absolutas", sus consejos y su planteamiento está enfocado en entender el proceso necesario para abordar con mayor claridad una propuesta narrativa para un audiovisual, sin importar el tipo de formato (TV, cortometraje, videoclip, largometraje) y su medio de difusión.

[Ido · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this book again and my thoughts about it have changed upon the second read.

Unsure if the version I had read the first time was the earlier version, but most likely not.

This book is a wonderful introductory book to screenwriting.

It does a fairly good job of laying out what matters for a good story, how to develop the screen idea, some well-known but well-explained story types and subgenres, and style.

I think initially I expected it to talk about the science of it as in evidence-based science with substantial and repeat studies, statistics and/or neuroscience. This is not that book, but it is certainly a good guide, and except for a few outdated information about some practicalities (for example, TV show format - streaming format is becoming more of the norm or even better put, the writers for earlier TV shows hardly ever have to worry about single or multiple cameras and commercial breaks - this is more nuanced and complex than described in the book), I highly recommend this book to students of screenwriting.