Description
Once you understand the basics of screenwriting, ideas for your next screenplay are everywhere. Whether it comes from a favorite children’s book, a summer novel you discover accidentally, a news story that catches your imagination, or a chapter from your own life — advanced screenwriting strategies should now guide you through your first adaptation. In Screen Adaptation: Beyond the Basics, award-winning screenwriter Eric Williams uses examples from award-winning screenplays to explain new storytelling techniques. His real-world examples illustrate a range of advanced approaches — including new ways to identify and craft tension, how to reimagine structure and character, and how to strengthen emotional depth in your characters and in the audience. Screen Adaptation: Beyond the Basics teaches readers new ways to engage with source material in order to make successful adaptation decisions, regardless of the source material.
The book offers:
- Three detailed examples of award-winning adaptations by the author, including the complete short story and final scripts used in the Voices From the Heartland project;
- Breakout boxes highlighting modern and historical adaptations and providing examples for each concept discussed in the book;
- More than fifty charts providing easy-to-use visual representations of complex concepts;
- New screenwriting techniques developed by the author, including the Triangle of Knowledge, the Storyteller’s Parallax, and the idea of Super Genres as part of a Screenwriters Taxonomy.
Table of Contents
Acknowledgments
Dedication
Preface
SECTION ONE: BASIC PRACTICES
- Understanding Adaptation
- Fundamentals of Adaptation
- Adapting Jim Day’s "Karelia"
SECTION TWO: INTERMEDIATE PRACTICES
- Recognizing your Genre
- Strengthening your Emotional Center
- Utilizing your Characters’ Motivation and Dialogue
- Adapting Jo Weiss’ "The Pool"
SECTION THREE: ADVANCED PRACTICES
- Thematic Approaches
- Reshaping Structure
- Crafting and Honing Tension
- The Triangle of Knowledge
- Adapting Damion Armentrout’s "So the Young Enter the World"
References
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