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I recently acquired a copy of Syd Field’s Screenwriting Workshop DVD for a very reasonable price (free). It’s something I’ve been hoping to watch for a while just to see what it’s like, so I’ve been looking forward to writing a review of it here.

I dunno what to make of it really, its essentially a variation of Syd Field’s book “The Screen Writer’s Workbook” so the question is why not just buy the book?

That book is basically a methodical framework for working out your first draft of the film; so for example it will give you a chapter on developing your initial idea and then give you an exercise to do to develop that, then it will explain the importance of plot points and then give you an exercise to do on that. So by the end of the book you have systematically planned all the plot, the characters and so on, written the first, second and third act, and then done a rewrite of it all. The book isn’t particularly theory heavy so I don’t think you could get away with reading this one book while you write your screenplay and nothing else, but it does keep you on track and gives you a framework to develop within and for that I think its a pretty useful book regardless what level you are at.

As I say, the DVD is essentially exactly the same course, although there are slight variations in the way its taught, it’s not like a word for word recount of the book and it uses different example movies ;but at the end of the day its the same basic ideas presented in the same order.

So with this in mind is there really any advantage to getting the DVD over the book? It’s hard to say that there is really.

The DVD has this effect of making everything seem more complicated than it is. There’s just something about people speaking with lots of jargon words in quick succession that makes it harder to digest than the written form. Even though I’m very familiar with Syd Field’s theories I found myself going “huh?” just because he was speaking the theory rather than it being written down.

The DVD also comes across kinda stilted as well since its basically a static shot of Field talking straight to the camera and nothing much else. It cuts away to some really lame graphics and has bullet points appear up on the screen to highlight things he says, but you can’t help but think it would be better if he was drawing stuff on a whiteboard or pointing at something. The lack of dynamics really hurts it I think.

Also, I dunno if this is rife in his books as well and I just never picked up on it, but this guy seems to love using really lame metaphors . Like apparently structure is like a game of chess and a screenplay is like a table. And just in general, I was surprised at how badly he explained things. Maybe I just needed some more coffee before I sat down to listen to him?

So in conclusion;

I knew going into this that it would basically be a rehash of one of his other books so I don’t know exactly why I am feeling disappointed, but I am feeling disappointed by this. I think it’s because not only is this a rehash of a book but it’s actually making the information found in that book a lot worse by virtue of the stilted delivery and the fact that DVD ain’t the natural format for teaching about writing anyways.

I’m pretty sure no one I know was planning on rushing out to buy this any-time soon, but I know fair number of people will find this review via Google and for those people I recommend you just buy the book instead.

PS. As I learnt in the video Syd Field’s number plate is “Plot Pnt”. Is that just naff or so naff it’s cool?

Update: You can currently get the old version of the book on Amazon MarketPlace for 3p plus P+P! (Though that still doesn’t beat me getting What Lie did I tell for 1p last year!)