The Science of Screenwriting: The Neuroscience Behind Storytelling Strategies

by Paul Joseph Gulino, Connie Shears

Overview

In a world awash in screenwriting books, The Science of Screenwriting provides an alternative approach that will help the aspiring screenwriter navigate this mass of often contradictory advice: exploring the science behind storytelling strategies. Paul Gulino, author of the best-selling Screenwriting: The Sequence Approach, and Connie Shears, a noted cognitive psychologist, build, chapter-by-chapter, an understanding of the human perceptual/cognitive processes, from the functions of our eyes and ears bringing real world information into our brains, to the intricate networks within our brains connecting our decisions and emotions. They draw on a variety of examples from film and television -- The Social Network, Silver Linings Playbook and Breaking Bad -- to show how the human perceptual process is reflected in the storytelling strategies of these filmmakers. They conclude with a detailed analysis of one of the most successful and influential films of all time, Star Wars, to discover just how it had the effect that it had.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781501327216
Publisher:	Bloomsbury Publishing
Publication date:	02/08/2018
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	184
File size:	4 MB

About the Author

Paul Gulino is Associate Professor at Chapman University's Dodge College of Film and Media Arts in Orange, California, USA.

Connie Shears is Associate Professor in the Psychology Department at Chapman University, USA.
Paul Gulino is Associate Professor of Screenwriting at Chapman University, USA. He is an award winning screenwriter, whose book, Screenwriting: The Sequence Approach has been adopted as a textbook at schools and universities around the globe. His latest book, The Science of Screenwriting: The Neuroscience Behind Storytelling Strategies, co-written with psychology professor Connie Shears, was published in 2018.
Connie Shears is Associate Professor in the Psychology Department at Chapman University, USA. She is also a practicing Cognitive Psychologist, focusing on language comprehension and the brain.

Table of Contents

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
INTRODUCTION; or, Should I Save The Cat and Send the Hero On His Journey?
1: The Science of information flow, or, I say Schema, You say Schemata: Top-Down vs. Bottom-Up
2: The Science of Connecting to the Main Character, or, Why Do I Worry That A Meth Dealer Might Get Caught?
3: Science of Contrast, or, why the big huge spaceship followed the little tiny space ship in the opening of Star Wars
4: The Science of Exposition, or, What's Wrong With An Information Dump?
5: Science of Cause and Effect, or, Did the Packers Really Lose Because I Didn't Wear My Cheesehead Hat?
6: The Science of Shared Attention, or If I Write A Screenplay In Which A Tree Falls in the Forest, And The Reader Falls Asleep Halfway Through, Have I Written A Screenplay?
7: The Science of Conflict, or, What's Wrong with Watching Two Hours of People Just Getting Along and Helping Each Other?
8: Science of Imagination: Temporal Lobes, How to Think Creatively, Stages of Mind, or, Your Dope-Fueled Imaginings
9: The Structure Question, or, How Many Acts Does It Take To Sell A Script?
10: Star Wars, or, How George Did It

Editorial Reviews

After reading this book, screenwriters should feel a sense of confidence ... Excellence [was achieved by] Gulino and Shears in generating new knowledge to the field of screenwriting ... A great introduction to anybody who wants to take a first step in understanding the science behind storytelling principles.
Alphaville: Journal of Film and Screen Media

The Science of Screenwriting explores the workings of the human brain when responding to stimuli and applies these insights to the ongoing reactions of an audience to a story. From this very accessible research a canny storyteller can learn to maximize the impact of a story before an audience actually experiences it. How great is that? Using such unexpectedly helpful and yet seemingly invisible knowledge will feel to the viewer like genuine alchemy.
David Howard, author of The Tools of Screenwriting and How to Build a Great Screenplay

Like all good books on writing, The Science of Screenwriting is not a formula for storytelling but, rather, a set of tools and ways of thinking about story that writers can use to help them with their creative task. Not only are the tools in the book extremely useful, but they all view story through the lens of brain science - in particular, how the presentation and sequencing of events evokes emotional responses from the audience. In other words, they see story not so much as an act of self-expression but rather as a craft devoted to its consumers, the people who read stories and go to the movies.
Ross Brown, Program Director of MFA in Writing & Contemporary Media, Antioch University, Santa Barbara, USA

From the Publisher