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Despite appearances, the title of each book is a hyper link.

I’ve finally pulled myself away from the Christmas junk food long enough to write a new blog entry. Today I want to talk about books. Books are a great thing because for a really small investment of money you can become seriously knowledgeable on a given subject. Don’t stump up hundreds to go on a film making course, instead invest that money into shit loads of books. That’s what I did and I’m a genius
Before getting specifically onto screen writing books I first want to talk about two books that I have found helpful during my short lived career as a director which I believe would be of a big help to anyone involved in that side of the industry.

Understanding Movies by Louis D. Giannetti

I consider this book my secret weapon for allowing me to become as knowledgeable about films as quickly as I did, and for a time I wouldn’t mention this book to other people for fear that they might also get a copy and know what I know. So what is so special about this book? Well firstly its a film studies book, but a good one! I find most film studies books deal with wishy washy intellectual analysis; or to put it another way, they look for meanings in films that was never consciously put in by the director, only subconsciously. I’m only interested in learning about what a great director does consciously, and in this regard Understanding Movies is a breath of fresh air. I cant recommend this book enough for those wanting an overview of all the tools available to a director to create menaing. Everything is covered in this text, from the differences between expressionistic and naturalistic cinema right through to editing styles. The downside of being such an in-depth text like this is it don’t come cheap. The book costs about £45 new, but that’s not a problem because you can get it for around a fiver second hand if you shop around and at that price its the bargain of the century. Also worth noting is that you don’t need the most recent edition. So long as you have a copy that is under 10 years old then it should cover all the modern aspects of film making like CGI and digital work flows.

Grammar of the Film Language by Daniel Arijon

Essentially this text book is a technical break down of camera positioning and blocking. It is the bible on the subject. It goes through just about every possible camera move you could think of, as well as detailing how these different shots would edit together. Everyone knows about not crossing the line, but if you are serious about learning how shots are composed and then cut together then this book is essential reading. Its quite a dry text, and its very hard going at times because of the complex diagrams that you have to visualise as being different shots, but its well worth investing your time in reading it.

OK so now onto the real meat of this blog entry. Screenwriting books!

I am not going to waste my time talking about Screenplay, Story, and The Writers Journey by Field, McKee and Vogler respectively, as these are the 3 basic texts that just about everyone should read. If you haven’t then go order a copy of each straight away. You cant say that you are a serious writer until you have read these books. That’s not to say that they are the best books in the world, but they are the ones everyone reads and you will be expected to have read them as well!

I instead want to take the time to talk about a few books that are outside of the big hitters but which I have found very helpful in one way or another. Which brings me to another point I wish to make. There is no one book that will tell you everything, I find that each book deals with one aspect of the writing process better than all the others, and its by reading multiple texts that you get insight into writing as a whole. I find that one book might be really good at structure while another one is good with character, while another one again is good at the specific thing of how sub plots should work. Every book has its strengths and its by combining them all that you become a genius.

So what books do I recommend?

Screenwriting: The Sequence Approach by Paul Gulino

I would consider this book one of the lynch pin texts that I use. The sequence approach that the title refers to is basically the idea that a regular film is split into 8 approx 15 minute sequences. Cynics might say that it is basically Syd Field’s approach but with each of the 4 chunks split in half, but since I don’t have any problems with Fields formula most of the time I don’t think its necessarily a bad thing that this text uses a theory that seems similar. In fact it is my experience that whenever you get any other structure guides like the 22 step method for example it is essentially Fields model repacked under a different name so it can be sold by someone else as being an original thing. That said the Sequence Approach does have flexibility that Field’s model doesn’t, and strangely it has more rigidity at the same time of being more flexible as well, it is just better ok!

