Overview
Alternative Scriptwriting 4E is an insightful and inspiring book on screenwriting concerned with challenging you to take creative risks with genre, tone, character, and structure. Concerned with exploring alternative approaches beyond the traditional three-act structure, Alternative Scriptwriting first defines conventional approach, suggests alternatives, then provides case studies. These contemporary examples and case studies demonstrate what works, what doesn't, and why.Because the film industry as well as the public demand greater and greater creativity, one must go beyond the traditional three-act restorative and predictable plot to test your limits and break new creative ground. Rather than teaching writing in a tired formulaic manner, this book elevates the subject and provides inspiration to reach new creative heights.
Audience: Beginning and professional filmmakers/writers; students of screenwriting, especially in graduate courses.
Synopsis
* Examines a wider variety of genres than ever before, including extreme forms such as the melodrama and the thriller
* Includes a discussion of alternative film in the context of DVD technology
* New study of adaptation from contemporary literature
Going beyond the conventional three-act structure and exploring more inventive approaches, Alternative Scriptwriting challenges readers to take creative risks with genre, tone, character, and structure. It explores mainstream, personal, and experimental narrative forms, surveying both American and international films. In a field where novelty often equals commercial success, scriptwriters frequently strive to create screenplays that are innovative and exceptional.
Alternative Scriptwriting links scriptwriting to other forms of storytelling, and discusses issues including the three-act structure, working with and against genre, character identification, and the implications of screenplay form. Key issues, examples, and case studies demonstrate what works, what doesn't, and why. Exercises encourage writers to explore new ways of viewing their work and to test the limits of their skills.
Booknews
Surpasses the conventional three-act structure to explore more inventive and creative approaches to writing screenplays, challenging readers to take risks with genre, tone, character, and structure. Includes examples, case studies, and exercises. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)
Editorials
From the Publisher
Praise for the fifth edition:"Screenwriting is about making choices. What Dancyger and Rush reveal so effectively in Alternative Screenwriting is just how many options are possible, how the various available choices work and how different decisions will impact screen storytelling. This book substantially broadens every screenwriters' -creative horizons."
-David Howard, USC screenwriting professor and author of The Tools of Screenwriting and How to Build a Great Screenplay."
"Alternative Scriptwriting is invaluable to anyone interested in screenwriting or in directing fiction. Using plain language it demystifies storytelling for the screen, and opens up myriad possibilities for using the cinema with invention, freshness, and imagination." - Michael Rabiger, Professor Emeritus, Film/Video Department, Columbia College Chicago.
"Just as Aristotle's "Poetics” and André Bazin's "What is Cinema” are an inseparable part of a Screenwriting reading list, Ken Dancyger and Jeff Rush's "Alternative Scriptwriting” is an absolute must read for a deeper understanding of the structure of Screenwriting. -Dr. John Bernstein, Director, Graduate Program in Screenwriting, Department of Film and Television, Boston University
"Alternative Scriptwriting," by Ken Dancyger and Jeff Rush, is one of the few books on the subject that doesn't make you feel stupid while you're reading it.
Instead of the usual boring list of "tricks of the trade" that replaces a real table of content in so many "How To Write A Screenplay And Sell It For A Lot Of Money To An Even Bigger Lot Of Talentless Hopeful People" Dancyger & Rush offer real insight for those who take their screenwriting seriously and are not afraid to venture a little bit "beyond the rules". Both as a filmmaker and as a teacher I have found this volume very precious because what the authors do best is mix American craftsmanship with European sensibility.
An excellent cocktail, if you ask me. And you did."
-Marc Didden - Head Of Screenwriting at St. Lukas Hogeschool, Brussels , Writer/Director ( "Brussels By Night", "Istanbul", "Sailors Don't Cry" )
Praise for the third edition:
"An insightful alternative to mainstream narrative and character analysis that presents the reader with a clear dissection of the mainstream before revealing the alternatives."
-- Script Factory
"[Alternative Scriptwriting] aims to challenge its readers to create writing that is exceptional. While no book can possibly replace your own creative vision, as a resource it's thorough and is a good way to help yourself consider alternative ideas."
-- Plugin Cinema