Saturday, February 2, 2013

Robert Ben Garant and Thomas Lennon, Writing Movies for Profit ****

Based on the authors (who are comedians), the title (which is actually Writing Movies for Fun and Profit) and the cover (which shows stereotypes of excess wealth), I expected a pleasantly humorous satire of Hollywood. The general tone is pleasantly humorous, but in fact this book really provides a valuable guide to writing and selling screenplays. If I'm ever inclined to start writing for studios, this is the first place I'll look for advice.

Underneath the sarcastic veneer, Garant and Lennon paint a realistic picture of the life of a screenwriter, with  very specific recommendations ranging from the correct length of a script (100 to 110 pages for a comedy) to evaluating how much the studio likes your script based on the parking pass you receive. I loved the level of detail, down to the fonts and margins that each studio requires and the page on which the "inciting incident" should occur. The number of juicy tidbits is awesome!

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