Adventures In The Screen Trade: A Personal View of Hollywood

Product Information

Goldman, William (1996). Adventures in the Screen Trade: A Personal View of Hollywood (2nd rev. ed.). Abacus. ISBN 0-349-10705-X. urn:oclc:872749814 Republisher_date 20120811094050 Republisher_operator [email protected] Scandate 20120810170353 Scanner scribe13.shenzhen.archive.org Scanningcenter shenzhen Source Goldman takes us to very entertaining book of memories about his experience in the "screen trade" highly recommended.

Adventures in the screen trade : William Goldman : Free Adventures in the screen trade : William Goldman : Free

Whoever invented the meeting must have had Hollywood in mind. I think they should consider giving Oscars for meetings: Best Meeting of the Year, Best Supporting Meeting, Best Meeting Based on Material from Another Meeting.”

Two big bonuses of this book: Goldman provides his entire screenplay of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid and then analyzes what worked and what didn't. He also provides a short story of his that was not optioned by Hollywood. He translates it into a screenplay for this book and explains the choices he has to make along the way: what characters to keep, what scenes to focus on etc… The structure of "Adventures In the Screen Trade" is very odd. Chapters start with one topic, then go off into tangents in sections that are highlighted in grey. Why grey? I still don't know. Also, Goldman's short-hand got on my nerves after a while. He'd say "Mr. Warner" instead of Warner Bros. At times he uses one-name monikers as opposed to full names. This is a true insider's look at the screenwriting business (from the writer of All the President's Men, Marathon Man and – interestingly, the novel of Princess Bride) and interesting for anyone who writes or likes movies because - yes, there are fun gossipy asides about Hollywood (Robert Redford had ego!), but it's focus is on what makes a good story and how to write one that sells as a screenplay. They're not always the same thing. Whether you're interested in specific films, an insider's look at Hollywood, or simply care about engagingly told anecdotes, you'll find something interesting here. I particularly recommend it for new writers--not just of screenplays, but any type of writing--who may need encouragement or just a sense of fellow-feeling, because Goldman failed at his college writing classes and sent out hundreds of queries before selling his first novel and felt about as much of a failure as it's possible to be. While I wouldn't want to take his path, his experience reveals the commonalities all writers share. I’ve written this before and please tattoo it behind your eyeballs: we are all at one another’s mercy…”

Adventures in the Screen Trade: A Personal View of Hollywood

The criticisms of his script certainly appear honest! “I know why he fell in love with her. The same reason all men fall in love with women: she’s beautiful.”

When discussing Butch Cassidy, Goldman humbly suggests that he's not that skilled at comedy. I disagree. In all of Goldman's movies, his humor—and his humanity—shines through, even in deadly serious movies such as All the President's Men. BTW, I was saddened to learn in this book that Goldman regrets his involvement with All the President's Men, for which he won his second Academy Award for adapted screenplay in 1977.

10 Screenwriting Lessons from William Goldman - ScreenCraft 10 Screenwriting Lessons from William Goldman - ScreenCraft

What’s wonderful about reading these critiques and learning from them is that this is what you are going to get! Both barrels! And while some of it is right, some of it is also wrong, so the critics aren’t giving you help so much as telling you, YOU’VE GOT EVEN MORE WORK TO DO! urn:lcp:adventuresinscre0000gold_p2j4:epub:24115407-1e08-415d-843f-8d5dcc08d331 Foldoutcount 0 Identifier adventuresinscre0000gold_p2j4 Identifier-ark ark:/13960/s26424t8ggb Invoice 1652 Isbn 034910705X The second part is an analysis of six scenes (well, seven, but six movies). This part is all about the writing of these scenes, why they work and - sometimes - why they were written. This section spoke to the (aspiring? dying?) writer in me; craft discussed all over the place, what does it mean to write, how is structure affected by the scenes we write (or don't write) ... a writer's dream. No one knows the writer's Hollywood more intimately than William Goldman. Two-time Academy Award-winning screenwriter and the bestselling author of Marathon Man, Tinsel, Boys and Girls Together, and other novels, Goldman now takes you into Hollywood's inner sanctums...on and behind the scenes for Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, All the President's Men, and other films...into the plush offices of Hollywood producers...into the working lives of acting greats such as Redford, Olivier, Newman, and Hoffman...and into his own professional experiences and creative thought processes in the crafting of screenplays. You get a firsthand look at why and how films get made and what elements make a good screenplay. Says columnist Liz Smith, "You'll be fascinated.But then we'd have missed a glorious roller-coaster ride through Tinseltown stuffed to the gills with anecdotes of such toe-curling detail that you believe every word.

Adventures in the Screen Trade - William Goldman | Bezhan Adventures in the Screen Trade - William Goldman | Bezhan

I know that when I am writing I have to constantly search for those plot holes and then find ways to plug them and it’s really hard without outside help.Studio executives are intelligent, brutally overworked men and women who share one thing in common with baseball managers: they wake up every morning of the world with the knowledge that sooner or later they're going to get fired.”