Save the Cat!: The Only Book on Screenwriting You’ll Ever Need by Blake Snyder

Snyder’s claim to fame is that he is one of the few writers of screenwriting books who has made a living from writing rather than teaching other people how to write, but just how good is he? Well he has sold a few million dollar scripts back in a period of Hollywood history when stupid amounts of money went into bidding wars on scripts. Ironically only one of the bunch of million dollar scripts he sold ever got made and it sucks. That said his book is good or else I wouldn’t be talking about it now. Where I think this book has its strong point is in talking about writing with commercial considerations in mind, in fact its too good at it. I was shaking my head at some points in the book about just how cynical he could be in terms of stripping out all the ‘art’ to make it commercially successful, but don’t let this previous statement scare you off, the information is book is essential even if you are writing an art house film. Why? Because it doesn’t matter if you writing a blockbuster or a tiny indie movie, in both cases you need to have an idea that will interest people enough that they pay money to see it.

How Not to Write a Screenplay: 101 Common Mistakes Most Screenwriters Make by Denny Martin Flinn

This is a great book on what I call “the technical side of writing”, how to format the page, how to introduce new characters, how to do montages. What makes this a great book though is that its not just a dry formatting book, it goes into everything you might wanna know about the form of screenwriting, like how much description is needed, what are good ways to get vivid descriptions economically and how to avoid ambiguity in your descriptions. There’s some really inept examples of what not to do which make this an entertainingly little book. Essentially this book will take care of everything that your screenwriting software wont. Your software will format everything right, but if you dunno how to describe your action in a way that isn’t confusing and boring then it doesn’t matter how great anything else about about writing is.

Screenwriting: Teach Yourself by Raymond Frensham

Most screenwriting books have naff titles and this is book is no different. To me it makes me think of a “for dummies” style book, but actually this is a great little book which gave me so much information. This book is probably best in terms of structuring your screenplays; how to keep the second act engaging, what’s the difference between the second and third acts, stuff like that. Its all laid out really clearly and its full of short chapters. I LOVE short chapters. I love to read on the bus and places like that and some big ass 30 page chapter with no breaks is no help to me when I know I’m gunna be hoping off the bus in 5 minutes. But anyways, the information in this book is great, and this is one of these books that seems to be on ebay on a daily basis for 50p.

Tools of Screenwriting by David Howard

This book is interesting in that it doesn’t really talk about big over arching structure as the lynch pin in the way that Field might do but instead spends much of the time talking about the smaller dramatic building blocks that go into creating that larger structure. In particular this book was great in drumming it into me that dramatic irony is the number one tool a writer must understand in order to keep the audience wanting to know what happens next.

Art and Science of Screenwriting by Philip Parker

Phil Parker is great. He devised the course that I learnt much of my knowledge on, and I find his methodologies incredibly helpful. The problem with me recommending this book is that I know that it cant possibly compare to his courses (the MA at the NFTS was devised by him also) but since his methodologies are so helpful I would recommend everyone get what little piece of him that they can. Essentially the centre of his theory is the relationship between the films theme; its genre; and the character’s individual stories, especially for the protagonists and antagonists; and how learning how they interact will allow you to maximise your films potential. Its pretty hard going to fully appreciate, but the more I understand it the more confident I am that my scripts “work” and work well.

Writing from the Inside Out: Transforming Your Psychological Blocks to Release the Writer Within by Dennis Palumbo

Want to know how to deal with writing block, procrastination? Want to know how to take rejection in a positive way? Want to learn how to kill your favourite ideas when you know its for the best? Want to learn how to deal with writing terrible drafts and not feeling bad about it? This book has it all and more. I actually bought this book by mistake when I meant to purchase Creative Filmmaking from the Inside Out but man, I’m glad I made the mistake, this book was so helpful in dealing with the mental problems associated with writing. The guy is an ex writer turned shrink and he is full of helpful advice!

I don’t pretend to have read everything, but of the bunch of books I have read these are the ones in no particular order, which I found most helpful. If anyone has any recommendation for books of their own, be it writing or other aspects of the film making process then feel free to leave them in the comments section.