How to Adapt Anything Into a Screenplay

by Richard Krevolin

Book Overview

From concept to finished draft-a nuts-and-bolts approach to adaptations

Aspiring and established screenwriters everywhere, take note This down-to-earth guide is the first to clearly articulate the craft of adaptation. Drawing on his own experience and on fourteen years of teaching, screenwriter Richard Krevolin presents his proven five-step process for adapting anything-from novels and short stories to newspaper articles and poems-into a...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0471225452
• ISBN13: 9780471225454
• Release Date: February 2003
• Publisher: Wiley
• Length: 240 Pages
• Weight: 0.70 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 6.0" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

Great book for anyone interested in screenwriting

I am an aspiring screenwriter just looking into the field. I have have not yet taken any courses but would love to learn about screenwriting. This book is the perfect for that. It is fascinating reading about the basic structure of a screenplay in terms that even I can understand. The analysis of Hollywood movie screenplays is a great way to teach the process through example. Reading a few of the negative reviews made me wonder if those people understood the purpose of this wonderful book. It was not written with the idea that is was to help Steven Speilberg with his work. It was written for you and me. Based on that it has to be a 5 star book. Simply fascinating.

Incredibly helpful book for any writer

What I love about this book is that it gives a system to develop a story that can be used for screenplays or even stageplays and books. It uses lots of great examples and is fun and easy to read. Enjoy it, I did.

Excellent working writer's guide

Richard Krevolin has concisely put into print a set of principles that deserves a place on your bookshelf next to Hauge and McKee, and, if followed will guide you to tell your story in the most effective and screenworthy manner. This book will fuel your passion as well as provide the guiding principles you can use to adapt pre-existing works or your own original stories. Richard BagdazianPresident, San Diego Screenwriters' Association

A useful book for the subject!

After writing one screenplay and one teleplay, I still didn't "get it." I'd read a half dozen books on scriptwriting but was still a bit muddled. The light bulb finally went off with this book. Krevolin starts with short but useful information on structure. This includes a nice breakout of 'where your script should be' by certain pages. He explains it so that you don't just get the formula: you understand the dramatic and narrative reasons for the page delineations.And he includes the Scene-O-Gram (borrowed from fellow instructor Hal Ackerman). This is a marvelous visual tool. It shows your script from back story to climax as clearly as possible. Combined with his explanation of page 'marks', I finally realized how a script should truly flow together.Then he takes several films, including The Patriot, X-Men and The Shawshank Redemption, and looks at key elements while placing them into the Scene-O-Gram format. This is not simply formulaic plug and place. It is a look at key components and structure for adapting an existing piece of writing.Krevolin's book will help you select the most important elements to keep from the work you're adapting, and how to put them together. A must-have if you plan on adapting something into a screenplay.