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Book SynopsisInspired by questions from workshops, lectures, and emails, Blake Snyder provides new tips and techniques to help screenwriters create stories that resonate.

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Book SynopsisA re-issue of John O'Brien's debut novel, a masterpiece of modern realism about the perils of addiction and love in a city of loneliness.Leaving Las Vegas, the first novel by John O'Brien, is the disturbing and emotionally wrenching story of a woman who embraces life and a man who rejects it. Sera is a prostitute, content with the independence and routine she has carved out for herself in a city defined by recklessness. But she is haunted by a spectre in a yellow Mercedes, a man from her past who is committed to taking control of her life again. Ben is an alcoholic intent on drinking his way towards an early death. Newly arrived from Los Angeles, he survived the four-hour intoxicated drive across the desert with his entire savings in his wallet and nothing else left to lose. Looking to satisfy hungers both material and existential, Ben and Sera stumble together on the strip and discover in each other a respite from their unforgiving lives. A testimony to the raw talent of its young author, Leaving Las Vegas is a compelling story of unconditional love between two disenfranchised and lost souls - an overlooked American classic.Trade ReviewA brutal and unflinching portrait of the low life in the city of high rollers, Leaving Las Vegas is both shocking and curiously exhilarating. John O'Brien was a stunningly talented writer who created poetry from the most squalid materials. This is a beautiful and horrifying novel. -- Jay McInerneyThere is not a false note in the novel . . . [O'Brien] achieves real power in his writing. You seldom encounter it anymore, but when you do you know you've been properly whacked by a real talent. * New York Daily News *[An] immense writing talent . . . John O'Brien's life ended with a gunshot. Leaving Las Vegas, for its intensity, its bravado, and its legacy - an American tragedy that would pave the way for many more - only begins to understand why. * Esquire *The book's unique power resides in this awareness; and it allows O'Brien to breathe new life into two of the most familiar and overused archetypes of popular fiction: the drunk and the whore . . . Ben's impulse to destroy himself is so psychologically unspecific as to be sublime. * Boston Review *This book is not only dark and dire, it is crushing. How can a novel so absolutely devoid of hope be so gripping? The portrait of Sera and Ben is a tour de force - masterful and relentless. Leaving Las Vegas is the strongest and most extreme look at alcohol I've ever read. This book moved and bothered me and weeks later it is still in my mind. I think O'Brien is simply terrific. -- Ron CarlsonHere is that rarest jewel, a really fine novel. It's a magical piece of work, one of the best I've seen in a long time. John O'Brien has a very great talent. * Larry Brown *

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Book SynopsisFrom the master of Story, Dialogue, and Character, ACTION offers writers the keys to propulsive storytelling.  ACTION explores the ways that a modern-day writer can successfully tell an action story that not only stands apart, but wins the war on clichés. Teaming up with the former co-host of The Story Toolkit, Bassim El-Wakil, legendary story lecturer Robert McKee guides writers to award-winning originality by deconstructing the action genre, illuminating the challenges, and, more importantly, demonstrating how to master the demands of plot with surprising beats of innovation and ingenuity.Topics include:  Understanding the Four Core Elements of Action Creating the Action Cast Hook, Hold, Pay Off: Design in Action The Action Macguffin Action Set Pieces The Sixteen Action Subgenres A must-add to the McKee storytelling library, ACTION illustrates the principles of narrative drive with precision and clarity by referencing the most popular action movies of our time including: Die Hard, The Star Wars Saga, Dark Knight, The Matrix, and Avengers: Endgame.

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Book SynopsisDesigned to take you from the moment you first put your pen to paper to pitching and selling your completed screenplay, this is one of the most inspiring books on screenwriting you''ll ever read.Practical exercises will teach you the craft of writing for film and television, both mainstream and independent, the art of building your own plots, characters, dialogue and scenes. It gives you the skills you need to succeed and helps you critique your own work, meaning that at every step of the writing process you''ll be producing the best scripts you can.This book is filled with essential writing tools, including techniques for overcoming writer''s block and how to find your unique voice. You will learn how to pitch and get your work optioned, how to work as part of a team and how to make the best use of social media - in all a comprehensive companion that you will keep coming back to as your career develops.ABOUT THE SERIESThe Teach Yourself Creative Writing

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Book Synopsis

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Book Synopsis

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Book SynopsisBreak out your favourite pencil and roll up your sleeves! The Save the Cat! (R) Beat Sheet Workbook provides key writing prompts and asks all the important questions-but you bring the story, filling out the pages that walk you step-by-step through the Save the Cat! process.

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Book SynopsisFantastically useful, true and best of all very amusing. This comprehensive and succinct insider s guide is told with characteristic clarity and laced with excellent practical advice. If you want to write, read this first. Tim Whitby, producer. Have you ever said, I d love to write a script, but don t know where to start ? Or watched the latest binge-worthy Netflix series and thought you could do better? Do Drama explores the how and why of writing drama, not as an instruction manual, but as a lively conversation with one of Britain s most prolific and successful screenwriters, Lucy Gannon. She didn t write her first play until she was 39. By sharing what she has learned over three decades of writing primetime drama, she will help you to: Write your script from the first scene to the last Create vivid characters with a personality and a past Develop storylines, structure and write a treatment Understand how the industry works; take the next step. Writing drama is not about education, class or cleverness, it s about your deep desire to tell stories, to create characters, finding the humour alongside the pathos, to delight and enthral millions. There is no golden path into production. But the world is hungry for talent. You are the talent. So, what are you waiting for? Scene 1

