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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
A very good book on screenwriting, 9 April 2003
As a beginning and aspiring screenwriter, I have to admit that this is the first screenwriting book I have bought, so I cannot compare it to any others. Judging the book by itself, though, I thought that this was a very helpful and informative guide. The only major drawback of it, as another reviewer mentioned, was Hunter's exemplary screenplay. There were a few clever moments, but overall it was pretty flat.Apart from that, however, this was a very enjoyable read that will make me consider a number of the points that were mentioned when I come to write my next screenplay. He takes the reader through all of the important steps of writing a screenplay; where to find the inspiration for your ideas, the practice script, characters, structure, acts one, two and three, and importance of re-writing; all in a very clear and down to earth manner. The other aspect of the book that I disliked was Hunter's strict rules about structure (hence the acts one, two and three). He hammers home a number of times about having to use a beginning, middle and end, where exactly the three acts should end and begin, etc. This is obviously his opinion, as many successful films, such as my all time favourite Pulp Fiction, did not follow that rule at all, and many other great storytellers (such as James Joyce) also used different methods of storytelling to great effect, so I had to disagree with the author on that point. What I did love, however, was the passionate, philosophical, almost spiritual approach that Lew Hunter has to screenwriting and art in general (similar to me). A lot of the information he offered was not simply about screenwriting tricks and methods, but about life; "To be a quality screenwriter, you must see the emotional and physical details of you human race". At the end of the book, he writes three pages that veer away specifically on screenwriting and concentrate on life, and stresses the real qualities an artist should have; "To be artistically good is important. To be humanistically good is most important". The point that Hunter is trying to make is that a screenwriter who has, more than anything, a love of his/her art will produce a good piece of work, and I couldn't agree more.
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