$14.95/ $17.25 Can. "What David Howard has done with The Tools of Screenwritin is to n The Tools of Screenwriting, David reveal for me and for all readers just Howard and �dward Mabley illuminate how stories work; he shows that the essential elements of cinematic there are no absolute rules, but there are principles that can help a begin­ storytelling, and reveal the central ning writer gain understanding of all · principles that all good screenplays the elements that go into the cre­ share. The authors address questions of ation of a'good story well told.' " dramatic structure, plot, dialogue, charac­ ter development, setting, imagery, and other crucial topics as they apply to the '�is the special art of filmmaking. best primer on the craft, far better than the usual paint-by-the-numbers Howard and Mabley also demonstrate sort of books that abound." how the tools of screenwriting work in six­ teen notable films, including Citizen Kane, �.T., One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, Rashomon, The Godfather, North by Northwest, Chinatown, and sex, lies and videotape. "As my screenwriting teacher, David The Tools of Screenwriting is an essen­ Howard made the underlying princi­ tial book for anyone who studies film or ples of screenwriting clear, accessi­ ble, and useful. The same can be said wants to write a screenplay. of his succinct and elegant book, which I've already used as a much needed refresher course. It's sitting "David Howard calls this book 'a next to my computer now, right next writer's guide.' I think it's a wonder­ to the thesaurus." ful and indispensable producer's guide to story, storytelling, and screenwriting." ISBN-13: 978-0-312-11908-9 ISBN-IO: 0-312-11908-9 51 495> I 1 9 "780312 119089 I PRAIS E FOR THIS BOOK "David Howard and Edward Mabley's The To ols of Screen writing is a prac­ tical, comprehensive guide for writers at all levels. If I had this book four years ago, I wouldn't be paying off film school tuition today." -ADAM BELANDFF, STAFF WRITER, WINGS AND MURPHY BROWN "The To ols of screenwriting tosses aside ponderous paradigms and takes you directly to the heart of good writing. I hope every aspiring screenwriter reads it." -JOHN FURIA, JR., PAST PRESIDENT AND CHAIRMAN OF THE WRITER'S GUILD OF AMERICA, WEST "This is not simply a book about making bucks with your screenplays.... The authors show an important connection between learning to screenwrite and examining the elements of theater. " -FILM THREAT "Howard and Mabley dearly define the building blocks of storytelling." -BOOKLIST "An excellent volume for the student of screenwriting at almost any level. Recommended. " -CLASSIC IMAGES THE TOOLS OF A WRITER'S GUIDE TO THE CRAFT AND ELEMENTS OF A SCREENPLAY • AND St. Martin's Griffin New York ' THE TOOL'S OF SCREENWRITING: A WRITER S GUIDE TO THE CRAFT AND ELEMENTS OF A SCREEN­ PLAY. Copyright © 1993 by Gregory D. McKnight. All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews. For information, address St. Martin's Press, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10010. Quotes from Paddy Chayevsky, William Goldman, Ernest Lehman, and Robert Towne are taken from The Craft of the Screenwriter by John Brady. Copyright © 1981 by John Brady. Reprinted by permission of Simon & Schuster, Inc. Designed by Beth Tondreau Design I Mary A. Wirth Production Editor: Suzanne Magida Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Howard, David The tools of screenwriting I David Howard and Edward Mabley : introduction by Frank Daniel. p. cm. ISBN 0-312-11908-9 1. Motion picture authorship. 2. Television authorship. /. Mabley, Edward. II. Title. PNI996.H73 1993 808.2'�c20 93-22787 CIP 20 19 18 17 16 15 14 13 Books are available in quantity for promotional or premium use. Write to Director of Special Sales, St. Martin's Press, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010, for information on discounts and terms, or call toll-free (800) 221-7945. In New York, call (212) 674-5151 (ext. 645). To Vick- Without your love, comfort and support, this would still be only an idea, not a reality. All my love always, -DAVID CONT ENTS FOREWORD ix PREFACE xi ACKNOWLEDGMENTS xv INTRODUCTION xvii ABOUT SCREENWRITING 1 The Screenwriter's Task 3 Stage Versus Screen 6 Adaptation 9 The Auteur of a Film 12 The Screenwriter's Relationships 14 A Cautionary Note 16 BASIC STORYTELLING 19 What Makes "a Good Story Well Told" 21 The Division into Three Acts 24 The Worid of the Story 26 Protagonist, Antagonist, and Conflict 2B Externalizing the Internal 30 Objective and Subjective Drama 32 Time and the Storyteller 33 The Power of Uncertainty 37 SCREENWRITING TOOLS 41 Protagonist and Objective 