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Book Synopsis

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Book Synopsis

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Book SynopsisTrade Review"One must be cravenly grateful for these tasty packages of Bazin that Dudley Andrew is so thoughtfully arranging for us." * Cineaste *Table of ContentsContents Preface Acknowledgments Introduction: André Bazin’s Position in Cinema’s Literary Imagination PART ONE. ADAPTATION IN THEORY 1. Preview: A Postwar Renewal of Novel and Cinema 2. André Malraux, Espoir, or Style in Cinema 3. Cinema as Digest 4. Critical Stance: Defense of Adaptation 5. Cinema and Novel 6. Literature, is it a Trap for Cinema? 7. A Question on the Baccalaureate Exam: The Film-Novel Problem 8. Lamartine, Jocelyn: Should you Scrupulously Adapt such a Poem? 9. Roger Leenhardt has Filmed a Novel he never Wrote 106 10. Alexandre Astruc’s Les Mauvaises Rencontres (Bad Liaisons): Better than a Novel 11. Colette, Le Blé en herbe: Uncertain Fidelity 12. Rereading Stendhal’s Le Rouge et le Noir (The Red and the Black) through a Camera Lens 13. Of Novels and Films: M. Ripois with or without Nemesis 14. Stendhal’s Mina de Vanghel, Captured beyond Fidelity 15. Mina de Vanghel: More Stendhalian than Stendhal PART TWO. ADAPTING CONTEMPORARY FICTION A. Best Sellers from Abroad 16. On William Saroyan’s The Human Comedy 17. Billy Wilder, The Lost Weekend 18. Hollywood Can Translate Faulkner, Hemingway, and Caldwell 19. John Ford, How Green Was My Valley 20. John Ford, The Grapes of Wrath, from Steinbeck 21. John Ford, Tobacco Road, from Erskine Caldwell 22. Theodore Dreiser’s An American Tragedy becomes A Place in the Sun 23. D. H. Lawrence, Lady Chatterley’s Lover 24. Has Hemingway influenced Cinema? 25. Ernest Hemingway, The Snows of Kilimanjaro 26. Ernest Hemingway, A Farewell to Arms 27. Graham Greene’s The Power and the Glory becomes John Ford’s The Fugitive 28. Graham Greene, Brighton Rock 29. Graham Greene and Carol Reed, The Fallen Idol 30. Graham Greene, The Heart of the Matter 31. Joseph Conrad, Outcast of the Islands, filmed by Carol Reed 32. Arthur Miller’s The Crucible and Nikos Kazantzakis’ He Who Must Die are now Two Great French Films 33. Franz Kafka on Screen: Clouzot’s Les Espions (The Spies) B. Fiction from France 34. Avec André Gide, by Marc Allégret 35. The Universe of Marcel Aymé on Screen: La Belle Image 36. Colette, Le Blé en herbe: The Ripening Seed . . . has Matured 37. Marguerite Duras, Barrage contre la Pacifique, adapted by René Clément 38. Françoise Sagan, Bonjour Tristesse, adapted by Otto Preminger PART THREE: ADAPTING TO THE CLASSICS A. The Nineteenth-Century Novel from Abroad 39. Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre 40. Charles Dickens, Oliver Twist 41. Nikolai Gogol, The Overcoat 42. Herman Melville, Moby Dick 43. Stephen Crane, The Red Badge of Courage 44. Leo Tolstoy, Anna Karenina 45. Fyodor Dostoevsky, The Brothers Karamazov 46. Dostoevsky, Crime and Punishment, alongside Tolstoy, War and Peace B. French Classics on the French Screen 47. Abbé Prévost, Manon Lescaut, adapted by Clouzot 48. Honoré de Balzac, Eugénie Grandet 49. Stendhal, Le Chartreuse de Parme (The Charterhouse of Parma) 50. Stendhal, Le Rouge et le Noir (The Red and the Black): Tastes and Colors 51. Victor Hugo, Les Misérables 52. Victor Hugo, Notre-Dame de Paris, alongside Jules Verne, Michel Strogoff 53. Zola and Cinema: Pour une nuit d’amour (For a Night of Love) 54. Émile Zola, Thérèse Raquin, adapted by Marcel Carné 55. Émile Zola’s La Bête humaine becomes Fritz Lang’s Human Desire 56. Émile Zola’s L’Assommoir becomes René Clément’s Gervaise 57. Guy de Maupassant, Une vie (A Life), adapted by Alexandre Astruc 58. Maupassant Stories adapted by Max Ophüls: Le Plaisir 59. Maupassant Stories adapted by André Michel: Trois femmes 60. French Cinema faces Literature addendum. two long essays on adaptation, translated by hugh gray 61. Journal d’un curé de campagne and the Stylistics of Robert Bresson 62. In Defense of Mixed Cinema Appendix: Chronological List of Articles Index of Films Index of Proper Names Index of Topics and Concepts

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Book SynopsisFOREWORD BY FRASER HESTONIn celebration of the fiftieth anniversary of Planet of the Apes, the classic science-fiction film from 1968, The Making of Planet of the Apes tells the film and offers exclusive, never-before-seen photographs and concept art.Based on Pierre Boulle''s novel La Planéte de singes, the original Planet of the Apes was one of the most celebrated films of the 1960s and beyond. Starring Hollywood icons Charlton Heston and Roddy McDowall, the movie struck a chord with the world and sparked a franchise that included eight sequels, two television series, and a long-running comic book. Now, five decades after its theatrical release, New York Times bestselling author J. W. Rinzler tells the thrilling story of this legendary Hollywood production—a film even Boulle thought would be impossible to make.With a foreword by Fraser Heston, Charlton Heston''s son, The Making of Planet of the Apes is an entertaining, informative experience that will transport readers back to the strange alternate Earth ruled by apes, and bring to life memorable characters such as Cornelius, Dr. Zira, Dr. Zaius, and Taylor, the human astronaut whose time-traveling sparks an incredible adventure. Meticulously researched and designed to capture the look and atmosphere of the film, The Making of Planet of the Apes is also packed with a wealth of concept paintings, storyboards, and never-before-seen imagery—including rare journal pages and sketches from Charlton Heston''s private collection—as well as color and black-and-white unit photography, posters, and more unique ephemera.Comprehensive in scope, The Making of Planet of the Apes is the definitive look at the original blockbuster film, a must-have for fans, film buffs, and collectors alike.

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Book SynopsisScript Readers play a crucial role in the film industry, often responsible for determining whether a script is even looked at by a producer or development executive; yet those accountable for reading can be on the first rung of the industry ladder and have had little or no training for the task. This user-friendly 'how-to' guide written by one of the UK's leading script analysis specialists, lays bare the process of analysing film scripts. This is invaluable to anyone looking to work as a script reader, anyone who wants to work in development with writers, and for screenwriters themselves who are seeking guidance on how the industry might respond to their work. An essential reference tool, the book includes information on: How to write a brilliant script report Storytelling and screen genres Treatments and other short documents Writing clear and detailed analysis of the craft of storytelling for film Best practice in reading and reporting on scripts It also includes a full Resource Section listing useful print and online publications, organisations and associations.Trade Reviewit is such a worthwhile read -- Lucy V Hay * bang2write *Lucy Scher seeks to explain the skills needed to take on the vital role of script reader in the film industry -- Leo White * Kamera Film Salon *an ideal reference tool for anyone considering a career as a script reader or in film development * Moviescope *

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Book SynopsisAimed at screenwriters, producers, development executives and educators interested in the crime genre, this book provides an invaluable basis for crafting a film story that considers both audience and market expectations without compromising originality. A brief historical overview of the crime genre is presented for context along with an analysis of various crime sub-genres and their key conventions, including: police, detective, film noir, gangster, heist, prison and serial killer. Karen Lee Street focuses on the creative use of these conventions and offers strategies for focusing theme and improving characterisation, story design, structure and dialogue. Paradigms, story patterns and writing exercises are provided to assist the script development process and strategies for revision are discussed along with key questions to consider before approaching creative or financial partners.

