Richard Walter - Essentials of Screenwriting

A PLUME BOOK

ESSENTIALS OF SCREENWRITING

RICHARD WALTER has been chairman of UCLAs graduate screenwriting program for more than thirty years. A novelist and screenwriter himself, he lectures and offers master classes throughout the nation and the world.

Praise for Richard Walter, Screenwriting, and The Whole Picture

The prime broker for Hollywoods hottest commodity: new writing talent.

Wall Street Journal

The Jewish mother of screenwriting.

Variety

Screenwriting is full of the expertise of someone who knows what makes movies worth writing, making, and seeing... [Richard Walter] instructs with wit, common sense, and love for his art and craft.

Steven Bach, author of Final Cut

In the gold rush atmosphere of screenwriting, Richard Walter is a wise guide. A lively and provocative book.

Andrew Bergman, writer/director of The Freshman and Honeymoon in Vegas

Richard Walter, a writer himself, is the only person teaching screenwriting who knows what the f*^% hes talking about.

Joe Eszterhas, writer of Basic Instinct and Flashdance

www.RichardWalter.com

ESSENTIALS
of
SCREENWRITING

The Art, Craft, and Business
of Film and Television Writing

RICHARD WALTER

Professor and Screenwriting Chairman, UCLA

PLUME

Published by the Penguin Group

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Penguin Books Ltd., Registered Offices: 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England

First published by Plume, a member of Penguin Group (USA) Inc.

First Printing, July 2010

Copyright Richard Walter, 2010

All rights reserved

Portions of this book appeared in Screenwriting: The Art, Craft and Business of Film and Television Writing (Plume, 1988) and The Whole Picture: Strategies for Screenwriting Success in the New Hollywood (Plume, 1997). Copyright Richard Walter, 1988, 1997.

REGISTERED TRADEMARKMARCA REGISTRADA

LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING-IN-PUBLICATION DATA

Walter, Richard, 1944
Essentials of screenwriting : the art, craft, and business of film and television writing / Richard Walter.
p. cm.
Includes material previously published in Screenwriting and the Whole Picture.
Includes bibliographical references.
ISBN: 978-1-101-66468-1 1. Motion picture authorship.
2. Motion picture playsTechnique. 3. Television authorship. 4. Television playsTechnique. I. Title.
PN1996.W245 2010
808.23dc22 2010005304

Designed by Eve Kirch

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Version_1

For Danny and Susanna

M y experience editing hundreds upon hundreds of screenplays over the decades positions me uniquely well to appreciate the importance of editing and also the qualities characterizing a worthy editor. There is none worthier than Nadia Kashper, wise beyond her years, without whose support this book would constitute not much more than a catalogue of Richies Greatest Hits.

I salute also the attention and consideration afforded me by my earlier editors at Plume: Arnold Dolin, Gary Luke, and Peter K. Borland.

For my leonine agent, Peter Miller: roars.

Eternal gratitude to my longtime pal and partner in Westwood Professor Hal Ackerman and also to Lew Hunter and all our UCLA colleagues over many wonderful years.

My writing and teaching continues to be informed and expanded by the spirit of my own teacher, the late and legendary Irwin R. Blacker.

Finally, as always, with love to Pat, for reminding me daily just who I am and what it is that truly matters, and for providing me with more fun and inspiration than any mere movie.

A N OTE R EGARDING C REDITS

W hen citing movies and television shows, the names of all credited writers are provided the first time the title appears in the book.

I n the early 1970s, while I was still nominally a film student but had been writing professionally for a couple of years, the Writers Guild went on strike.

May I confess here and now that I loved the strike?

By that time Id written half a dozen feature screenplays for the studios and had earned a steady, even a substantial living. At that precise moment, however, I was between assignmentsHollywoods euphemism for out of workand I did not, therefore, have to abandon any post.

The bright side of unemployment is that you cannot be fired.

It was springtime in Los Angeles and, notwithstanding my still-fresh New York chauvinism, I could not deny the seasons sweetness. I resided in a comfy, cozy cottage with a bright yard and plentiful fruit trees. There were birds, possums, raccoons, and skunks. I even liked the skunks. I noodled around in my head with a notion for a novel, but mainly, from my knotty-pine-paneled, north-light study, I stared serenely at the snowcapped San Gabriel Mountains.

Twice a week Guild members were required to present ourselves at a particular studiomy assignment was Paramountand walk the picket line for three hours. I eagerly anticipated each round. It got me out of doors and into the sunshine, caused me ever so slightly to utilize my muscles. Best of all, for the first time in my life I met regularly with other writers.

Parading with my colleagues up and back before the studios Bronson Gate, conversation was endless. We talked sports. We talked weather. We talked cars. We talked Watergate.