A Screenwriters Guide to Watching Movies

This book will guide you, step-by-step, through a process to evaluate films that you choose. Not ones that someone else chose for you. Seeing how filmmakers tackle story problems can make you a better writer. No joke. Every major screenwriting teacher tells his or her students to watch films. This book just shows you how to do it, from a screenwriter's perspective. What to pay attention to, what's important to notice, and what to write down to learn more about why a film works, or doesn't.

The easy to follow instructions show any writer how to evaluate a film and draw valuable lessons from it regarding story structure, characters, dialogue and genre. The comprehensive guide takes you through the entire process to pick out specific information and hone in on critical story elements that can help you become a better writer. This is not another book where we watch the films and break it down for you. You'll learn to do it for yourself. Then you can analyze any movie you want, any time you want. The book includes a link to download worksheets used in the book for free as well as links to other screenwriter specific resources to help you on our journey to Hollywood fame and fortune.

As a film story writer you can learn a lot from what others have already done. Whether you're just starting out in screenwriting or you need to generate ideas for your hundredth screenplay, this book will help you take a fresh look at the idea of story craft. You'll learn a process for evaluating any film, regardless of genre, to get the most benefit for your writing. Besides, it gives you a great excuse to hole up in your apartment and watch movies all weekend! What could be better than that?