Source: The Times

Issue Date: Saturday April 24, 2004

Byline: Ellin Stein

Page: The Eye 6

Word Count: 552

Edition: 1DV

Story Text:

WRITING A SCREENPLAY? GET A GURU. AMERICAN FILM INDUSTRY EXPERT ELLIN STEIN EXPLAINS THE LATEST HOLLYWOOD FAD

Time was, screenwriters could come up with scripts for films such as Casablanca relying on their own resources. But since writing a screenplay became the intellectual version of buying a lottery ticket, screenwriting gurus have become a part of the Hollywood landscape, charging upwards of Pounds 200 per seminar.

Indeed, Charlie Kaufman based an entire movie, Adaptation, on his ambivalence about the screenwriting guru's ascendancy.

The gurus' revelations should come as no great shock to anyone who has studied drama and literature from the Greeks on. Perhaps these seminars are filling the void left by the disappearance of a decent liberal arts education. And they can tell you what the mainstream industry expects to see.

The problem, of course, is that talent can be refined but it can't be taught. You either know how to bring characters alive or you don't. These courses are of most value to non-writers in positions that require them to sound knowledgeable about scripts (especially when they're "improving" them). As Anthony Minghella said at a recent event held by the literary organisation PEN: "These courses are useful to learn how to read a screenplay, but they can't actually tell you how to write."

Julian Fellowes chimed in: "I don't know what these people who go on about the pattern of the arc of the second act are talking about. Nobody else's method can be your method. Find your own way of working and stick to it."

Nevertheless, if you feel inclined to seek guidance, here are four of the top script gurus. And if none of them has The Answer for you, there are plenty more where they came from. Remember, too, that none of these gurus has himself written a produced theatrical feature. Then again, F. R. Leavis wasn't known for his novels.

SYD FIELD -THE ORIGINAL

Came up with the three-act "paradigm" -classical three-act structure with added transitional plot points. Now emphasising character development ("The Matrix of Character Preference") as much as structure.

ROBERT MCKEE -THE 300LB GORILLA

Lionised in Vanity Fair and immortalised (as the embodiment of all that's formulaic in the industry, but never mind) in Kaufman's Adaptation. Celeb alumni include Peter Jackson. Overlaid the three-act structure with a five-part narrative structure (inciting incident, complications, crisis, climax and resolution). Now emphasising genre and character.

Robert McKee gives a Story Seminar in London on May 14-16. See http://mckeestory.com for details

JOHN TRUBY -THE YOUNG TURK

Forget the three-act structure, what you need is a seven-step "deep structure" and 22 Building Blocks that help you track your hero's moral and emotional growth.

CHRISTIAN VOGLER -THE THINKER

After George Lucas acknowledged Joseph Campbell's The Hero with a Thousand Faces as a major influence on Star Wars, everyone wanted to read Campbell, but gosh, those books are long. Vogler's The Writer's Journey is a guide to analysing scripts according to Campbellian principles, so caves, threshold guardians and ordeals get a look-in.

Christian Vogler delivers a two-day course in London on The Writer's Journey, Jun 26-27. See www.raindance.co.uk for details