Читать книгу The Writer's Advantage - Laurie Scheer - Страница 4
ОглавлениеTABLE OF CONTENTS
DEDICATION
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
FOREWoRD by Christopher Vogler
HOW TO USE THIS BOOK
The Book’s Reason for Being
What This Book Can Do For You
Being a Fanboy vs. Being a Fan
of Media
Uniquely Qualified
Toolkit Sandbox
To Begin
SECTION ONE
KNOW WHAT HAS BEEN DONE BEFORE
CHAPTER 1
A BRIEF INQUIRY INTO MASS
AND NOT-SO-MASS MEDIA
Media Consumption
Movies
Television
Unfragmented Audiences
Limited Amount of Texts
The Cable Revolution
Fragmented Viewership
Web Channels
So Many Options, So Little Time
A Mention About the Publishing Industry
Content Is King
TOOLKIT SANDBOX: A Wizard, Some Questions, and a Mysterious Millionaire
CASE STUDY: The man behind the curtain and a classic American text.
QUESTIONING WITH THE WRITER’S ADVANTAGE
EXERCISE: A mysterious millionaire.
CHAPTER 2
FRAGMENTATION
We’re Not Getting the Whole Picture Any Longer
Was It An Evolution of Dance, or Rather a Confusion of Dance?
References Are Completely Off
Mashed Up
Generational Gap
Some Brief Notes About Each Generation
So There You Have It
TOOLKIT SANDBOX: A Sailor Man, Some Questions, and Some Old People In Love
CASE STUDY: Popeye the Sailor Man.
QUESTIONING WITH THE WRITER’S ADVANTAGE
EXERCISE: The Notebook.
CHAPTER 3
TRANSMEDIA
Publishing in a Transmedia World
Movie Transition in a Transmedia World
TV and the Transmedia World
Television’s Third Golden Age
Talk of the Town
Transmedia Summary
TOOLKIT SANDBOX: A Woman In Pigtails, Some
Questions, and Could There Ever Be Another Wonderful Life?
CASE STUDY: Come back Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman.
QUESTIONING WITH THE WRITER’S ADVANTAGE
EXERCISE: Could there ever be another Wonderful Life?
CHAPTER 4
WITH SO MANY OPTIONS,
WHAT’S A 21ST CENTURY WRITER TO DO?
Three Questions
The Now Factor
Who Cares, Who Really Cares?
A “Baby at 43” Pitch
Authentic Ideas
What We Need
Wonderment
What We Don’t Need
Naive or Just Plain Stupid?
“Stormy Weather” Pitches
TOOLKIT SANDBOX: Oh!, To Be Like Your Idol, Some Questions, And Rebooting The Remake?
CASE STUDY: Lynchian, Spielberg-like, and Tarantino-esque.
QUESTIONING WITH THE WRITER’S ADVANTAGE
EXERCISE: Reboot a remake.
SECTION TWO
ARMING YOURSELF
CHAPTER 5
THE GENRE TOOLKIT LIST
What’s Your Genre?
Genres
More about Development Departments
The Cream Rises to the Top
Why You?
Lack of Confidence
Know It, Own It, Make the Genre Better
TOOLKIT SANDBOX: Some Questions and Your Fave Writer
QUESTIONING WITH THE WRITER’S ADVANTAGE
EXERCISE: My favorite writer.
CHAPTER 6
IDENTIFY YOUR GENRE’S QUINTESSENTIAL TEXT
36 Plots
The Quintessential Text
How to Find the Quintessential Text
An Abundance of Generational, Ethnic, and Subjective Differences
Room for Debate
Game Changers
Sifting and Winnowing
TOOLKIT SANDBOX: Twilight Isn’t the Only Game In
Town, Some Questions, and Disaster-Rama
CASE STUDY: Vampire literature and finding the
quintessential text.
QUESTIONING WITH THE WRITER’S ADVANTAGE
EXERCISE: Disaster-rama.
CHAPTER 7
IDENTIFY THE TRAITS OF YOUR GENRE
AND HOW THEY RELATE TO YOUR STORY
How to Identify Traits
Traits That Morph Between Genres
Characters Have Traits Too
“Good” Traits and “Bad” Traits
“Good” Traits — The Scream Franchise
A Fan of Mad-Slasher movies
What Kevin Williamson Did
“Bad” Traits — The Cabin In The Woods Example
TOOLKIT SANDBOX: Non-Utopian Worlds, Some
Questions, and Fish-Out-Of-Water Stories
CASE STUDY: Know your traits in dystopian literature.
QUESTIONING WITH THE WRITER’S ADVANTAGE
EXERCISE: Fish-out-of-water stories.
CHAPTER 8
IDENTIFY THE MASS PRODUCTION HISTORY OF YOUR GENRE
Run The History
Hybrid Genres
Manuscripts vs. Scripts
TOOLKIT SANDBOX: Steampunk’d, Some Questions, and Westerns, What a Great Combination
CASE STUDY: Steampunk’d.
QUESTIONING WITH THE WRITER’S ADVANTAGE
EXERCISE: Go west.
CHAPTER 9
ANALYZE AUDIENCE REACTION — MASS OR CULT?
Mainstream or Cult
And Speaking of Lists
TOOLKIT SANDBOX: De Palma’s Obsession, Some Questions, and The Room
CASE STUDY: Brian De Palma and his obsession with Hitchcock.
QUESTIONING WITH THE WRITER’S ADVANTAGE
EXERCISE: Inside The Room.
CHAPTER 10
TRENDS AND PATTERNS OF YOUR GENRE
Nobody Knows Anything
Spotting Trends
Copying Genre Traits
Two Ways To Go
TOOLKIT SANDBOX: Real Reality Tv, Some Questions,
and a Fun Lunch
CASE STUDY: Why Reality TV has been all the rage.
QUESTIONING WITH THE WRITER’S ADVANTAGE
EXERCISE: My favorite writer.
CHAPTER 11
CHECKLISTING YOUR AUTHENTIC MATERIAL
Checking and Checking Again
The Writer’s Advantage Checklist
Your Checklist is Now Completed
What Would An Authentic Version of Your Text Look Like Within Your Genre? (The answer is your work.)
Don’t Hesitate, Own this Information with Confidence
SECTION THREE
GETTING YOUR WORK OUT INTO THE WORLD
CHAPTER 12
DEFENDING YOUR WORK
Some Basic Questions to Ponder
Become Your Own Private Development Department
Some Deeper Questions to Ponder
EXERCISE: Testing your idea until it is foolproof.
CHAPTER 13
WHAT MASTERING YOUR GENRE CAN DO FOR YOU
Like-minded Awareness
Altering
Put It On Hold
Tools You’ll Need To Sell Your Authentic Text(s)
Logline
Synopsis
Going Out
Pitch Fests and Conferences
Mastering Your Genre
EXERCISE: Write your logline and synopsis.
CHAPTER 14
WHAT ELSE HAVE YOU GOT?
Players vs. Pikers
Don’t Be A Tease
Authentic Writing
What Now?
No Fear of Success
EXERCISE: Keep writing.
A FEW LAST WORDS
ABOUT THE AUTHOR146
This book is dedicated to my holy trinity of mentors:
Dr. James T. Tiedge, Norma Herron, and Delle Chatman.
And also to Syd Field, everyone’s first screenplay mentor.
