Naked Screenwriting: Twenty-two Oscar-Winning Screenwriters Bare Their Secrets to Writing

by Lew Hunter, Meg Gifford (Editor)

Overview

Award-winning screenwriters reveal their Hollywood secrets in crafting brilliant stories and methodology through interviews with world-renowned UCLA screenwriting professor Lew Hunter.

Naked Screenwriting includes interviews with Francis Ford Coppola, Billy Wilder, Oliver Stone, Bruce Joel Rubin, William Goldman, Julius Epstein, Alexander Payne, Jim Taylor, Alfred Uhry, Tom Schulman, Ted Tally, Ruth Prawer Jabvola, Eric Roth, Jean-Claude Carriere, Frank Pierson, David Ward, Horton Foote, Ron Bass, Alan Ball, Callie Khouri, Robert Benton, Irving Ravetch, and Harriet Frank Junior.

Never before has a book covered 'scar-winning writers so thoroughly, shedding insight and wisdom into the art of screenwriting.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781538137956
Publisher:	Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.
Publication date:	03/15/2021
Pages:	530
Sales rank:	1,014,393
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 8.90(h) x 1.60(d)

About the Author

Lew Hunter is an American screenwriter, author and educator and is chairman Emeritus and Professor of Screenwriting at the UCLA Department of Film and Television. Over half of the 'scar-winning scripts over the past twenty years have been written by students of Hunter. His former students and advocates include Adrienne Parks, Allison Anders, David Koepp, Mike Werb, Sacha Gervasi, Dan Pyne, David Titcher, Diane Saltzberg, Michael Colleary, Don Mancini, Kathy Stumpe, Darren Star, Alexander Payne, and Tom Shadyac. Steven Spielberg has called Hunter “the best screenwriting teacher going.” Hunter resides in Los Angeles, California.

Meg Gifford is a screenwriter and author. She won the Samuel Goldwyn award, the Sloan Science writing award, and every showcase while under Lew’s advisement. She recently wrote a play that was produced in Los Angeles and also writes novels. Gifford resides in Los Angeles, California.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments ix

Introduction xi

1 Francis Ford Coppola 1

2 Bruce Joel Rubin 27

3 William Goldman 59

4 Julius Epstein 85

5 Alexander Payne and Jim Taylor 111

6 Alfred Uhry 133

7 Oliver Stone 151

8 Irving Ravetch and Harriet Frank Jr. 173

9 Tom Schulman 195

10 Ted Tally 221

11 Ruth Prawer Jhabvola 249

12 Ernest Lehman 261

13 Erie Roth 279

14 Jean-Claude Carrière 299

15 Frank Pierson 315

16 David Ward 347

17 Horcon Foote 371

18 Ron Bass 389

19 Alan Ball 427

20 Callie Khouri 449

21 Robert Benton 471

22 Billy Wilder 489

About the Author 513

Editorial Reviews

11/16/2020

Hunter (Screenwriting 434) collects interviews with 22 prize-winning screenwriters in this top-notch volume spanning his career as a UCLA professor, revealing each artist “bar their art, soul, craft, and secrets.” The notable screenwriters range across generations: Casablanca writer Julius Epstein explains his “step outline process” in which he writes one sentence describing each scene, and Billy Wilder (Some Like it Hot) discusses whether a director must also be a writer (“Absolutely not,” he concludes). The interviews feature plenty of helpful tips, among them The Godfather’s Francis Ford Coppola’s recommendation to carry a notebook to jot down character sketches, while Ruth Prawer Jhabvala (Howard’s End) explains her choice to write in longhand so she can include drawings. Hunter writes with a playful flair in his introduction: “for the rest of this book, motion-picture yourself at UCLA at my 434 master screenwriting class.” This style carries to his interviews, which offer trivia (that Jean-Luc Godard was interested in directing Bonnie and Clyde), though some of it may be lost on those less familiar with the history of cinema, as little context is provided. Nevertheless, the volume offers unique access to a wide array of talent. It’s a treasure trove for Hollywood historians and aspiring screenwriters alike. (Mar.)

Publishers Weekly

In sincere hopes that something has been provided within Lew Hunter’s collection of interviews Naked Screenwriting that will be useful to our beloved young cinema artists.

Francis Ford Coppola

Novice and professional screenwriters alike can find advice and solace from this marvelous collection of interviews. Lew is a master teacher, and this book extends his work in the classroom to us all.

Alexander Payne

Lew Hunter, a legendary teacher of screenwriting, has assembled the ultimate masters class. What an extraordinary resource! If you’re passionate about movies and the scripts that inspire them, you need to get NAKED.

Ted Tally

How awesome for the reader to experience what it feels like to be on the inside of this process. A crash course from some of the most decorated writers and producers of our time!

Anna Marie Sinatra

How awesome for the reader to experience what it feels like to be on the inside of this process. A crash course from some of the most decorated writers and producers of our time!

Hunter collects interviews with 22 prize-winning screenwriters in this top-notch volume spanning his career as a UCLA professor, revealing each artist 'bar[ing] their art, soul, craft, and secrets.' The notable screenwriters range across generations.... The interviews feature plenty of helpful tips, among them The Godfather's Francis Ford Coppola's recommendation to carry a notebook to jot down character sketches, while Ruth Prawer Jhabvala (Howard's End) explains her choice to write in longhand so she can include drawings. Hunter writes with a playful flair in his introduction: 'for the rest of this book, motion-picture yourself at UCLA at my 434 master screenwriting class.' .... [The} volume offers unique access to a wide array of talent. It's a treasure trove for Hollywood historians and aspiring screenwriters alike.

In sincere hopes that something has been provided within Lew Hunter's collection of interviews Naked Screenwriting that will be useful to our beloved young cinema artists.

Lew Hunter, a legendary teacher of screenwriting, has assembled the ultimate masters class. What an extraordinary resource! If you're passionate about movies and the scripts that inspire them, you need to get NAKED.

Novice and professional screenwriters alike can find advice and solace from this marvelous collection of interviews. Lew is a master teacher, and this book extends his work in the classroom to us all.

Screenwriting manuals typically walk readers through key structural elements and techniques, using famous scenes as their guide. Here, however, screenwriters Hunter and Gifford provide a wonderful collection of interviews with 22 Oscar-winning screenwriters, mostly conducted in front of an audience of students and professors as part of Hunter's UCLA graduate course. Legendary writers such as Francis Ford Coppola, William Goldman, Oliver Stone, Callie Khouri, and Billy Wilder move between anecdotal stories and the minutiae of a writer's process, with a healthy dose of insider information on the business side of Hollywood screenwriting. A clever and original look at the art of screenwriting.

From the Publisher

03/01/2021

Screenwriting manuals typically walk readers through key structural elements and techniques, using famous scenes as their guide. Here, however, screenwriters Hunter (Univ. of California, Los Angeles) and Gifford provide a wonderful collection of interviews with 22 Oscar-winning screenwriters, mostly conducted in front of an audience of students and professors as part of Hunter's UCLA graduate course. Legendary writers such as Francis Ford Coppola, William Goldman, Oliver Stone, Callie Khouri, and Billy Wilder move between anecdotal stories and the minutiae of a writer's process, with a healthy dose of insider information on the business side of Hollywood screenwriting. The only failing of the book may be a lack of editing. Much in these conversations seems irrelevant to the book's focus, and the questions and chapter prefaces occasionally distract from the matter at hand. Yet in the end, the guidance of these 22 writers far outweighs this flaw. VERDICT A clever and original look at the art of screenwriting.—Peter Thornell, Hingham P.L., MA

Library Journal