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Book Synopsis'Illuminating . . . there is never a dull moment' - The Times'Marvellous . . . full of riches' - New StatesmanDavid Milch is the critically acclaimed writer of the iconic TV series Deadwood and NYPD Blue. As he descends into a dementia from which there's no return, Life's Work is his account of his increasingly strange present and his often painful past.Betting on race horses and stealing booze at eight years old, mentored by Robert Penn Warren and excoriated by Richard Yates at twenty-one, Milch never did anything by half. He got into Yale Law School only to be expelled for shooting out streetlights. He paused his studies at the Iowa Writers' Workshop to manufacture acid. He created some of the most lauded television series of all time, started a family and pursued sobriety, only to lose his fortune betting on the horses – just as his successful but drug-addicted father had taughtTrade ReviewMarvellous . . . a book full of riches. -- Erica Wagner * The New Statesman *Life’s Work is one of the best books about television I’ve read. It’s funny, discursive, literate, druggy, self-absorbed, fidgety, replete with intense perceptions… You finish feeling you’ve really met someone. Milch was his own best creation. * New York Times *A searing, brutally honest memoir. * The Independent *A brilliant, emotional memoir . . . Takes the darkness of his own life and of those around him and turns it into something else, something that is threaded with hope. * Mail on Sunday *A wise, sly, hilarious, and poignant account of a life's work in hard drugs and hard television. -- Joshua Cohen, Pulitzer-Prize winning author of The NetanyahusIlluminating. * The Observer *The most gorgeously humane voice I've encountered in a work of nonfiction in a long while. I can think of few recent books that have pulsed with life this transparently, this powerfully. -- Rick Moody, author of The Ice StormLike the best memoirs, Life's Work is intimate, exquisitely observed, and intense. But unlike most - and what sets it apart - is the heartbreak it embodies, the finality it signals. This is David Milch's farewell, and it will rock you. -- Susan Orlean, author of The Orchid ThiefAn extraordinary story. * The Times *

