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Linda
Aronson. Scriptwriting Updated — New and Conventional
Ways of Writing for the Screen. Allen and Unwin, 2000.
RRP: A$39.95. |
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There
is a growing market for writers to produce books about
the act of writing. There are wisdom-from-the-elders texts
where the giants of literature and screenwriting present
Yoda-like insight to the sea of young apprentices below.
Then there are the lesser-known gurus who suggest a more
spiritual approach to the mystical art of creative writing.
Refreshingly, there are also the nuts-and-bolts craftspeople
who take the thing apart and teach you how to put it back
together in reasonable working order. Linda Aronson falls
solidly into the latter category. With a significant list
of screenplays to her credit, Aronson demystifies the
job in her latest literary offering Scriptwriting Updated
— New and Conventional Ways of Writing for the Screen.
The book is a practical step-by-step guide to developing
and writing screenplays that is divided into short magazine-sized
grabs, lots of dot points, neatly boxed overviews and
diagrams, making it perfect for the writer who is working
within a visual medium.
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Although initially Scriptwriting Updated appear
easy to follow, on closer inspection it is a little like
hunting for buried treasure, and you have to be pretty
committed to digging if you are going to find all of it.
However, Aronson's observations are astute, if at times
a little rambling and repetitive.
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Structuring
issues aside, Aronson is certainly an expert scriptwriter
and her observations of form and technique are rigorous.
Like a stream of script specialists before her, Aronson
explores the marvels and mystery of the three-act structure
but then takes us a few steps further by examining examples
of movies that on the surface seem to break with this
tried and true structuring. Scriptwriting Updated
draws together some of the more useful techniques and
presents the information in quick easy to read grabs.
Piecing the picture together is well worth the effort.
She includes excellent examples of less traditional structures
including Magnolia, American Beauty and
The Sweet Hereafter and identifies structural flaws
using examples such as Jaws 3 and Guarding Tess.
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