Raindance Writers' Lab, 2nd Edition

Raindance Writers' Lab, 2nd Edition

by Elliot Grove
Released March 2014
Publisher(s): Routledge
ISBN: 9781136055690

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Book description

If you're looking for a straightforward, practical, no-nonsense guide to scriptwriting that will hold your hand right the way through the process, read on! The Raindance Writers' Lab guides you through the tools that enable you to execute a strong treatment for a feature and be well on the way to the first draft of your script.

Written by the creator of the Raindance Film Festival himself, Elliot Grove uses a hands-on approach to screenwriting based on his many years of experience teaching the subject for Raindance training. He uses step-by-step processes illustrated with diagrams and charts to lend a visual structure to the teaching. Techniques are related to real-life examples throughout, from low budget to blockbuster films.

The Companion Website contains interviews with British writers and directors as well as a handy series of legal contracts, video clips and writing exercises.

In this brand new 2nd edition, Grove expands on his story structure theory, as well as how to write for the internet and short films.

The website also contains sample scripts and legal contracts, a writing exercise illustrated with a video clip, a folder full of useful hyperlinks for research, and a demo version of Final Draft screenwriting software.

Table of contents

  1. Front Cover
  2. Title Page
  3. Copyright
  4. Contents
  5. Exclusive Online Resources
  6. Acknowledgements
  7. Preface
  8. About the Author
  9. 1 Introduction
    1. What is a Hot Script?
  10. 2 Seven Elements of Your Script
    1. 1. Entertainment
    2. 2. Commerce
    3. 3. Contrivance
    4. 4. Peeping Tom
    5. 5. Maximize, in minimal circumstances
    6. 6. Hollywood, love it or leave it?
    7. 7. Audience
  11. 3 Getting Your Ideas on to Paper
    1. Getting Started
    2. Creating a Workable Blueprint for Your Movie
    3. Three Reasons You Won’t Write Your Screenplay
  12. 4 Tale Assembly
    1. Story Structure Paradigms: Three-Act Story Structure
    2. Beginning
    3. The Middle
    4. Endings
    5. Other Structure Ideas
    6. Planning Your Structure
    7. Finding the Ending
  13. 5 Characters
    1. Creating Characters
    2. Tools for Creating Character Development
    3. Relationships of the Hero
    4. Stage of the Relationship
    5. Conflict -The Staging
    6. Symbols, Symbolism and Metaphor
    7. Setting the Social Stage
    8. Using the Social Stage
    9. Social Metaphors
  14. 6 Scene Writing
    1. The Basic Rules
    2. The Eighteen Tricks and Traps of Successful Description
    3. Exercise for Writing Descriptive Passages
  15. 7 Dialogue
    1. Dialogue Tracks
    2. The Fifteen Tricks and Traps of Dialogue
    3. Writer’s Block
    4. Dialogue Diagnostic Tool
  16. 8 Writing for Short Films
    1. Short Story Writing Tools
    2. Writing for the Internet
    3. Story Design in the Short Fiction Film
  17. 9 The Writer’s Blueprint
    1. The Writer’s Lab: A Recap
    2. The Seven Steps to a Successful Screenplay
  18. 10 Marketing Your Script
    1. Preparation
    2. Building the Pedigree for Your Screenplay
  19. 11 10 000 Monkeys – Copyright
    1. Protecting Your Screenplay
  20. 12 The Movie Game
    1. The Second Ring
    2. The Outer Ring
    3. Playing Piece
    4. The Onanist’s Rash
  21. 13 The Power File
    1. Adding to the Power File
    2. Packaging Your Screenplay
    3. Other Ways to Add to Your Power File
  22. 14 Pitching
    1. The Structure of a Pitch Meeting
    2. Three Golden Rules of Salesmanship
    3. Pitching Tools
    4. Tips for Pitching
  23. 15 Eight-Line Letter
    1. Elements of an Eight-Line Letter
    2. What Happens to Your Letter?
  24. 16 The Deal
    1. Outright Purchase
    2. Option Deal
    3. Step Deal
    4. Writing a Treatment
    5. Reality Check: Negotiating the Sale of Your Script
    6. More Reality Checks
  25. 17 The Life of a Screenwriter
    1. Understanding Genre
    2. The Screenwriter and Creativity
    3. Alpha State
    4. Getting an Agent
    5. The Four Routes to Getting an Agent
    6. Researching the Marketplace
    7. Map of the Film Industry
  26. 18 Script Format and Style Guide
    1. Basic Principles
    2. The Screenplay
  27. 19 Troubleshooting Guide
    1. Premise
    2. Action
    3. Ghost
    4. Hero
    5. Hero's goal
    6. Hero's Needs
    7. Backstory
    8. Opponent
    9. Scene writing
    10. Descriptive passages
    11. Dialogue
    12. Setting
  28. 20 Three Golden Rules
    1. Rule Number One: Quantity, Not Quality
    2. Rule Number Two: Discipline
    3. Rule Number Three: Reject Rejection
  29. Glossary
  30. Index

Product information

  • Title: Raindance Writers' Lab, 2nd Edition
  • Author(s): Elliot Grove
  • Release date: March 2014
  • Publisher(s): Routledge
  • ISBN: 9781136055690