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Book Synopsis

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Book Synopsis

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Book Synopsis

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Book SynopsisLearning to Kneel locates noh drama’s influence on American and European writers, dancers, and composers. Carrie J. Preston’s work has been profoundly shaped by her training in noh performance. While her subjects are often criticized for Orientalist tendencies, Preston’s own journey reflects a more nuanced understanding of cultural exchange.Trade ReviewWhat drew Western writers to an arcane, highly stylized form of Japanese court theater? As a scholar, Carrie J. Preston answers this question by way of the archive, unearthing a global network of dancers and writers. But she also pursues this question as a student, subjecting herself to the rigors of noh training. The result is an unusual blend of both approaches, a magisterial study in cultural history that is also a compelling story of teaching and learning. -- Martin Puchner, Harvard University Eloquently, movingly, and persuasively, Preston traces modernism's fascination with noh through European and Japanese histories of poetry, drama, and performance. She asks us to reflect on the project of cross-cultural learning, what it means to know another culture as well as what it means to know one's own. A tour de force of memoir and scholarship, at once entertaining and erudite, Learning to Kneel shows us why mistranslation, partial fluency, and failing to understand have been crucial to the transnational history of modernism. -- Rebecca Walkowitz, Rutgers University Kneel before this humbling account of submission and, at times, personal but never sentimental antidote to both easy celebrations of multiculturalism and easy critiques of cultural appropriation. Sitting with calm strength at the intersections of performance, pedagogy, and the politics of 'global modernism,' Preston successfully reinvents the modernist reinvention of noh as a timely, urgent topic by asking what it means to succeed or fail. Don't fail to read it. -- Christopher Bush, Northwestern University In Learning to Kneel, Preston tells the story not only of the influence of Japanese culture and noh theater on modernist writers from Yeats to Beckett but also of her personal experience as a neophyte practitioner of noh. Together, these narratives brilliantly reframe received ideas about cross-cultural aesthetic transformation, the relation of success and failure in art, and the tension between subversion and tradition that underlies any form of training or pedagogy. -- Scott Klein, Wake Forest UniversityTable of ContentsPreface Acknowledgments Abbreviations Introduction to Noh Lessons 1. Ezra Pound as Noh Student 2. Theater in the "Deep": W. B. Yeats's At the Hawk's Well 3. Ito Michio's Hawk Tours in Modern Dance and Theater 4. Pedagogical Intermission: A Lesson Plan for Bertolt Brecht's Revisions 5. Noh Circles in Twentieth-Century Japanese Performance 6. Trouble with Titles and Directors: Benjamin Britten and William Plomer's Curlew River and Samuel Beckett's Footfalls/Pas Coda Notes Glossary Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisThis book is a comprehensive and inviting introduction to the literary forms and cultural significance of Chinese drama as both text and performance. Each chapter offers an accessible overview and critical analysis of one or more plays—canonical as well as less frequently studied works—and their historical contexts.Trade ReviewAnother gem in Columbia’s How to Read Chinese Literature series. From comic obscenities to heartbreaking lyricism, the expressive language of Chinese drama runs the gamut, making it the hardest but most rewarding of all genres. Now we have the perfect guide for novices and experts alike. -- Judith Zeitlin, coeditor of The Voice as Something More: Essays Toward MaterialityA stunning achievement in the study of Chinese drama. This well-structured and concisely composed anthology provides students, scholars, and general readers a timely scholarly book which is at once accessible and comprehensive. Highly recommended for theater studies, traditional and modern cultural and literary studies, comparative drama, and global performance studies! -- Xiaomei Chen, author of Staging Chinese Revolution: Theater, Film, and the Afterlives of PropagandaTraditional Chinese theater is a different kind of theater that synthesizes a great variety of performance modes, making it both difficult and very rewarding to learn and to teach. Bringing together a wide variety of approaches and focuses, How to Read Chinese Drama is an outstanding achievement. -- David L. Rolston, author of Inscribing Jingju/Peking Opera: Textualization and Performance, Authorship and Censorship of the “National Drama” of China from the Late Qing to the PresentPerhaps the most helpful element in this excellent guide for students and scholars is its Thematic Contents list. By guiding the reader to related topics across its many descriptive and interpretive essays, it both demonstrates and provides access for understanding the richness and complexity of the Chinese theatrical tradition. -- Robert E. Hegel, cotranslator of A Couple of SolesTable of ContentsContentsThematic ContentsPreface to the How to Read Chinese Literature SeriesA Note on How to Use This AnthologyChronology of Historical EventsSymbols, Abbreviations, and Typographical UsageIntroduction: The Cultural Significance of Chinese DramaPatricia Sieber and Regina LlamasPart I: Yuan and Ming Dynasties: Zaju Plays1. The Story of the Western Wing: Tale, Ballad, and PlayWilt L. Idema1.1 Yuan Zhen’s (779–831) “The Tale of Oriole”1.2 Story of the Western Wing in All Keys and Modes: “The Tale of Oriole” in Narrative Ballads1.3 *The Story of the Western Wing: Student Zhang and Oriole on Stage1.4 Controversies in the Ming and Qing Dynasties2. Purple Clouds, Wrong Career, and Tiger Head Plaque: Jurchen Foreigners in Early DramaStephen H. West2.1 Approaches to the Foreign2.2 Wrong Career and Purple Cloud: Jurchen Performers in the World of Entertainment2.3 The Tiger Head Plaque: Jurchen Performers in Their Native Lands3. The Pavilion for Praying to the Moon and The Injustice to Dou E: The Innovation of the Female LeadPatricia Sieber3.1 Guan Hanqing (ca. 1220–after 1279), Zhulian xiu (fl. 1270–1300), and the Acting Culture of Yuan Zaju Theater3.2 The Pavilion for Praying to the Moon: The Moral Suasion of Situational Ethics3.3 The Injustice to Dou E: The Disruptive Power of Filial Remonstration4. The Story of the Western Wing: Theater and the Printed ImagePatricia Sieber and Gillian Yanzhuang Zhang4.1 Image-Making Between Self-Expression and Commerce4.2 *The Story of the Western Wing: The Deluxe Edition (1499)—an App for Singing4.3 The Story of the Western Wing: The Glossed Edition (c. 1609)—an App for Role-Playing4.4 The Story of the Western Wing: The Exclusive Edition (1639–1640)—an App for Virtual Reality5. The Orphan of Zhao: The Meaning of Loyalty and FilialityShih-pe Wang5.1 Historical Background5.2 The Orphan of Zhao: How the Yuan Zaju Play Dramatizes the Story5.3 *The Orphan of Zhao, Wedge: The Confrontation between Good and Evil5.4 *The Orphan of Zhao, Act 1: How the Orphan Was Smuggled Out5.5 The Orphan of Zhao, Act 2: To Die or to Live On5.6 The Orphan of Zhao, Act 3: A Play Performed for the Eyes of the Villain5.7 The Orphan of Zhao, Acts 4 (and 5): Truth and Revenge5.8 The Orphan of Zhao: Twenty-First-Century Adaptations6. The Female Mulan Joins the Army in Place of Her Father: Gender and PerformanceShiamin Kwa6.1 Xu Wei (1521–1593) and His Quartet of Ming Zaju Plays6.2 Mulan: The Two-Act Structure6.3 *Mulan: Changing Clothes6.4 Mulan: Gentle Men6.5 Mulan: Happily Ever AfterPart II: Ming Dynasty and Early Qing Dynasty: Nanxi and Chuanqi Plays7. Top Graduate Zhang Xie and The Lute: Scholar, Family, and StateRegina Llamas7.1 Top Graduate and The Lute: Background7.2 Top Graduate and The Lute: The Prologues7.3 Top Graduate and The Lute: The Ungrateful Scholar7.4 *The Lute: The Husk Wife7.5 *Top Graduate and The Lute: Language and Comedy8. The Southern Story of the Western Wing: Traditional Kunqu Composition, Interpretation, and PerformanceJoseph S. C. Lam8.1 Storied Kunqu and Its Traditional Practitioners8.2 A Historical Account of Li Rihua’s Southern Western Wing8.3 “Reading Li Rihua’s “Happy Time” and “Twelve Shades” as Kunqu8.4 Li Rihua’s Composition of “Happy Time” and the Reactions It Elicited8.5 Performing “Twelve Shades”9. The Peony Pavilion: Emotions, Dreams, and SpectatorshipLing Hon Lam9.1 Under the Weather9.2 *Waking to Dreams9.3 In the Face of a Page10. Green Peony and The Swallow’s Letter: Drama and PoliticsYing Zhang10.1 New Dramas and Old Interpretive Techniques10.2 A Dramatist’s Dilemma10.3 Wu Bing, Ruan Dacheng, and the Factional Struggles in a New Political Culture10.4 Weaponizing Drama10.5 The Suspect Author10.6 Evidence of Insinuation10.7 Spontaneity in Theater11. A Much Desired Match: Playwriting, Stagecraft, and EntrepreneurshipS. E. Kile11.1 Li Yu: A Very Theatrical Entrepreneur11.2 Leisure Notes: Toward a Coherent, Up-to-Date, and Accessible Theatrical Experience11.3 How to Read an Opening Scene11.4 Love, Art, and Theater in a World Full of Frauds12. Peach Blossom Fan and Palace of Everlasting Life: History, Romance, and PerformanceMengjun Li and Guo Yingde12.1 Kong Shangren and Hong Sheng: Chuanqi Plays as Alternative History12.2 Peach Blossom Fan: “Talk about Love is Simply Pointless”12.3 Palace of Everlasting Life: “With New Lyrics, (This Play) Is All about Love”12.4 Peach Blossom Fan and Palace of Everlasting Life: Music as the Language of Love12.5 Peach Blossom Fanand Palace of Everlasting Life: Performance as Political Remonstration12.6 Peach Blossom Fanand Palace of Everlasting Life: Performance as Mediated HistoryPart III: Mid–Qing Dynasty: Zaju and Chuanqi Plays13. Song of Dragon Well and Other Court Plays: Stage Directions, Spectacle, and PanegyricsTian Yuan Tan13.1 Contextualizing Wang Wenzhi’s Court Drama13.2 Wang Wenzhi’s Authorship of Court Drama13.3 Texts and Functions of Wang Wenzhi’s Court Drama13.4 In Praise of the Occasion and His Majesty: Functionalities of Court Plays13.5 Pageantry, Formulaic Sequences, and Visual Spectacles13.6 Engagement through Literary Elements14. The Eight-Court Pearl: Performance Scripts and Political CultureAndrea S. Goldman14.1 Eight-Court Pearl: The Script14.2 Suzhou School History Plays and Other Textual Antecedents14.3 Violence as the Solution14.4 Who Were the Disaffected?Part IV: Ming, Qing, and Modern Eras: Ritual Plays15. Mulian Rescues His Mother: Play Structure, Ritual, and SoundscapesSai-shing Yung15.1 The Iconography of Hell15.2 Zheng Zhizhen’s Mulian Rescues His Mother: Exhortation to Goodness15.3 Exhortation: Structure and Plot15.4 Mulian Plays and Sonic Force in Performance15.5 The Soundscape of Exorcism16. The Story of Hua Guan Suo: Chantefable and Ritual PlaysAnne E. McLaren16.1 Genres16.2 TheChantefable The Story of Hua Guan Suo: Regionality16.3 The Story of Hua Guan Suo: Central Themes16.4 Origins and Historical Development16.5 Authorship16.6 Performative Aspects16.7 The Story of Hua Guan Suo: Example of a Prelude16.8 Chantefables and Plays: The Oath of the Brotherhood16.9 The Story of Hua Guan Suo: An Example of “Ten Beats to a Line”16.10 A Play of Exorcism from Guichi (Anhui Province), Twentieth Century16.11 Guan Suo Plays in Xiaotun Village, Chengjiang (Yunnan Province), Twentieth Century16.12 Combat SequencesAcknowledgmentsContributorsVisual ResourcesGlossary-Index* Excerpts from those plays are also featured, accompanied by modern Chinese translation and extensive annotation, in Guo Yingde, Wenbo Chang, Patricia Sieber, and Xiaohui Zhang, eds., How to Read Chinese Drama in Chinese: A Language Companion. New York: Columbia University Press (under advance agreement).

