Non-Fiction Book Review - 'Screenplay: The Foundations of Screenwriting' by Syd Field

2023 EDIT: Part of my 2023 clear-up, of books I no longer like, or am no longer interested in, or remember well as standing out, or find as special anymore, or I otherwise will not miss.

Final Score: 3.5/5





Original Review:



Another university screenwriting book I found to be very helpful. Written by a "guru" of screenwriting with decades of teaching under his belt, 'Screenplay: The Foundations of Screenwriting' is, as such, considered to be the bible on how to write for films. Even professional writers such as Anna Hamilton Phelan, Frank Pierson, and James Cameron have benefited from it.

In simple steps Syd Field discusses:


What is a Screenplay?

The Subject

Creating Characters and building their arcs

Endings and Beginnings

The Setup

The Sequence

The Plot Point

The Scene

Building, writing and forming the Screenplay

Adapting from another existing story

Collaborative writing

After the Screenplay is written


Those points are enough to make me consider what the key elements are to writing a good story, not just a movie script. My passion lies more towards novel writing, but I still reread 'Screenplay' to remember how to set up conflict and consequence, content and context, confrontation and resolution, interior and exterior characters and their motivations.

Get an idea for a story. Then develop and know it, and your characters and the world in which they live in, inside out. There isn't a lot discussed about symbolism or themes in 'Screenplay', but the skeletal story mechanics and their internalized plot points (which Mr Field compares to a chessboard - a clever analogy) are there and prevalent. Parts exist to make up a whole.

Mr Field emphasizes how the first ten pages of a script are crucial, and that not knowing how it will end is not okay. Making things up as you go along is "Bullshit!" (quote Syd Field, 'Screenplay' page 60, 1979-94) - knowing your ending is important. It has to make sense and fit into the whole story, thus avoiding the dreaded deus ex machina.

I also like how Mr Field acknowledges how time consuming and life changing writing can be for most, if not all, people. As it should be, for writing is a skill only perfected by continuing to do it, and by learning from mistakes. Know the rules of the trade, but be imaginative and unpredictable as well so people will want to read your stuff. He compares finishing a story to giving birth; another rather clever analogy. He can be funny and insightful without even trying.

'Screenplay: The Foundations of Screenwriting' is essential reading for novices and those already well into the craft of scriptwriting. Well written. Well recommended.

Final Score: 4/5