Maverick Screenwriting: A Manual for the Adventurous Screenwriter

385 Pages·2012·3.054 MB·English

by  Josh Golding

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Maverick
Screenwriting
A manual for the
adventurous screenwriter
Josh Golding
BLOOMSBURY
Bloomsbury Publishing Plc
First published in 2012
Bloomsbury Publishing Plc
50 Bedford Square
London WC1B 3DP
www.bloomsbury.com
Copyright © Josh Golding 2012
Every effort has been made to trace copyright holders and
to obtain their permission for the use of copyright material.
The publisher apologizes for any errors or omissions and would
be grateful if notified of any corrections that should be incorporated
in future reprints or editions of this book.
Josh Golding has asserted his rights under the Copyright, Designs
and Patents Act, 1988, to be identified as the author of this work
A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from
the British Library
PB ISBN 978 1 408 12907 4
E PUB ISBN 978 1 408 15494 6
E PDF ISBN  978 1 408 15493 9
Available in the USA from Bloomsbury Academic & Professional,
175 Fifth Avenue/3rd Floor, New York, NY 10010.
www.BloomsburyAcademicUSA.com
Typeset by Country Setting, Kingsdown, Kent CT14 8ES
This book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way
of trade or otherwise, be lent, resold, hired out, or otherwise
circulated in any form of binding or cover other than that in
which it is published and without asimilar condition, including this
condition, being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.
Quotes on pp. 264–6 abridged from Apocalypse Now Redux by
John Millius and Francis Ford Coppola. Copyright © 2001 by John
Millius and Francis Ford Coppola. Reprinted by permission of
Miramax Books. All right reserved.
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“
When the doors of perception are cleansed,
man will see things as they truly are, infinite.
William Blake
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Contents
1 Set-up and back story 1
Preface 3
Introduction 5
Foreword 19
Chapter 1:The prequel 21
Chapter 2:The big “what if?” 35
Chapter 3:The Maverick toolbox 57
2 Time 67
Chapter 4:Become your own timelord by playing
with time and causality 69
3 Reality 119
Chapter 5:The different levels of reality 121
Chapter 6:Absurdism 133
Chapter 7:Minimalism 155
Chapter 8:You left my umbrella where? 169
4 Point of view 213
Chapter 9:POV to the max 215
5 Technique 231
Chapter 10:Break on through to the other side 233
Chapter 11:Maverick dialogue 255
6 Everything connects 291
Chapter 12:The matrix 293
Chapter 13:Taking it to the limit 323
7 Which structure is right for you? 351
Chapter 14:Mashing genre 353
Notes 367
Index 371
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Section 1
Set-up and
back story
‘Buried’ (1953), lithograph © Versus Entertainment/Kobal Collection
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Preface
This book will teach you the advanced narrative techniques that will help
you tell an original story in an original way. If that sounds a tall order, never
fear. Screenwriting is a craft, as well as an art; and these techniques can
be learned.
As a student of mine put it, once you understand these techniques, you
understand that Maverick films are not complicated. They are just cleverly
written.
Or as a teacher of mine once told me: everything is hard until you learn
it; then it’s easy.
All the classic principles of dramaturgy remain relevant. But Maverick
techn iques broaden your palette and give you tools that you never knew
you had, buried deep inside you. Tools that allow you to play with time,
logic and reality. Tools that set your imagination free.
In Maverick Screenwriting, all these tools find new and inventive use.
We’ll extract the techniques which have been successful in Maverickfilms,
andI’ll show you how you can use them yourself to create new and original
stories.
But technique is only a means to an end. The aim is to learn to look at
the world in a different way, and then to put that vision into words.
Once you succeed in doing that, you have found your voice, and can
throw technique away.
This book is not a complete or definitive analysis of Maverick films. No
doubt you will have your own lost or cult classic that you feel I have
slighted or ignored. This causes me no lost sleep. On the contrary, it only
proves that there will always be a need and a hunger for Maverick films.
It is the nature of the choices made by these films to be controversial.
Great films (indeed all great art works) are made in spite of the system, not
because of it.
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