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Book SynopsisA Couple of Soles is a classic comedic romance by the seventeenth-century playwright Li Yu. The first major comedy from late imperial China to appear in English translation, it provides an unparalleled view of the theater in seventeenth-century China.Trade Review[A] masterful translation. . . . Highly recommended. * Choice *A Couple of Soles is an entertaining example of seventeenth century Chinese drama made quite accessible to English-reading audiences. Of both literary and historical interest, and offering quite enjoyable drama, comedy, and romance, it's well worth a look. * Complete Review *Li Yu ranks among China's finest wits, yet none of his ten comedies had been translated into English. This masterful yet accessible rendition of A Couple of Soles makes, at long last, Li Yu's comic genius and theatrical ingenuity visible to students, readers, theater practitioners, and drama scholars around the world. -- Patricia Sieber, The Ohio State UniversityA Couple of Soles displays to the Anglophone world the masterful craft of the Chinese dramatist Li Yu—worthy statesman of the theater, as he was called by admirers. Sustained by extensive commentaries, informative notes, and contemporary wood-block illustrations, this edition by Jing Shen and Robert E. Hegel exemplifies the very best of translation-in-research. An excellent addition to the Asian Classics library. -- Vibeke Børdahl, Copenhagen UniversityLi Yu and his work are critical to understanding Chinese theater of his day because he insisted on writing against established conventions and wrote the single most complete guide to playwriting before the end of the imperial period in China. We should all be very grateful to the translators for their effort and care in translating this fascinating example of chuanqi drama. -- David Rolston, University of MichiganThis brilliant book combines excellent scholarship about the innovative seventeenth-century dramatist Li Yu, noted for his unrestrained speech and behavior, with a wonderful translation of one of his comedies. Both translators have established reputations in the field of Chinese drama and literature, which this book will certainly enhance. -- Colin Mackerras, Griffith UniversityAn accessible new translation of an important comic work . . . This translation would be of interest to students of Sinophone studies, dramatic literature, comparative literature, and scholars of Asian performing arts. The play serves as a welcome new resource that could be used in courses on premodern Chinese dramatic literature, comparative literature, and Asian studies, as well as for theatre artists seeking inspiration. * Asian Theatre Journal *A bold and boisterous celebration of theatricality that challenges preconceptions about traditional Chinese theater today with the same panache that it overturned widespread prejudice against actors in the seventeenth century . . . [This translation] inaugurates a host of new possibilities for the study of Chinese theater in the university classroom and beyond, and, with its emphasis on performance, adds considerable diversity to the range of chuanqi available in translation. * Journal of the American Oriental Society *Table of ContentsAcknowledgmentsNote on the TranslationIntroduction, by Jing ShenDramatis Personae and Their Role CategoriesPreface, by Wang DuanshuScenesA Couple of SolesAppendix: The Playwright and His Art, by Jing ShenNotesBibliography

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Book SynopsisThis book is at once a guided primer on Chinese drama and an innovative textbook. A companion to How to Read Chinese Drama designed for Chinese-language learners, it provides a versatile introduction to traditional Chinese plays for readers who want to experience Chinese drama in the original language.Trade ReviewThis well designed coursebook will allow Chinese language instructors and students to approach advanced Chinese language learning through traditional drama. The selected plays are iconic and do a good job of introducing students to different types of drama, which unfortunately is currently rarely taught in classical Chinese courses. -- Emily Wilcox, coeditor of Corporeal Politics: Dancing East AsiaChinese theater synthesizes a great variety of performance modes rather than separating them out. This makes it both difficult and very rewarding to learn and to teach. Comprising a stellar group of scholars, How to Read Chinese Drama in Chinese is extraordinary scholarship of the highest quality that will benefit students greatly. -- David Rolston, author of Inscribing Jingju/Peking Opera: Textualization and Performance, Authorship and Censorship of the “National Drama” of China from the Late Qing to the PresentThe very first of its kind, this carefully crafted primer on classical Chinese drama offers a pleasant and informative reading of the best works of Chinese theater and helps the reader to appreciate the beauty and musicality of the original Chinese language. -- Ying Wang, cotranslator of The Fragrant Companions: A Play About Love Between WomenTable of ContentsPreface to the How to Read Chinese Literature SeriesA Note on How to Use This BookMajor Chinese DynastiesSymbols, Abbreviations, and Typographical UsagesYuan Zaju PlaysSong-Yuan Nanxi PlaysMing Zaju PlaysMing-Qing Chuanqi PlaysAbbreviations of Primary Texts Notes on Dramatic ConventionsList of Literary Issues DiscussedAcknowledgmentsEditors

