Secrets of Screenplay Structure
by Linda J. Cowgill

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Book Reviews of Secrets of Screenplay Structure

Book Review: BEST SCREENPLAY WRITING BOOK ON THE MARKET
Summary: 5 Stars

A listing of the titles of the 18 succinct chapters of Secrets of Screenplay Structure might help give an indication of the tremendous scope and depth of Cowgill's book, which analyzes and illustrates all of the major elements of story through film. Each chapter features a current or classic "study film," to illustrate its chapter's main points.

The book is divided as follows:

1)The Essence of Dramatic Structure; 2)The Three-Part Nature of Screenplay Structure ("Witness"); 3) Five key Focal Points (focusing on the THREE-ACT structure and its segments) ("Risky Business"); 4)Characterization's Relationship to Structure--including the vital point of character development and its relationship to plot structure("Casablanca"); 5)Theme's Relationship to Structure ("The Piano"); 6)The Structure of Plotting ("Chinatown"); 7) Review, which includes detailing the mechanics of what characters WANT and what,in contradiction, they NEED ("Quiz Show"); 8)The Structure of Subplots ("Tootsie"); 9) Structure and the Ensemble Film ("Diner," "Parenthood," "The Best Years of Our Lives,"Grand Hotel"); 10) Structure and the Nonlinear Plot ("Citizen Kane" and others); 11)Building Momentum: Structuring Scene and Action Sequences ("The Last of the Mohicans"); 12) Openings and Main Exposition ("Jerry Maguire"); 13)The Middle--the Rising Action; ("North by Northwest") 14)The Main Climax and Resolution ("One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest"); 15)The Structure of Planting and Payoff ("Groundhog Day"); 16)The Structure of Scenes ("Se7en"); 17)Dialogue ("It Happened One Night"); 18)The Subtext of Meaning ("Thelma and Louise").

Cowgill's study films are works that have been used as examples in many other current screenplay writing books. However, Cowgill presents these films with a fresh, exceptionally insightful perspective, never wavering from the point she wishes to teach through the films' specific examples. Her thought is ORGANIZED; her writing is exemplary: clear, concise, lively and engaging.

I highly recommend Secrets of Screenplay Structure to new and established writers of any form of fiction. It is an elegant work of scholarship and practical advice by an artist in her own right. The only name that comes to mind right now who could pull off such dual and contradictory roles is that of T.S. Eliot.

Carol Zapata-Whelan, Ph.D. California State University, Fresno

Summary of Secrets of Screenplay Structure

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