This book looks at the fundamental problems a writer faces as a beginner learning to create content for media that is to be seen rather than read. It takes you from basic concepts to a first level of practice through explicit methods that train you to consistently identify a communications problem, think it through, and find a resolution before beginning to write.
Through successive exercises, Writing for Visual Media helps you acquire the basic skills and confidence you need to write effective films, corporate and training videos, documentaries, ads, PSAs, TV series, and other types of visual narrative. A new chapter looks at adaptation as a specific script writing problem. Writing for Visual Media also lays a foundation for understanding interactive media and writing for non-linear content with new chapters that cover writing for the web, interactive corporate communication, instructional media, and video games.
This book will make you aware of current electronic writing tools and scriptwriting software through a companion DVD, which offers links to demos and enriches the content of the printed book with video, audio, and sample scripts. Scripts are linked to video clips that are the produced result of the words on a script page. The DVD demonstrates the visual language of scriptwriting (shots, basic camera movement, transitions, etc.) discussed in the book by means of an interactive, illustrated glossary (video and stills) of terms and concepts.
My script working title is "Chicken of the Sea." Where a Chicken eats giant Inca corn and turns into an aquatic menace.
The original target was a book. Then adjusted using a product named "Final Draft" (with a URL of final draft dot com) where you just add words. That is like saying using SQL you can replace programmers.
A section on mobile platforms is necessary as that is how most people communicate.
Now finally something I can sink my teeth in per se. The book is well organized and more than a textbook. It would take a book to describe all the valuable information in this book.
There is a practical side to the book as it is helpful with designing and producing training aids at work.
I also have a library of screenplays and scripts. With its section on script formats, this book gives me the ability to know what I am looking at instead of just the words.
For further study, there is an excellent Bibliography.
The book was published by Focal Press. I have a few of their other books.
'Writing for Visual Media' Is a textbook for students interested in writing and producing all different sorts of visual media. This is in no ways limited to writing for television shows and motion pictures which makes this a more comprehensive tool for paople interested in the medium.
Friedman helps you think about what form your work will take on the screen before you even begin to write. He has examples of various scripts from a 'How to' presentation for the classroom, to a Public Service announcement, to Web movies, Training videos, as well as Motion picture and television writing.
There is a website companion to the text full of information that coincides with the chapters in the text and provides examples from start to finish. [...]
(Note you will have to register with codes found in the book)
This is a great book for both the professional writer or the novice starting out.
I have never taught a digital media class before, and it will probably be awhile before I do it again, but I did find a few useful bits of information in this textbook.
However, this book is meant more for writers than it is for those going into the digital media field, which is the group I taught. However, this is more a problem of the administration choosing a correct textbook than it is about the book itself.
I liked the extra DVD and all the teaching helps it provided for me. I also liked the writing exercises at the end of each chapter.
It was easy to tell, however, the parts that the authors had experience with and the parts they did not, just by looking at the depth of information (things like online writing and interactive media).
I had to read this for a writing class. I found the material very dry and boring which is not how I want my visual writing to come across. Just wasn't my cup of tea. It might be better for someone focused on content marketing.