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Book SynopsisIf you''re looking for a straightforward, practical, no-nonsense guide to scriptwriting that will hold your hand right the way through the process, read on! The Raindance Writers'' Lab guides you through the tools that enable you to execute a strong treatment for a feature and be well on the way to the first draft of your script.Written by the creator of the Raindance Film Festival himself, Elliot Grove uses a hands-on approach to screenwriting based on his many years of experience teaching the subject for Raindance training. He uses step-by-step processes illustrated with diagrams and charts to lend a visual structure to the teaching. Techniques are related to real-life examples throughout, from low budget to blockbuster films.The Companion Website contains interviews with British writers and directors as well as a handy series of legal contracts, video clips and writing exercises.In this brand neTrade ReviewThis is an invaluable manual for the first-time screenwriter. A guide that takes in every aspect of the screenwriting process.--Ayub Khan-Din, Writer for East is EastAn authoritative guide full of wit and wisdom, through which Grove's personality shines.--Justin Bowyer, Total FilmTable of ContentsChapter 1 Introduction; Chapter 2 Seven Elements of Your Script; Chapter 3 Getting Your Ideas on to Paper; Chapter 4 Tale Assembly; Chapter 5 Characters; Chapter 6 Scene Writing; Chapter 7 Dialogue; Chapter 8 Writing for Short Films; Chapter 9 The Writer's Blueprint; Chapter 10 Marketing Your Script; Chapter 11 000 Monkeys – Copyright; Chapter 12 The Movie Game; Chapter 13 The Power File; Chapter 14 Pitching; Chapter 15 Eight–Line Letter; Chapter 16 The Deal; Chapter 17 The Life of a Screenwriter; Chapter 18 Script Format and Style Guide; Chapter 19 Troubleshooting Guide; Chapter 20 Three Golden Rules;

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Book SynopsisCreative collaborations that gave Hitchcock his finest filmsTrade ReviewNominated for an Edgar Allan Poe Award from the Mystery Writers of America in the category of Best Critical/Biographical, 2012. "A gracefully conceived study of the role of the scriptwriter in three key works from Hitchcock's later career. Convincingly substantiating received wisdom about Hitchcock's working methods, Raubicheck and Srebnick enhance our understanding of collaborative authorship--a topic that is important not only for the study of Hitchcock but for the field as a whole."--Richard Allen, professor of cinema studies, New York University“This wonderful, sensible study should be devoured by film students of all ages. Highly recommended."--ChoiceTable of ContentsPreface The "Triptych" and the Screenplays; The Sources; From Treatment to Shooting Script; Final Drafts: The Shooting Script Afterword

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Book SynopsisCreative collaborations that gave Hitchcock his finest filmsTrade ReviewNominated for an Edgar Allan Poe Award from the Mystery Writers of America in the category of Best Critical/Biographical, 2012. "A gracefully conceived study of the role of the scriptwriter in three key works from Hitchcock's later career. Convincingly substantiating received wisdom about Hitchcock's working methods, Raubicheck and Srebnick enhance our understanding of collaborative authorship--a topic that is important not only for the study of Hitchcock but for the field as a whole."--Richard Allen, professor of cinema studies, New York University“This wonderful, sensible study should be devoured by film students of all ages. Highly recommended."--ChoiceTable of ContentsPreface The "Triptych" and the Screenplays; The Sources; From Treatment to Shooting Script; Final Drafts: The Shooting Script Afterword

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Book SynopsisExamines English films and television dramas as they relate to English culture in the 20th century. This book traces themes such as the influence of US crime drama on English film, and film adaptations of literary works as they appear in screen work from the 1930s. It also analyzes the documentary "Listen to Britain".Trade Review. . . ambitious and expansive . . . . -- Lucy Scholes * TLS - Times Literary Supplement *A substantive, seductive, charming piece of work, this book is a paradigm of good sense and clarity—neither pedantic nor trendy. . . . Highly recommended. November 2010 * Choice *I recommend this book to those who take pleasure in cinema; I prescribe it to those who need to learn how to write about the aesthetics of cinema, not the ideology of culture.Issue 30 - 2011 * Screening the Past *Table of ContentsContentsPrefaceIntroduction: By Way of Hanif Kureishi and Stephen Frears1. Wartime Pageantry The Archers on Pilgrimage Screen Processions and Village Pageants The Documentary Pageant: Jennings's Listen to Britain2. American Gangsters, English Crime Films, and Dennis Potter George Orwell versus James Hadley Chase Contending with America In Search of an English Crime Film The Singing Detective as Summa Criminologica3. Two Texts to Screen How to Adapt Dickens, and How Not to Do It Ishiguro and Merchant-Ivory, Upstairs and Downstairs4. The Strange Potencies of Music Rawsthorne and Rachmaninoff Rolling Out the Barrel, Looking Up and Laughing Distant Voices and Lip-Synched LivesConclusion: By Way of Tony Harrison and Alan BennettNotesIndex

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Book SynopsisThis book offers a unique perspective on crafting your screenplay from an editor's point-of-view. Special features include before and after examples from preproduction scripts to post production final cuts, giving screenwriters an opportunity to understand how their screenplay is visualized in post production.By the time a script reaches the editing room, it has passed through many hands and undergone many changes. The producer, production designer, director, cinematographer, and actor have all influenced the process before it gets to the editor's hands. Few scripts can withstand the careful scrutiny of the editing room. This book reveals how to develop a script that will retain its original vision and intent under the harsh light of the editing console. It provides insights that writers (as well as producers and directors) need and editors can provide for a safe journey from the printed page to the final release.This book is ideal for aspiring and early career screenwTrade Review"I have nothing but praise for John Rosenberg’s The Final Rewrite which presents an extraordinary view of the filmmaking process illustrating the key creative contributions of writers and editors. This book is a must for anyone teaching screenwriting or production in the importance ofcollaboration, and corrects the common belief that directors are the sole authors of their work."Eric N.Young, Professor and Production Chair, Chapman UniversityTable of Contents1. The Final Rewrite 2. Best Intentions and Excellent Fails 3. The Well of Coverage 4. The Scene and an Approach to Dailies 5. Another Approach 6. What Writers Know 7. What Editors Know 8. Tricks of the Editor’s Trade 9. The Essence of Time 10. The Filmic Moment 11. Aspects of Dialogue 12. Dialogue and Character Issues 13. When "Cut to" Isn’t Enough 14. Following the Line 15. Formula But Not Formulaic 16. The End is the Beginning 17. Hindsight is 20/20

