When it comes to screenwriting, Syd Field is the Boss (the analogy here refers to Bruce Springsteen, not the Eureka vacuum cleaner). Nearly anyone who decides to try his or her hand at screenwriting (which is to say, everyone) eventually wanders into the local library or bookstore and discovers a quintet of volumes taking up a conspicuous chunk of shelving real estate (including the bestselling Screenplay and Selling a Screenplay) penned by Field, covering most aspects of the "craft" of screenwriting. I say "craft," not "art," because, as viewers will learn in the this 2-video seminar, screenwriting is "a craft that occasionally rises to an art." Using examples from The Shawshank Redemption, Titanic and Thelma & Louise, Field takes viewers through the steps of building a treatment, creating characters, writing the screenplay (broken down into several symmetrical components), and re-writing. Although, in my opinion, the talking head format adds little to the treatments in Field's books (with the exception that the examples are updated, as in the case of Titanic), the material here is no teaser--this is a comprehensive workshop which will give budding screenwriters all of the basic tools they need to take a shot at Hollywood's version of playing the lottery (although the odds on scratch cards are undoubtedly better). It should be noted that the program does include a brief plug for the screenwriting software program Final Draft (which also is widely acknowledged to be the best and is glowingly praised by the likes of Tom Hanks, Terry Gilliam, Lawrence Kasdan and many others). Also available on audiocassette (for the same price), Syd Field's Screenwriting Workshop is recommended. Aud: H, C, P. (R. Pitman)
Syd Field's Screenwriting Workshop
(1999) 2 videocassettes. 123 min. $79. Final Draft. PPR. Color cover. Vol. 14, Issue 5
Syd Field's Screenwriting Workshop
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