The Rules of Screenwriting and Why You Should Break Them

A couple of generations ago, the movie industry ran on gut instinct--film schools, audience research departments and seminars on screenwriting were not yet de rigueur. Today the standard is the analytical approach, intended to demystify filmmaking and guarantee success (or at least minimize failure). The trouble with this method is that nobody knows how to do it--they just think they do--and films are made based on models of predictability rather than the merits of the script.

This insider...