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Book SynopsisA guide to understanding the major genres of the story world by the legendary writing teacher and author of The Anatomy of Story, John Truby.Most people think genres are simply categories on Netflix or Amazon that provide a helpful guide to making entertainment choices. Most people are wrong. Genre stories aren't just a small subset of the films, video games, TV shows, and books that people consume. They are the all-stars of the entertainment world, comprising the vast majority of popular stories worldwide. That's why businessesmovie studios, production companies, video game studios, and publishing housesbuy and sell them. Writers who want to succeed professionally must write the stories these businesses want to buy. Simply put, the storytelling game is won by mastering the structure of genres.The Anatomy of Genres: How Story Forms Explain the Way the World Works is the legendary writing teacher John Truby's step-by-step guide to understanding an

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Book SynopsisAn invaluable, systematic instruction book for beginners and professional screenwriters alike.

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Book SynopsisFrom the best-selling author of STORY and DIALOGUE

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Book SynopsisWhat they won't teach you in film school:This expertly written reference guide breaks down copyrightlaws for screenwriters. Inspired by Strunk & White'sThe Elements of Style,this elegant, short reference is the perfect guide for screenwriters and creative artists looking to succeed as industry professionals.Readers will quickly understand the laws that govern creativity, idea-making, and selling, and learn how to protect themselves and their worksfrom the legal quagmires they may encounter.Written by an unrivaled pair of experts, John L. Geiger and Howard Suber, who use real-life case studies to cover topics such as clearance, contracts, collaboration, and infringement,Creativity and Copyrightis poised to become an indispensable resource for beginners and experts alike.Trade Review"A screenwriter seeking a basic understanding of the most important legal issues that pertain to the field will likely find Creativity and Copyright useful and readable." * Publishing Research Quarterly *Table of ContentsAcknowledgments Disclaimer Introduction 1. Free for the Taking: What You Can Steal from Others, and What Others Can Steal from You 2. Clearance Required: What You Do Need Permission to Use 3. Collaboration 4. Selling to Others and Implied-in-Fact Contracts 5. Copyright Infringement 6. Your Legal Team 7. Confessions of an Expert Witness: Free for the Telling Epilogue: Creativity and Copyright Appendix A. Copyright Fundamentals Appendix B. Collaboration Problems Notes Index

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Book SynopsisWhat they won't teach you in film school:This expertly written reference guide breaks down copyrightlaws for screenwriters. Inspired by Strunk & White'sThe Elements of Style,this elegant, short reference is the perfect guide for screenwriters and creative artists looking to succeed as industry professionals.Readers will quickly understand the laws that govern creativity, idea-making, and selling, and learn how to protect themselves and their worksfrom the legal quagmires they may encounter.Written by an unrivaled pair of experts, John L. Geiger and Howard Suber, who use real-life case studies to cover topics such as clearance, contracts, collaboration, and infringement,Creativity and Copyrightis poised to become an indispensable resource for beginners and experts alike.Trade Review"A screenwriter seeking a basic understanding of the most important legal issues that pertain to the field will likely find Creativity and Copyright useful and readable." * Publishing Research Quarterly *Table of ContentsAcknowledgments Disclaimer Introduction 1. Free for the Taking: What You Can Steal from Others, and What Others Can Steal from You 2. Clearance Required: What You Do Need Permission to Use 3. Collaboration 4. Selling to Others and Implied-in-Fact Contracts 5. Copyright Infringement 6. Your Legal Team 7. Confessions of an Expert Witness: Free for the Telling Epilogue: Creativity and Copyright Appendix A. Copyright Fundamentals Appendix B. Collaboration Problems Notes Index

