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Steven Spielberg, Martin Scorsese, Francis Ford Coppola, and George Lucas all began their careers making a short film. By contrasting and comparing the differences and similarities between feature films and short films, "Writing Short Films, 2nd Edition", offers readers the essential requirements necessary to make their writing crisp, sharp and compelling. Emphasising characters, structure, dialogue and story, Linda Cowgill dispels the 'magic formula' concept that screenplays can be constructed...

First there is an opportunity, then there is a betrayal.Twenty years have gone by.Much has changed but just as much remains the same.Mark Renton returns to the only place he can ever call home. They are waiting for him, of course: Spud, Sick Boy, and Frank Begbie. But they are not alone. Other old friends are waiting too: sorrow, loss, joy, vengeance, hatred, friendship, love, longing, fear, regret, diamorphine, self-destruction and mortal danger, they are all lined up to welcome him, ready to...

Adaptation persists as a major area of inquiry in both film and literary studies. Over the past two decades, scholars have extended the debate well beyond George Bluestone's influential Novels into Film (1957) by taking into account such concerns as intertextuality and different forms of narrative enabled through new media. A dominant trend has been to dispense straight away with questions of fidelity and "faithfulness," the assumption being that such views are naïve, moralistic, and rooted in a...

The goal of this book is to guide writers toward creating more authenticity in visual storytelling. One of the needs for art is the mirror, a reflection of human existence and what is glorious, tragic, wonderful, and funny about life. In an age of “post-truth,” where derivative and grotesquely bogus stories are abundant, globally networked, and digitally streamed, this book examines what it means to both artists and audiences when the mirror is consistently distorted, inaccurate, and biased. The...

Joe Eszterhas has written some of Hollywood's biggest hits 'Basic Instinct'; 'Flashdance' and walked away with some of the largest writing cheques in the industry's history. In 'The Devil s Guide to Hollywood' he reveals everything he knows about the movies the players, the personalities, the legends and screenwriting itself, revealing all that has inspired, amused and enraged him in Hollywood since his career began. Hilarious, colourful but also practical, this is required reading for anyone wh...

In spring 1953, the great director Alfred Hitchcock made the pivotal decision to take a chance and work with a young writer, John Michael Hayes. The four films Hitchcock made with Hayes over the next several years - "Rear Window", "To Catch a Thief", "The Trouble with Harry" and "The Man who Knew Too Much" - represented an extraordinary change of style. Each was distinguished by a combination of glamorous stars, sophisticated dialogue and inventive plots, and resulted in some of Hitchcock's most...

The screenplay of the brilliant new film about rock 'n' roll journalism, from the writer/director of "Jerry Maguire." Inspired by his own start in journalism as a teenage reporter for "Rolling Stone," Cameron Crowe has created a coming-of-age story that is both funny and moving-and laced with sex, drugs, and rock 'n' roll. Set in 1973 and starring Frances McDormand, Billy Crudup, and Noah Taylor, Crowe's new film tells the story of a fifteen-year-old boy whose dream of becoming a rock journalis...

Tells the story of a woman who claims to have had a visit from the Virgin Mary. She believes she is intended to intervene in the destiny of a young and troubled porn star and the handsome amnesiac she's met in the street is somehow involved.

William Goldman's follow up to Adventures in the Screen Trade is a guide to the nuts and bolts of film making that can be found behind the glitzy facade of contemporary Hollywood.

From the screenwriter of such classic films and North by Northwest, Sabrina and Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? two biting, unflinching novellas about naked ambition and media manipulation rounded off with thirteen off-beat and brilliant short stories about Broadway and the big time that ruthlessly dissect the world behind the bright lights and happy endings.

The analysis of scenic design in film and television is often neglected, with visual design elements relegated to part of the mise-en-scène in cinema or simply as "wallpaper" in television. Critical Approaches to TV and Film Set Design positions itself from the audience perspective to explore how we watch TV and film, and how set design enhances and influences the viewing experience. By using semiotics, history and narratology and adding concepts drawn from art, architecture and theatre, Gerain...

Swingers is an affectionate, hilarious ode to the fine arts of friendship, bar-hopping and girl-chasing. Told in the hip retro-vernacular of the nineties lounge lizard, it's the tale of a 'rat-pack' of young under-employed actors, hanging out together in Hollywood. Mike is pining for his ex-girlfriend; his suave buddy Trent wants to entice him away from his stuffy apartment and back out among 'the beautiful babies' on the club scene. HQ for the guys' nocturnal maneoeuvres is Sue's pad, where the...

Paul Auster's novels have earned him an international reputation as one of America's most exciting and beloved writers. Following his collaboration with Wayne Wang on the films Smoke and Blue in the Face, Auster makes his solo directional debut with Lulu on the Bridge.As in all of Auster's stories, Lulu on the Bridge combines myth, magic and reality to uncover truths about the human experience. Izzy Mauer, a jazz musician, is accidentally hit by a bullet during a performance in a New York club,...

Pulitzer Prize winner David Mamet ranks among the century's most influential writers for stage and screen. His dialogue--abrasive, rhythmic--illuminates a modern aesthetic evocative of Samuel Beckett. His plots--surprising, comic, topical--have evoked comparisons to masters from Alfred Hitchcock to Arthur Miller. Here are two screenplays demonstrating the astounding range of Mamet's talents.         The Spanish Prisoner, a neo-noir thriller about a research-and-development cog hoodwinked out of...