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The Craft of Scene Writing

Beat by Beat to a Better Script

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The Craft of Scene Writing

Written by: Jim Mercurio
Narrated by: Stephen Bowlby
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About this listen

A professional screenwriter's master class in writing the most critical and challenging script element - the individual scene.

No one comes out of a movie talking about structure. What audiences love and remember about a movie are great scenes. Marlon Brando in the back seat in On the Waterfront giving his "I could'a been a contender" speech. Meg Ryan's fake orgasm in Katz's Deli in When Harry Met Sally with the climactic punch line: "I'll have what she's having." In Superbad, Jonah Hill professing "I love you" to his friend Michael Cera by touching his nose with a "boop".

Great scenes will elevate your script from ho-hum to extraordinary-and from the slush pile to sellable. In The Craft of Scene Writing, accomplished screenwriter and master writing teacher Jim Mercurio analyzes and systematizes the beats, conflicts, character moments, action, dialogue, and structure that create powerful scenes. Citing examples from scripts old and new, The Craft of Scene Writing breaks down how great scenes reveal character, advance the story, and emotionally connect with audiences, plus demonstrates how to use these techniques in your own scripts. This incredibly detailed exploration of screenwriting technique will help beginning writers to write great scripts and experienced writers to gain a more complete mastery of their craft.

©2019 Jim Mercurio (P)2020 Tantor
Education & Learning Entertainment & Performing Arts Film & TV Writing, Research & Publishing Guides Play Writing

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Outdated all the examples are so gross and ugly too

Seems very, very male lots of old gross examples very very outdated ugh the advice is the advice you’d get in any dialogue fiction book use reversals use surprise, etc. but the examples chosen are so long winded and so poor - basically all the examples include people being mean to each other or basically assholes and he thinks this is the height of cleverness, but it is really really stupid and gross not at all the examples that I would consider good dialogue at all

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