43 Conflict 46 Obstacles 47 Premise and Opening 49 Main Tension, Culmination, and Resolution 52 Theme 55 Unity 58 Exposition 60 Characterization 63 • vii viii • Contents Development of the Story 66 Dramatic Irony 68 Preparation and Ajiermath 70 Planting and Payoff 72 Elements of the Future and Advertising 74 The Outline and the Step Outline 76 Plausibility 78 Activity and Action 81 Dialogue 84 Visuals 88 The Dramatic Scene 91 Rewriting 95 THE ANALYSES 99 About the Analyses 101 E. T. 103 SOME LIKE IT HOT 114 NORTH BY NORTHWEST 126 THE 400 BLOWS 135 CITIZEN KANE 147 WITNESS 155 A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE 166 CHINA TOWN 177 TIlE GODFATHER 189 ONE FLEW OVER TilE CUCKOO'S NEST 202 THELMA AND LOUISE 213 DINER 227 RASHOMON 240 SEX, LIES, AND VIDEOTAPE 252 ANNIE HALl, 262 HA MLET 274 ADDITIONAL READINGS 289 A80UT THE AUTHORS 290 INDEX 291 FOREWORD ome projects in the motion picture industry spend so much time in gthe developmental process they seem to be irretrievably entangled there. In that kind of project, observers may begin to wonder if the film will ever reach its final form and its intended audience. Seldom, if ever, does one praise the length of time it takes to create a complex project. The Tools of Screenwriting, however, is a project that has benefited from its many years in development. Indeed, much of its value comes from the fact that it has been refined over a period of decades. A series of creative minds have distilled the essence of dramatic construction to explain the basics to screenwriters and script analysts. In New York in the 1960s, Edward Mabley began a train of thought that is the origin of this book. Through his work as a writer and director, he formulated his theories about dramatic construction and used stageplays to illustrate his principles. He applied and refined his ideas as a teacher at the New School for Social Research, and he eventually wrote them down in a book, which was published in 1972. That book eventually went out of print and lay dormant until another practitioner and teacher, Frank Daniel, discovered and adopted it for his own use in teaching screenwriting. Mr. Daniel has directed many of the world's finest film schools and has for many years used Mabley's book as an excellent and concise introduction to dramatic theory and its application to screenwriting. One of the individuals to whom Mr. Daniel communicated his enthusi­ asm and his theoretical approach was David Howard. Mr. Howard, who later became founding director of the Graduate Screenwriting Program at the University of Southern California, added his insight and experience. His students graduated to write scripts for award-winning, profitable, and popular films. The book continued to be a principal resource long after it had gone out of print. I first encountered the book while T was working at Hometown Films on the Paramount Pictures lot. I had been searching for a good book on screen­ writing and found none particularly satisfying. One day a former student .ix x • Fo reword of Mr. Howard's walked into my office with a thick stack of pale photo­ copies. Because I am the son of a publisher, I was curious why he copied an entire book instead of buying one. He told me the book was unavailable in any other way. It didn't make sense to me that a book that had been the primary text at several of the best film schools had gone out of print and remained unpublished and unrevised for so long. Upon contacting the original pub­ lisher, I learned they had narrowed their focus and were not interested in revising it. They released the copyright to the author's estate and I nego­ tiated the rights to the book. Mr. Howard agreed to rewrite the text to reflect the way its principles apply to screenwriting and to substitute analyses of the film scripts as examples. David Howard dedicated his time, energy, and thought to transforming the original book into The Tools of Screenwriting. Keeping the core of Mabley's ideas and concepts intact, he redirected all of the tools, ex­ amples, and quotations toward film, expanded and explained the critical elements, and analyzed their use in a variety of important scripts. He has crystallized a highly usable vocabulary to discuss the craft of screenwriting. The Tools of Screenwriting is what it is because of the extraordinary talents of the contributors who continually refined it over many years. With each script the teachers and students wrote or analyzed, they honed the ideas and the presentation of those ideas. Although this project has been in development for a very long time, the result has become the book I had in mind when I searched for the perfect book on screenwriting.