Going to Watch Chinatown Tonight - Reading Syd Field Screenplay Writing

Kim Welch

Senior Member
Staff member
I am on chapter 7 " Setting Up the Story" of Syd Field's book The Foundations of Screenwriting. He is using Chinatown as an example of how to write the first ten pages. He basically is saying that the first ten pages is what gets your screenplay read or thrown in the garbage. Of course there are many things he has already gone over in the last 6 chapters about character and internal and external factors as well as what I think is the most important one. And , that is that we should know the ending of your screenplay before you start to write the first page. So, I am going to read the rest of this chapter and then watch Chinatown tonight to see if I get as much out of it as Syd does. Have a great evening and love to hear your thoughts on screenwriting. I have a few stories I am working on. It's a lot of work. :)
 
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He is right, in most cases, if the first pages or minutes don't catch your attention, people rarely look beyond them. In some cases, the action gets addicting as the story progresses so it is a bit sad people don't even get to see that part.
 
I enjoyed the Chinatown movie with Jack Nichols. It wasn't what I invistioned reading the script of the first ten pages but it was good and it was close the script. Some parts of it were edited out. After I finished it I started watching Sunset BLVD. What a hoot this old movie star character Norma Desmond is. Really enjoyable! I havn't watched the whole movie. Doing to make some dinner and watch the rest.
 
What stories are you working on? :)
 

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