Writing For Visual Media

By Anthony Friedmann

Book Overview

Writing for Visual Media focuses on the fundamental problems faced by writers beginning to create content for media that is to be seen rather than read. This book takes the student from basic concepts to a first level of practice through an explicit method that trains students to consistently identify a communications problem, think it through, and find a resolution before beginning to write. Through successive exercises, it helps them acquire the skill and confidence they need to write effective films, corporate and training videos, documentary, ads, PSAs, tv series and other types of visual narrative. Writing for Visual Media also has a chapter on writing for interactive media, including promotions, instructional programs, and games. The book makes the student aware of current electronic writing tools and scriptwriting software through a companion CD-ROM, which offers links to demos and enriches the content of the printed book with video, audio, and sample scripts.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0240803876
• ISBN13: 9780240803876
• Release Date: April 2001
• Publisher: Focal Press
• Length: 280 Pages
• Weight: 1.10 lbs.
• Dimensions: 9.8" x 0.8" x 7.0"

Customer Reviews

I feel a rewrite coming on.

My script's working title is "Chicken of the Sea." Where a Chicken eats giant Inca corn and turns into an aquatic menace. The original target was a book. Then adjusted using a product named "Final Draft" (with a URL of finaldraft. com) where you just add words. That is like saying that using SQL you can replace programmers. A section on mobile platforms is necessary, as that is how most people communicate. Now finally something I can sink my teeth into per se. The book is well organized and more than a textbook. It would take a book to describe all the valuable information in this book. There is a practical side to the book, as it is helpful with designing and producing training aids at work. I also have a library of screenplays and scripts. With its section on script formats, this book gives me the ability to know what I am looking at instead of just the words. For further study, there is an excellent Bibliography. Focal Press published the book. I have a few of their other books.

Honest, Insider Perspective

Candor is refreshing in any work because it let's an audience member identify with the vulnerability of the process being described. In this case the process is producing, marketing, and seeking acceptance of a script for a visual medium of communication. Professor Friedmann shares his successes, but he doesn't ignore his failures. Failure is part of the road to success in any endeavor. The only person who hasn't failed is the one who hasn't attempted anything of significance. In this insider account, we're given a look at the various markets and media forms available for aspiring writers.The accompanying CD is a bonus. It is full of ancillary material that adds enormous depth to the explanations described in the book. Anyone interested in pursuing scriptwriting will learn a lot from this book.

Comprehensive, Humoristic, and Entertaining

I thought Writing for Visual Media was very informative, and easy to understand. At first I got intimidated by the many words the book contains, I usually like to see more pictures and visual examples in the books I read, but the entire book is very informative and has a nice flow, with a nice touch of humoristic remarks. I've never seen a CD-ROM for a textbook, with so many visual elements. I spent about an hour and a half navigating through it. I kept finding more and more stuff to see and read. I thought the CD-ROM was very creative, and indeed entertaining. I like the idea of the book linking to specific chapters in the cd-rom. The book is great for people like me who are just starting to begin writing for the Media. I probably wouldn't recommended for semi-pro's who already know most of the writing techniques, and know what a video camera tilt and pan is!. There's actually a lot of funny video clips in the CD-ROM, which makes it very compelling for learning purposes. In the beginning the CD-ROM loads slowly because the contents of it are stuffed like a turkey with multimedia content. But I do like the fact that there are tons of multimedia content which helps to understand "visually" what writing for the media is all about.