A student asked me to give him a list of books to read to learn about screenwriting in particular and the grassroots DV movement in general. Obviously this wise youth wants to avoid the terrible pitfalls that have befallen me, and learn from my bitter mistakes. It was nice to be asked and set me to thinking. In the end, I came up with the following list. There are some about screenwriting and some about the industry and some for inspiration. Your additions welcome.
Alex Epstein, Crafty Screenwriting
William Goldman, Adventures in the Screen Trade
William Goldman, What Lie Did I Tell?
Jones & Jolliffe, The Guerilla Film Maker’s Handbook
Lloyd Kauffman, Make Your Own Damn Movie!
Robert Rodriguez, Rebel Without A Crew
Shari Roman, Digital Babylon
John Russo, Making Movies
Rick Schmidt, Extreme DV
Rick Schmidt, Feature Filmmaking at Used Car Prices
Bret Stern, How To Shoot A Feature Film For Under $10,000 (And Not Go To Jail)
J. Michael Straczynski, The Complete Book of Scriptwriting
Give me a shout at johnoakdalton@hotmail.com.
2 comments:
I use a lot of Linda Seger's stuff:
Making A Good Script Great
Creating Unforgettable Characters
Advanced Screenwriting
Ken Dancyger's Alternative Scriptwriting is good too.
Oh, and Christopher Riley's book "The Hollywood Standard" covers format better than any book I've seen. Might not be a big issue for microcinefiles, though.
Bill Martell's SECRETS OF ACTION SCREENWRITING.
You'll be able to toss a lot of other books after you read this one.
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