About the Book:

Unites the role of the screenwriter and the artistic bases of motion pictures to provide the first complete approach to the craft.

The Screenplay: A Blend of Film, Form, and Content is the first book to fuse the art of storytelling and the language of film. You will learn to conceive a story in the unique visual and aural terms of film. The Screenplay explores, from the special perspective of motion pictures, the foundations of storytelling, including:
• theme
• character
• time
• imagery
• dramatic structure
• motion
• space
• sound

The Screenplay is written in an engaging manner, inviting you to develop your writing and creative abilities through projects and challenging exercises. This book also features illustrative excerpts from such successful screenplays as Witness, Out of Africa, Body and Soul, Beverly Hills Cop, Rebel Without a Cause, and An Officer and a Gentlemen.

What people say:

"The Screenplay: A Blend of Film, Form, and Content is not only about the interaction of form and content in screenwriting; it is an instruction in curiousity, in relating, feeling, thinking, in participating in our own lives. More than a helpful manual, it is an indispensable gift of sight." — Stewart Stern, Screenwriter, Rebel Without a Cause, Rachel, Rachel

"Margaret Mehring answers the question, “What are my chances of becoming a successful writer?” As her students would tel your, this book should certainly be on your bookshelf." — Howard Kazanjian, Producer, Return of the Jedi, Raiders of the Lost Ark

"This book serves a much-needed function — that of giving the writer power ... [It] enables writers to construct scripts in such a way that they will be produced as the writer envisioned." — Dr. Lynne Gross, Professor, California State University, Fullerton

"Shelve all other screenwriting books. A new age of screenwriting texts has begun. The author has constructed a working solution which makes all other books seem dated." — Professor Mary Ella Ferrara, Roger Williams College

About the Author:

Margaret Mehring (1926 – 2008) created and was the Director of the Filmic Writing Program in The School of Cinema-Television at the University of Southern California (USC). Her now famous curriculum was designed to take students directly into the Hollywood system as proficient writer/directors. She taught filmmaking and screenwriting for more than 30 years. Of her varied accomplishments, her book, The Screenplay: A Blend of Film, Form, and Content, is still used by universities across the country, and was a primer for teaching technique to filmmakers like John Singleton. As head of her own production company and as a freelance professional, she wrote, directed, and produced more than 100 instructional and documentary films.