Constructing Dialogue: Screenwriting from Citizen Kane to Midnight in Paris: Mark Axelrod: Bloomsbury Academic

5/19/16, 17:57

Constructing Dialogue
Screenwriting from Citizen Kane to Midnight in
Paris
By: Mark Axelrod
Published:

07-11-2013

Format:
Edition:

EPUB eBook (?)

1st

Extent:

328

ISBN:
Imprint:

9781441121912
Bloomsbury Academic

RRP:

16.99

About Author/Editor(s)/
Contributor(s)

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Mark Axelrod
Mark Axelrod is a Full Professor of English
& Comparative Literature, and Director of
the John Fowles Center for Creative
Writing, at Chapman University, USA.

About Constructing Dialogue

Unlike most screenwriting guides that generally analyze several aspects of screenwriting,
Constructing Dialogue is devoted to a more analytical treatment of certain individual
scenes and how those scenes were constructed to be the most highly dramatic vis vis
their dialogue. In the art of screenwriting, one cannot separate how the scene is
constructed from how the dialogue is written. They are completely interwoven.
Each chapter deals with how a particular screenwriter approached dialogue relative to that
particular scene's construction. From Citizen Kane to The Fisher King the storylines have
changed, but the techniques used to construct scene and dialogue have fundamentally
remained the same. The author maintains that there are four optimum requirements that
each scene needs in order to be successful: maintaining scenic integrity; advancing the
storyline, developing character, and eliciting conflict and engaging emotionally.
Comparing
CONSTRUCTING
the original script and viewing the final movie, the student is able to seeDIALOGUE
what exactly was
Mark Axelrod
being accomplished to make both the scene and the dialogue work effectively.
07 November 2013, PDF
eBook

Table Of Contents

ONSTRUCT
ALOGUE
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1. Introduction
2. Citizen Kane (1941) Herman J. Mankiewicz, Orson Welles
3. Casablanca (1942) Murray Burnett, Joan Alison, Julius J. Epstein, Philip G. Epstein,
Howard Koch, Casey Robinson
4. Sunset Boulevard (1950) Billy Wilder
5. North by Northwest (1959) Ernest Lehman
6. Jules & Jim (1962) Franois Truffaut, Jean Gruault
7. Lolita (1963) Vladimir Nabokov, Stanley Kubrick
8. Goldfinger (1964) Richard Maibaum, Paul Dehn
9. The Graduate (1969) Calder Willingham, Buck Henry

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Constructing Dialogue: Screenwriting from Citizen Kane to Midnight in Paris: Mark Axelrod: Bloomsbury Academic

WORLD CINEMA

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10. Midnight Cowboy (1969) Waldo Salt

11. Chinatown (1973) Robert Towne
12. Annie Hall (1977) Woody Allen, Marshall Brickman
13. When Harry Met Sally (1989) Nora Ephron
14. The Fisher King (1991) Richard LaGravanese
15. Thelma & Louise (1991) Callie Khouri
16. Toy Story (1995) John Lasseter
17. Good Will Hunting (1997) Matt Damon, Ben Affleck
18. Run Lola Run (1998) Tom Tykwer
19. American Beauty (1999) Alan Ball
20. Midnight in Paris (2010) Woody Allen

Exercises
Screenplay Bibliography
Index

Reviews
Constructing Dialogue reveals unprecedented insights into the pivotal impact of dialogue
on cinematic craftsmanship. Axelrod's nuanced analysis of great Hollywood scripts
investigates dialogue as an active tactical element that operates with, rather than against,
visual artistry. At once gleeful, rigorous and practical, Axelrod shows that the best feature
screenplays are structured down to even the micro level of a single well-crafted line.
Crucial reading for aspiring screenwriters, film students, seasoned filmmakers and film
buffs alike, Axelrod uncovers the bare bones of the screenplay, the writer's ecstatic dance
with words, structure and story. Valorie D. Thomas, Associate Professor of English
and Africana Studies, Pomona College, US,
I wish I could have had at hand such a great screenwriting guide in my first steps as a
student and filmmaker. It could have saved me a lot of trouble, by speeding up my own
development in this area. Script doctor and visionary creative writer Axelrod provides the
art of motion pictures - and film industry in general - with a unique guide that will certainly
expand film possibilities over the years to come. Axelrod's book on dialogue construction
can perfectly match Joseph Campbell's revolutionary writings that changed film narrative
forever. Gustavo Letelier, professor and award-winning film director, Chile,
Axelrod does what Axelrod does best: knows dialogue. This unique text elucidates what
the preeminent screenwriters have known and accomplished for years; namely, how to
say the most with brevity and precision and move the story along. Axelrod shows that in a
very succinct, if not unique, way. Anyone interested in the art of dialogue writing should
read this. David Anspaugh, Director, Hoosiers, Rudy,

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