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PART IV
Resources For Students & Teachers
WHEN WRITING A SCREENPLAY, especially if it is your first attempt, there is an overwhelming feeling of being alone. In fact, to the uninitiated, there might seem to be an overwhelming number of guides and programs to aid the screenwriter, and so this isolation seems not to be a relevant pressure. This article is designed to give advice as to what is helpful to the student writer and their teacher, and leaves aside what might be considered glamorous accessories.
The resources that are useful can be reasonably divided into basic categories-books, web sites and computer programs.
But this list does not include the very valuable concept of networking which is more difficult to quantify.
Networking is an essential part of a film writer's life, although for some students it may prove more difficult than for those who have left high school or tertiary education and are already working on the fringes of the industry as 'emerging' writers. In my professional experience there is no substitute for networking, though it is mercurial when trying to define it as an experience- person to person confidence is invisible but many of the business opportunities that can be gained from the film industry for screenwriters are simply about that-personal trust. For emerging writers, or students still completing their education, this might seem like a far-off concept, but professionally it is worth establishing as early as possible in a career.
Books
There are a large number of books associated with screenwriting and the business side of selling scripts. These two activities are often seen as the same, but they are not, and should be separated. The business side of screenplays assumes the script is 'perfect' and is what studios and producers are hungry for. In my experience this applies to every script, and the market is primitive in its greed and ruthless in its procedures. Therefore for the purposes of this article I have chosen to concentrate on those books that might be of help to the emerging writer or student developing their first screenplay.
General Books
Eleanor Coppola, Notes on the Making of Apocalypse Now
Limelight Editions, New York, 1979
A cautionary (and now famous) tale about the making of Apocalypse...