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Book SynopsisAdaptation was central to André Bazin's lifelong query: What is cinema? Placing films alongside literature allowed him to identify the aesthetic and sociological distinctiveness of each medium. More importantly, it helped him wage his campaign for a modern conception of cinema, one that owed a great deal to developments in the novel. The critical genius of one of the greatest film and cultural critics of the twentieth century is on full display in this collection, in which readers are introduced to Bazin's foundational concepts of the relationship between film and literary adaptation.Expertly curated and with an introduction by celebrated film scholar Dudley Andrew, the book begins with a selection of essays that show Bazin's film theory in action, followed by reviews of films adapted from renowned novels of the day (Conrad, Hemingway, Steinbeck, Colette, Sagan, Duras, and others) as well as classic novels of the nineteenth century (Bronte, Melville, Tolstoy, Balzac, Hugo, Zola, Stendhal, and more). As a bonus, two hundred and fifty years of French fiction are put into play as Bazin assesses adaptation after adaptation to determine what is at stake for culture, for literature, and especially for cinema. This volume will be an indispensable resource for anyone interested in literary adaptation, authorship, classical film theory, French film history, and André Bazin's criticism.Trade Review"One must be cravenly grateful for these tasty packages of Bazin that Dudley Andrew is so thoughtfully arranging for us." * Cineaste *Table of ContentsContents Preface Acknowledgments Introduction: André Bazin’s Position in Cinema’s Literary Imagination PART ONE. ADAPTATION IN THEORY 1. Preview: A Postwar Renewal of Novel and Cinema 2. André Malraux, Espoir, or Style in Cinema 3. Cinema as Digest 4. Critical Stance: Defense of Adaptation 5. Cinema and Novel 6. Literature, is it a Trap for Cinema? 7. A Question on the Baccalaureate Exam: The Film-Novel Problem 8. Lamartine, Jocelyn: Should you Scrupulously Adapt such a Poem? 9. Roger Leenhardt has Filmed a Novel he never Wrote 106 10. Alexandre Astruc’s Les Mauvaises Rencontres (Bad Liaisons): Better than a Novel 11. Colette, Le Blé en herbe: Uncertain Fidelity 12. Rereading Stendhal’s Le Rouge et le Noir (The Red and the Black) through a Camera Lens 13. Of Novels and Films: M. Ripois with or without Nemesis 14. Stendhal’s Mina de Vanghel, Captured beyond Fidelity 15. Mina de Vanghel: More Stendhalian than Stendhal PART TWO. ADAPTING CONTEMPORARY FICTION A. Best Sellers from Abroad 16. On William Saroyan’s The Human Comedy 17. Billy Wilder, The Lost Weekend 18. Hollywood Can Translate Faulkner, Hemingway, and Caldwell 19. John Ford, How Green Was My Valley 20. John Ford, The Grapes of Wrath, from Steinbeck 21. John Ford, Tobacco Road, from Erskine Caldwell 22. Theodore Dreiser’s An American Tragedy becomes A Place in the Sun 23. D. H. Lawrence, Lady Chatterley’s Lover 24. Has Hemingway influenced Cinema? 25. Ernest Hemingway, The Snows of Kilimanjaro 26. Ernest Hemingway, A Farewell to Arms 27. Graham Greene’s The Power and the Glory becomes John Ford’s The Fugitive 28. Graham Greene, Brighton Rock 29. Graham Greene and Carol Reed, The Fallen Idol 30. Graham Greene, The Heart of the Matter 31. Joseph Conrad, Outcast of the Islands, filmed by Carol Reed 32. Arthur Miller’s The Crucible and Nikos Kazantzakis’ He Who Must Die are now Two Great French Films 33. Franz Kafka on Screen: Clouzot’s Les Espions (The Spies) B. Fiction from France 34. Avec André Gide, by Marc Allégret 35. The Universe of Marcel Aymé on Screen: La Belle Image 36. Colette, Le Blé en herbe: The Ripening Seed . . . has Matured 37. Marguerite Duras, Barrage contre la Pacifique, adapted by René Clément 38. Françoise Sagan, Bonjour Tristesse, adapted by Otto Preminger PART THREE: ADAPTING TO THE CLASSICS A. The Nineteenth-Century Novel from Abroad 39. Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre 40. Charles Dickens, Oliver Twist 41. Nikolai Gogol, The Overcoat 42. Herman Melville, Moby Dick 43. Stephen Crane, The Red Badge of Courage 44. Leo Tolstoy, Anna Karenina 45. Fyodor Dostoevsky, The Brothers Karamazov 46. Dostoevsky, Crime and Punishment, alongside Tolstoy, War and Peace B. French Classics on the French Screen 47. Abbé Prévost, Manon Lescaut, adapted by Clouzot 48. Honoré de Balzac, Eugénie Grandet 49. Stendhal, Le Chartreuse de Parme (The Charterhouse of Parma) 50. Stendhal, Le Rouge et le Noir (The Red and the Black): Tastes and Colors 51. Victor Hugo, Les Misérables 52. Victor Hugo, Notre-Dame de Paris, alongside Jules Verne, Michel Strogoff 53. Zola and Cinema: Pour une nuit d’amour (For a Night of Love) 54. Émile Zola, Thérèse Raquin, adapted by Marcel Carné 55. Émile Zola’s La Bête humaine becomes Fritz Lang’s Human Desire 56. Émile Zola’s L’Assommoir becomes René Clément’s Gervaise 57. Guy de Maupassant, Une vie (A Life), adapted by Alexandre Astruc 58. Maupassant Stories adapted by Max Ophüls: Le Plaisir 59. Maupassant Stories adapted by André Michel: Trois femmes 60. French Cinema faces Literature addendum. two long essays on adaptation, translated by hugh gray 61. Journal d’un curé de campagne and the Stylistics of Robert Bresson 62. In Defense of Mixed Cinema Appendix: Chronological List of Articles Index of Films Index of Proper Names Index of Topics and Concepts

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Book SynopsisSchrader on Schrader is an essential set of dialogues with one of the most genuinely fascinating and uncompromising writer-directors in American film.Raised as a Calvinist and hence forbidden to partake of ''worldly pleasures'' such as movies, Paul Schrader nevertheless defied his upbringing to become first a leading film critic, then a star pupil among the US ''movie brat'' generation of the 1970s: writing the coruscating screenplays for Martin Scorsese''s Taxi Driver and Raging Bull and directing such provocative pictures as Blue Collar, Hardcore and American Gigolo. Maturity has never sated his appetite for attacking ''difficult'' material, from adapting Kazantzakis'' The Last Temptation for Scorsese, to filming the singular lives of Mishima and Patty Hearst.Schrader on Schrader is a tour through this formidable body of work, including some of Schrader''s finest critical essays.

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Book SynopsisLA TIMES BESTSELLER • From the award-winning screenwriter and director of cult classic Bull Durham, the extremely entertaining behind-the-scenes story of the making of the film, and an insightful primer on the art and business of moviemaking.This book tells you how to make a movie—the whole nine innings of it—out of nothing but sheer will.” —Tony Gilroy, writer/director of Michael Clayton and The Bourne LegacyThe only church that truly feeds the soul, day in, day out, is the church of baseball.—Annie in Bull DurhamBull Durham, the breakthrough 1988 film about a minor league baseball team, is widely revered as the best sports movie of all time. But back in 1987, Ron Shelton was a first-time director and no one was willing to finance a movie about baseball—especially a story set in the minors. The jury was still out on Kevin Costner’s leading-man potential, while Susan Sarandon was already a has-been. There were doubts. But something miraculous happened, and The Church of Baseball attempts to capture why.From organizing a baseball camp for the actors and rewriting key scenes while on set, to dealing with a short production schedule and overcoming the challenge of filming the sport, Shelton brings to life the making of this beloved American movie. Shelton explains the rarely revealed ins and outs of moviemaking, from a film’s inception and financing, screenwriting, casting, the nuts and bolts of directing, the postproduction process, and even through its release. But this is also a book about baseball and its singular romance in the world of sports. Shelton spent six years in the minor leagues before making this film, and his experiences resonate throughout this book.Full of wry humor and insight, The Church of Baseball tells the remarkable story behind an iconic film.

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Book SynopsisThis invaluable resource looks at all the latest markets for comedy writers, with new material on writing 'The Office' style docu-comedies, writing for children's TV, and even how to try out your own jokes in stand-up comedy routines.

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Book SynopsisWritten by two sitcom writers, this handbook seeks to break down the process of writing sitcoms into a series of easy-to-follow steps. There are chapters devoted to concept, characters and plot, through to proposals, commissioning and production, with examples from a range of popular sitcoms.

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