Crafty Screenwriting: Writing Movies That Get Made
by Epstein, Alex
Epstein pens the first book to offer a successful screenwriter's tricks of the trade and to explain what development executives really mean when they complain that "the dialogue is flat." Smart, provocative, and funny, Hollywood insider Epstein diagnoses problems that other screenwriting books barely address .
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Maltese Falcon
by Hammett, Dashiell
An often ignored key to Hammett's philosophy is contained in the anecdote of Flitcraft that Spade tells Brigid O'Shaughnessy in a seemingly tossed-off aside. According to critic Steven Marcus, in his introduction to Hammett's THE CONTEINTAL OP, the Flitcraft anecdote shows Hammett's belief that "life is inscrutable, opaque, irresponsible, and arbitrary--that human existence does not correspond in its actuality to the way we live it." Although it is not included in the movie version (done by John Huston and otherwise completely--and unusually--faithful to the book), there is reason to believe that this tale does more to explain Hammett's philosophy of life than anything else he wrote.
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The Comic Toolbox: How to Be Funny Even If You're Not
by Vorhaus, John
The Comic Toolbox is a straightforward, often humorous workbook approach to creative problem solving. Vorhaus offers writers and comics, the tools of the trade -- "clash of context, " "tension and release, "the law of comic opposites, " "the wildly inappropriate response" and more. Readers will learn that comedy = truth and pain -- the essence of the comic situation -- and that fear is the biggest roadblock to comedy. Kill your ferocious editor within, and rich, useful comic ideas will flow.
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Being there
by Kosinski, Jerzy
About this title: Chauncey Gardner is a pleasant, dim-witted nobody who becomes a media celebrity, rising to prominence for no particular reason. Kosinsky's classic satire of the power of the media--and especially television--was made into an Oscar-winning movie in 1979.
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