Most books about screenplays instruct on three-act structure, character arcs, and how to format a script. But you already know all that. Secrets of Film Writing reveals a working writer's secrets-the tips, short cuts, tricks, and insider advice that will get your story down on paper, maximize your idea, and seduce your readers. Do you know why actors pick scripts out of a stack? Why montage sequences don't work? Why the traditional three-act structure is obsolete? Lazarus lifts the veil with dozens of secrets like these. Lazarus's insights and techniques will smooth and improve any screenwriter's process and will make any script more readable and ultimately more salable. Secrets of Film Writing takes you behind the scenes of feature and television writing and demystifies, once and for all, the Hollywood System.

On successful screenplays

Veteran script consultant Jill Chamberlain discovered in her work that an astounding 99 percent of first-time screenwriters don’t know how to tell a story. These writers may know how to format a script, write snappy dialogue, and set a scene. They may have interesting characters and perhaps some clever plot devices. But, invariably, while they may have the kernel of a good idea for a screenplay, they fail to tell a story. What the 99 percent do instead is present a situation. In order to explain the difference, Chamberlain created the Nutshell Technique, a method whereby writers identify eight dynamic, interconnected elements that are required to successfully tell a story. Now, for the first time, Chamberlain presents her unique method in book form with The Nutshell Technique: Crack the Secret of Successful Screenwriting. Using easy-to-follow diagrams (“nutshells”), she thoroughly explains how the Nutshell Technique can make or break a film script. Chamberlain takes readers step-by-step through thirty classic and contemporary movies, showing how such dissimilar screenplays as Casablanca, Chinatown, Pulp Fiction, The Usual Suspects, Little Miss Sunshine, Juno, Silver Linings Playbook, and Argo all have the same system working behind the scenes, and she teaches readers exactly how to apply these principles to their own screenwriting. Learn the Nutshell Technique, and you’ll discover how to turn a mere situation into a truly compelling screenplay story.

The award-winning screenwriter of "Stigmata" reveals the secrets successful screenwriters employ to get Hollywood to green light their projects. The UCLA extension course instructor also shows how to pitch, follow up, polish, and present one's work.

Every screenwriter needs to rewrite—more than once, probably many times—to make the story work and then to make a sale. And then again later on, to please producers, studios or stars. Tom Lazarus--author of "Stigmata", among other scripts--is a working screenwriter and professor at UCLA extension. In this book, he's distilled his own experience and that of other screenwriters into a system. SECRETS OF FILM REWRITING will teach writers how to: -prioritize big scenes -track transitions -plot corrections -add new information -pass through for dialogue -do an "on the nose" rewrite Hugely valuable to first-time screenwriters and to grizzled veterans of Hollywood pitch wars alike, SECRETS OF SCREENPLAY REWRITING is larded with humor and attitude as well as information. Its anatomy of a screenplay rewrite breaks down the book's lessons into their practical application—a must for anyone looking for a break in the film business.

Through a "Crazy" approach in writing the feature screenplay, the first half of the book guides the reader in how to create and develop: Story Idea, Characters, One Page Step Outline, and the solid script. In the second half, the book covers professional business side of the ever-changing industry by taking the reader through the work flow of Hollywood and explores how to work creatively with international countries like China in producing movies that resonate with a global audience.