“From Script to Screen”
written by Linda Seger and Edward Jay Whetmore
(1994 Henry Holt & Co., NY)
By Pat Boddy
While not alliterative, this book would be better titled: From Idea to Screen. It doesn't begin with the finished script, as the title might imply for some. From Script to Screen well covers scriptwriting and the scriptwriter. In fact, this book focuses less on a chronological process of filmmaking, and more on the roles each “collaborator” plays in the process.
Consequently, I put this book off too long. I simply wanted to be told how to write a script. I assumed the war stories of the 12 writers mentioned in this book's first chapter might be interesting—but I doubted I'd learn much. And I certainly thought any editor's remarks would be off the mark. I was wrong.
For starters, this book isn't filled with tales of the rich and famous. Instead, it collects comment from collaborators on key issues. The writers in this book cover ideas, research, story structure, character development, theme—and as the book's subtitle accurately implies—collaboration.
Writer William Kelley, for example, doesn't offer anecdote, but analysis of his Academy Award winning script Witness.
. . . Each scene has to carry the story forward and proceed from the scenes before it and then lead into the scenes following it. So I anticipate the director's use of sequence. Usually the first act will fall rather nicely into three sequences. In Witness, the first sequence is everything leading up to the arrival in Philadelphia. The second sequence starts with Samuel seeing the murder and goes through the shooting of John Book. The third sequence is the escape and drive back to the farm and includes the scenes up to John's ability to start walking around.
Then you go into the second act, the idyll in the middle at the Amish farm. . . .
This idyll includes the barn raising, which I see as the fulcrum of the story .
The first chapter is rich with similar thought from other writers including Larry Gelbart (Tootsie), Lawrence Kasdan (The Big Chill, Body Heat), Tom Schulman (Dead Poets Society), Oliver Stone, and more.
Later, the book's focus switches to the other collaborators: producers, directors, actors, production designers, editors, and composers. But the script—and therefore the writer—rarely gets left behind in the filmmaking process. So the writer isn't left out of these chapters.
Finding out how each collaborator uses a script gives writers good info on just what counts. For example, The Sting's editor Bill Reynolds is quoted more than 200 pages after the end of the “writer's chapter:”
When reading [the script], I'm very much aware whether the characters are alive, strong, or funny. If you read a script and think, “This is meant to be funny but it isn't,” then you know you're in trouble!
If you're looking for a book that offers directives on scripting, skip this one. If you want a sense of what the many players need from a script and how active, successful scriptwriters deliver on those needs, read it. I'm only sorry I shelved it for so long. .
On a scale of 0-3 brads:
2.5