In The Tools of Screenwriting, David Howard and Edward Mabley
illuminate the essential elements of cinematic storytelling, and reveal
the central principles that all good screenplays share. The authors
address questions of dramatic structure, plot, dialogue, character
development, setting, imagery, and other crucial topics as they apply to
the special art of filmmaking.
Howard and Mabley also demonstrate how, on a practical level, the tools
of screenwriting work in sixteen notable films, including Citizen
Cane, E.T., One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, Rashomon, The
Godfather, North by Northwest, Chinatown, and sex, lies, and
videotape.