Writing the Character-Centered Screenplay, Updated and Expanded edition

Andrew Horton

Feb 2000 · Univ of California Press

About this ebook

"We need good screenwriters who understand character." Everywhere Andrew Horton traveled in researching this book—from Hollywood to Hungary—he heard the same refrain. Yet most of the standard how-to books on screenwriting follow the film industry's earlier lead in focusing almost exclusively on plot and formulaic structures.

With this book, Horton, a film scholar and successful screenwriter, provides the definitive work on the character-based screenplay. Exceptionally wide-ranging—covering American, international, mainstream, and "off-Hollywood" films, as well as television—the book offers creative strategies and essential practical information.

Horton begins by placing screenwriting in the context of the storytelling tradition, arguing through literary and cultural analysis that all great stories revolve around a strong central character. He then suggests specific techniques and concepts to help any writer—whether new or experienced—build more vivid characters and screenplays. Centering his discussion around four film examples—including Thelma & Louise and The Silence of the Lambs—and the television series, Northern Exposure, he takes the reader step-by-step through the screenwriting process, starting with the development of multi-dimensional characters and continuing through to rewrite. Finally, he includes a wealth of information about contests, fellowships, and film festivals.

Espousing a new, character-based approach to screenwriting, this engaging, insightful work will prove an essential guide to all of those involved in the writing and development of film scripts.

Ratings and reviews

Horton's suggestions for improving the characterization and dialog in your screenplays are useful. What is VERY wrong headed of him is to start by claiming that instructors (Syd Field and others) who emphasize structure are wrong. Not only wrong, according to Horton, but they've ruined the screenplays coming from scriptwriting students for the past 10+ years. That's idiotic. How does he back up his statements on this? What are his metrics to prove his point? Why he's "traveled around" talking to people. He's done polls of his students on what movies they remember. Again, wrong headed! The movies that get made in America do so (the vast majority of the time) because they'll make their investors money -- and the metric for that is box office receipts. Horton lists and uses as examples to emulate many foreign movies. Foreign movies do not have the same requirements or challenges as American movies, nor do they ever do as well as the box office. Telling American screenwriting students to emulate French cinema is almost guaranteeing the only spec scripts they sell will be to Europeans or small, small indie productions. What's frustrating is that Horton could've had a 95% useful book if he'd left out the swipes against his competing authors and not claimed structure was a trap and a ruin. Structure is SO SO SO important in screenplays -- you ignore it at your own peril/