A Poetics for Screenwriters

✍ Scribed by Lance Lee

• Publisher: University of Texas Press
• Year: 2001
• Tongue: English
• Leaves: 159
• Category: Library

✦ Synopsis

Writing successful screenplays that capture the public imagination and richly reward the screenwriter requires more than simply following the formulas prescribed by the dozens of screenwriting manuals currently in print. Learning the "how-tos" is important, but understanding the dramatic elements that make up a good screenplay is equally crucial for writing a memorable movie. In A Poetics for Screenwriters, veteran writer and teacher Lance Lee offers aspiring and professional screenwriters a thorough overview of all the dramatic elements of screenplays, unbiased toward any particular screenwriting method.Lee explores each aspect of screenwriting in detail. He covers primary plot elements, dramatic reality, storytelling stance and plot types, character, mind in drama, spectacle and other elements, and developing and filming the story. Relevant examples from dozens of American and foreign films, including Rear Window, Blue, Witness, The Usual Suspects, Virgin Spring, Fanny and Alexander, The Godfather, and On the Waterfront, as well as from dramas ranging from the Greek tragedies to the plays of Shakespeare and Ibsen, illustrate all of his points.This new overview of the dramatic art provides a highly useful update for all students and professionals who have tried to adapt the principles of Aristotle's Poetics to the needs of modern screenwriting. By explaining "why" good screenplays work, this book is the indispensable companion for all the "how-to" guides.

✦ Table of Contents

Contents......Page 7
Introduction......Page 10
1. The Fundamental Story Pattern......Page 14
2. The Creative Root......Page 20
3. Drama’s Continuity......Page 26
4. Film and Dramaturgy......Page 33
5. Audience Relations......Page 38
1. Screenplay Defined......Page 43
2. Where Stories Come From......Page 45
3. The Nature of Conflict......Page 47
4. Location, Scene, Sequence......Page 49
5. Starting Stories: Establishing Character and Conflict......Page 52
6. Starting Stories: Choosing Material and Treatment......Page 53
7. Backstory, Preparation, and Exposition......Page 55
8. Complication, Major Reverse, Minor Reverse......Page 57
9. Discovery and Its Types......Page 60
10. The Dramatic Obstacle, Change, and Suspense......Page 62
11. The Beginning: Development of the Dramatic Problem......Page 63
12. The Middle: Development to the Crisis......Page 67
13. The End: Climax and Resolution......Page 70
14. Revelation, Clarity, Truth......Page 73
1. Emotions Make Real......Page 75
2. Identification, Empathy, Sympathy, and Fascination......Page 76
3. Story, Dramatic, and Running Times......Page 78
4. Cause and Effect: Immediacy and Meaning......Page 79
5. Necessary and Probable......Page 81
6. Irrational Versus Improbable Elements......Page 83
1. The Action: Point of Attack and Its Context......Page 88
2. Plot Complexity, Types, Variation, and Magnitude......Page 89
3. Dramatic Unity: Relating Subplots and Parallel Plots......Page 92
4. Typical Story Patterns......Page 94
5. Narration, Flashback, Fragmented Action......Page 98
6. Exceptions......Page 99
1. Sources and Types......Page 101
2. Force, Consistency, Change, Truth......Page 104
3. Defining Character......Page 105
4. Building and Revealing......Page 108
5. Motivation......Page 110
1. Ideas and Innovation......Page 112
2. Theme in Action......Page 114
3. What Structure Is For......Page 115
4. Creating Values and Moral Urgency......Page 117
1. Spectacle and Special Effects......Page 120
2. Music and Sound Effects......Page 122
3. Dialogue......Page 124
4. Symbol and Metaphor......Page 127
5. Dramatic Irony......Page 129
6. Comedic Turns......Page 130
7. Adaptation......Page 134
1. How Stories Really Develop......Page 137
2. Premise, Treatment, Stepsheet, Storyboard......Page 139
3. Production Facts of Life......Page 141
4. Last Things: Manuals, Formats, and Perseverance......Page 143
Notes......Page 146
Screenplay Author List......Page 150