Product Description

Alternative Scriptwriting 4E is an insightful and inspiring book on screenwriting concerned with challenging you to take creative risks with genre, tone, character, and structure. Concerned with exploring alternative approaches beyond the traditional three-act structure, Alternative Scriptwriting first defines conventional approach, suggests alternatives, then provides case studies. These contemporary examples and case studies demonstrate what works, what doesn't, and why.

Because the film industry as well as the public demand greater and greater creativity, one must go beyond the traditional three-act restorative and predictable plot to test your limits and break new creative ground. Rather than teaching writing in a tired formulaic manner, this book elevates the subject and provides inspiration to reach new creative heights.

Alternative Scriptwriting 4E covers:
* The melodrama and the thriller
* Adaptations from contemporary literature
* Writing non-fictional narratives for the feature documentary
* An in-depth exploration of point-of-view and perspective as expressive of the film writer's voice
* Voice-oriented genres--docudrama, the fable and experimental narrative
* Non-linear storytelling-the narrative strategies that are necessary to make an open-architecture story work
* Considerations for writing for DV that speak to the flexibility and improvisation this medium allows

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #15269 in Books
• Published on: 2006-10-13
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 424 pages

Review
Praise for the fifth edition:
"Screenwriting is about making choices. What Dancyger and Rush reveal so effectively in Alternative Screenwriting is just how many options are possible, how the various available choices work and how different decisions will impact screen storytelling. This book substantially broadens every screenwriters' -creative horizons."
-David Howard, USC screenwriting professor and author of The Tools of Screenwriting and How to Build a Great Screenplay."


"Alternative Scriptwriting is invaluable to anyone interested in screenwriting or in directing fiction. Using plain language it demystifies storytelling for the screen, and opens up myriad possibilities for using the cinema with invention, freshness, and imagination." - Michael Rabiger, Professor Emeritus, Film/Video Department, Columbia College Chicago.


"Just as Aristotle's "Poetics" and André Bazin's "What is Cinema" are an inseparable part of a Screenwriting reading list, Ken Dancyger and Jeff Rush's "Alternative Scriptwriting" is an absolute must read for a deeper understanding of the structure of Screenwriting. -Dr. John Bernstein, Director, Graduate Program in Screenwriting, Department of Film and Television, Boston University

"Alternative Scriptwriting," by Ken Dancyger and Jeff Rush, is one of the few books on the subject that doesn't make you feel stupid while you're reading it.
Instead of the usual boring list of "tricks of the trade" that replaces a real table of content in so many "How To Write A Screenplay And Sell It For A Lot Of Money To An Even Bigger Lot Of Talentless Hopeful People" Dancyger & Rush offer real insight for those who take their screenwriting seriously and are not afraid to venture a little bit "beyond the rules". Both as a filmmaker and as a teacher I have found this volume very precious because what the authors do best is mix American craftsmanship with European sensibility.
An excellent cocktail, if you ask me. And you did."
-Marc Didden - Head Of Screenwriting at St. Lukas Hogeschool, Brussels , Writer/Director ( "Brussels By Night", "Istanbul", "Sailors Don't Cry" )


Praise for the third edition:
"An insightful alternative to mainstream narrative and character analysis that presents the reader with a clear dissection of the mainstream before revealing the alternatives."
-- Script Factory

"[Alternative Scriptwriting] aims to challenge its readers to create writing that is exceptional. While no book can possibly replace your own creative vision, as a resource it's thorough and is a good way to help yourself consider alternative ideas."
-- Plugin Cinema

From the Publisher
Additions to the third edition include:* a comparative study of how two very different filmmakers handle different types of film.* a look at ways in which narrative tension, story structure, and perspective can be used when writing for the digital film * a study of adapting contemporary literature for film EDITIONNUMBER: 21

About the Author
Ken Dancyger is the author of numerous books on screenwriting, editing, and production. He conducts screenwriting forums and workshops in North America, Europe, and Asia. A past chair of Undergraduate studies in the Department of Film and Television at NYU, he is currently Professor of Film and Television at the Tisch School of the Arts at New York University.

Jeff Rush is an associate professor at Temple University's Department of Film & Media Arts. He has served as director of the MFA program and as Department Chair in Film & Media Arts. He received an MFA in Screenwriting and Directing from the American Film Institute and an MFA in Fiction Writing from the University of Iowa's Writer's Workshop. In addition to teaching, Jeff has worked as a freelance screenwriter and has published numerous articles and books.

Customer Reviews

A fresh look at screenwriting.
If you have already read the "how-to" books from Syd Field, Linda Seger, and others, then you must know that the three most important things you should be doing to enhance your craft are: reading screenplays, watching movies, and writing screenplays. After that, if you still need some motivation to write, then reading an exceptional book such as "Alternative Screenwriting" might be just the kick in the pants you need to keep you going. It's presentation is clear and fresh. And it does not just emphasise "alternative" approaches, either. In fact, it presents some of the most useful and succinct summaries of "mainstream" dramatic screenplay structure I have ever seen. This is not just another "how-to" book.

Good information spoilt by sloppy mistakes
This book has a lot of solid information on how to write and analyse screenplays and breaking out of the standard "Hollywood" three-act structure as outlined by Syd Field etc. Undermining this are some silly errors which make you doubt the rest of the solid information

To give a few examples of the errors that I spotted:
They call the main character in Hitchcock's Vertigo by two different names (it's Scottie not Johnny); misspell Nabokov, Clouzot, Joe Mantegna, Dovzhenko; call Robert De Niro's character in The King of Comedy Rupert Popkin (it's actually Pupkin); confuse the director of Muriel's Wedding P.J. Hogan with Crocodile Dundee actor Paul Hogan; think Louis Malle's Murmur of the Heart is a "classic war film" (they must mean Malle's Lacombe Lucien); and finally (on page 216) can't quite decide whether Yojimbo and Seven Samurai are remakes of classic Westerns or inspired them. To quote: "Kurosawa made a gangster film, High and Low, as well as two films remade from classic Westerns, The Seven Samurai remade as The Maginificent Seven, and Yojimbo, remade as A Fistful of Dollars." I think they mean remade INTO but it would leave most people scratching their heads. Surely a moment checking these things wouldn't be too much trouble.

Once Focal Press properly copy-edit this book for the next edition I would certainly recommend it but until then it might be better to stick with Syd Field, Robert McKee or one of their many colleagues.

Thought provoking, but not very well presented.
While the concepts presented in the book were interesting, I found the writing itself not very compelling. Furthermore, the frequent typographical errors (and/or factual errors) were distracting and caused me to question the content. As an example, the authors use the phrase, "It is worth nothing...," when in fact they mean, "It is worth noting."