About the Book:

Cut To The Chase is a useful and easy-to-understand book used in UCLA Extension's world-famous Writers' Program.

Millions of people dream of writing a screenplay but don't know how to begin, or are already working on a feature script but are stuck and need some targeted advice. Or maybe you have a great script, but no clue about how to navigate the choppy waters of show business. 

Enter Cut To The Chase, which offers the Writers' Program experience in book form. Each chapter is written by a professional writer who teaches in UCLA Extension Writers' Program. Collectively, these award-winning instructors have thousands of hours of experience; their credits include feature films such as Liar, Liar, Heartbreakers, Beetlejuice, The Addams Family, The Mothman Prophecies, and Asylum. From learning how to identify story ideas that make a good movie, to step-by-step instruction on creating your feature script, to practical, sometimes surprisingly frank, advice on opening career doors and keeping them open, this is an authoritative, comprehensive, and entertaining book. 

Edited by Linda Venis, longtime director of the writers' program, Cut To The Chase is the ultimate guide to launching and sustaining a feature film-writing career.

What people say:

"A well-organized soup-to-nuts manual for aspiring Nora Ephrons and Charlie Kaufmans, from the faculty of a notable screenwriting program. ...A readable writer's how-to that goes down smoothly." — Kirkus Reviews

"Cut to the Chase is now the ONLY book I use for my advanced feature screenwriting class at S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University. It's a book for aspiring screenwriters, written by professional screenwriters. The layout of the material follows an organic work-flow that mirrors the writer's process. It's the type of book that will one day be thanked at the Oscars." — Keith Giglio, Professor, Syracuse University; Screenwriter and Executive Producer whose credits include Cinderella Story

"A classic. Very readable. Very informative." — Julie Corman, Producer (New World Pictures, New Horizons Pictures)

"Cut to the Chase is a state-of-the-art collection of articles by some of the best (and most prolific) teachers at the UCLA Extension Writers' Program. In addition to practical information on craft, the reader also receives some pithy, entertaining and frank advice on dealing with the realities of a screenwriting career. As a therapist who specializes in working with creative people of all stripes, I appreciate even more the book's wisdom and common sense. Plus, it's a lot of fun to read." — Dennis Palumbo, author and licensed psychotherapist

"There's a lot written about writing for the movies--but not much of it comes from professionals who know whereof they speak. With Cut to the Chase, readers hear from real professionals talking about the art and craft of screenwriting and learn not only the nuts and bolts of what it takes to be a screenwriter, but also how to mold their creativity into that most challenging of forms, the screenplay. If I was starting out today, I'd be looking for a book like Cut to the Chase—because I'd want advice and knowledge from people who have been in the trenches." — Diane Lake, Assistant Professor, Visual and Media Arts, Emerson College; screenwriter for Columbia, Disney, Miramax, and Paramount

"Cut to the Chase cuts the fat out of the screenwriting process. It's lean and mean without being intimidating. I think it's incredibly smart and cuts close to the bone of what really makes a great movie; less is really more with these wise guides taking the grizzle out of process." — Karen Leigh Hopkins, screenwriter known for: Because I Said So, Stepmom

"Cut the Chase is a great value for aspiring screenwriters, leveraging the knowledge of numerous UCLA Extension instructors with their collective experience of 20 produced feature films in one volume. Covering everything from the inception of the idea all the way to the business end of taking meetings and pitching, this book has it all." — Iris Yamashita, Academy Award nominated screenwriter, Letters from Iwo Jima

About the Editor:

Linda Venis was the director of the Department of the Arts at UCLA Extension, where for nearly 30 years she guided the growth of the Writers' Program into the world's largest screenwriting and creative writing program. She also taught at UCLA and USC and is the recipient of the UCLA Distinguished Teaching Award.