Adventures in the Screen Trade: A Personal View of Hollywood and Screenwriting

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Goldman has many funny stories to tell about Hollywood insiders and a lot of the silliness that is present in the industry. Although he himself is a bona fide insider, it's clear that he holds Hollywood at arms'-length and doesn't take it or himself too seriously, which allows him to be free and candid with his observations. And he replied after some thought, “They claim Eastwood? Eastwood’s the biggest star?” Finally, after another pause, he nodded. “They’re right.” PS-The title of this book is a PUN on the title: " Adventures in the Skin Trade, a collection of stories by Dylan Thomas.

I know that when I am writing I have to constantly search for those plot holes and then find ways to plug them and it’s really hard without outside help. In this book, Goldman tells us how his life and craft took him on a lifelong adventure in the creative world of novels and films (and much more!). And he tells it like it is (or was) with grande modesty, cutting humor, and cynical yet heartfelt sincerity -- and without reservations. By far my favorite part in the book is Part Two. Nothing is more entertaining than reading about Bill Goldman in the trenches, trying his best to ensure that a movie he's working on will actually get finished. More often than not he succeeds, but sometimes insurmountable obstacles make failure a certainty. WOW! Bill’s friends dump all over him - and they are absolutely right! I wish I had friends that honest!Adventures in the Screen Trade is a funny and honest look at Hollywood by one of its finest writers. Goldman's credits are legendary, two Oscars, for the screenplays in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid and All the President's Men, and many many more. Originally to be called The Big Campfire, the inspiration for the title came when Goldman was in the office of a Hollywood producer who was talking on the phone to one of his associates. Suddenly he cupped his hands over the receiver, snapped his fingers and said "Bill, Bill! Which lie did I tell?" This is a true insider's look at the screenwriting business (from the writer of All the President's Men, Marathon Man and – interestingly, the novel of Princess Bride) and interesting for anyone who writes or likes movies because - yes, there are fun gossipy asides about Hollywood (Robert Redford had ego!), but it's focus is on what makes a good story and how to write one that sells as a screenplay. They're not always the same thing. I loved Willie's book, especially the tender, funny, frank story Da Vinci, about a young boy, his barber father, and the stranger who comes into their lives and challenges the young boy's sense of loyalty and his own true identity.

The next part of the book has Goldman analyzing scenes from various screenplays he admires including There's Something About Mary, North by Northwest and Chinatown. The Dolphin," inspired by a New York Times article about an autistic 10-year-old boy surviving four days lost in an alligator- and snake-infested Florida swamp. [2] And the grand experiment of the last part of the book, where Goldman wrote a new script for the sake of publishing it in this book and having famous screenwriters critique it. The script, "The Big A", about a PI and his relationship with his ex-wife and his kids who want in on the family business, is pretty flat in its writing. Should we want to know how the sausage is made? We mostly shouldn't, but I nevertheless decided to read William Goldman’s 1983 memoir Adventures in the Screen Trade because it's so often mentioned on the Rewatchables podcast. Thankfully, I came away mostly unscathed because the book is almost as old as I am. As I write this, Littleton is still very much in people’s consciousness. The usual shit, oh oh oh, violent movies did it-no, rap music-no, TV-no, the Internet-no, blank did it (fill in your own medium). May take, by the by? If those amazingly crazed young men had gone into that school, with the same murderous intent, but armed with knives and clubs, the incident would have been death-free.”It get really interesting when the people he’s sent the script too start commenting on it. Right away they have great suggestion that make the film even better. Writing is finally about one thing: going into a room alone and doing it. Putting words on paper that have never been there in quite that way before. And although you are physically by yourself, the haunting Demon never leaves you, that Demon being the knowledge of your own terrible limitations, your hopeless inadequacy, the impossibility of ever getting it right. No matter how diamond-bright your ideas are dancing in your brain, on paper they are earthbound.” If the beginning of the book is like a casual conversation over a cup of coffee, the final third of the book is like he turned to you and said, ‘You know what? I like you. Drop by my office tomorrow, and I’ll show you how the work gets done.’ For reasons beyond me, Goldman brings up the tragic 1999 Columbine murders (which he annoyingly refers to as "Littleton"...the less-common reference to the town where the tragedy took place). Which Lie Did I Tell?: More Adventures in the Screen Trade is a work of non-fiction first published in 2000 by novelist and screenwriter William Goldman. It is the follow-up to his 1982 book Adventures in the Screen Trade.

Access-restricted-item true Addeddate 2022-01-22 12:07:26 Bookplateleaf 0002 Boxid IA40334723 Camera USB PTP Class Camera Collection_set printdisabled External-identifier Goldman is one of the best storytellers this country has produced, which may seem a bold claim to some, but it happens to be true. His most famous axiom, that “nobody knows anything” is one of those things that grow truer with time and experience. Goldman was referring to success in the movie business, the idea being that when something worked and was a hit, it just kind of worked and nobody really knew why, though everyone with a hand in the production would claim otherwise.Part One: Hollywood Realities—Goldman's scathing take on the stars, studio executives, directors, agents, and producers of Hollywood. Bottom line: Goldman knows his way around a screenplay, and this book is his behind-the-scenes look at his experience of the movie-making process. What impressed me so much about Earnie (as another commentator called him) and, now, William Goldman, too, is that they're such sweethearts. Such truly kind and caring (about the whole human race) people. Yes, they're funny, but they're not only funny because they like being funny but also because they care, and they're smart enough to know that one of the most effective ways to scare people into being nicer, is to hit them in the funny bone.

Goldman takes us to very entertaining book of memories about his experience in the "screen trade" highly recommended. This is a wonderful book about an incredible life in the real world of make belief. Highly recommended! The personal section terrified me. I hope to see Untimed make the leap to film, as it will make a great one, and it's made vividly clear in Adventures that even a major screenwriter like Goldman is but a candle in the wind before the studio gale. This is made all the more peculiar by the fact that the screenplay is the single most important ingredient that goes into a movie. Film is a highly collaborative and commercial medium, but you really can't make a good movie out of a bad script (unless you rewrite it to be a good script). You can however, make a lousy film out of a great script, or a hit film out of a bad one (Transformers anyone?).His tomes Adventures In The Screen Trade and Which Lie Did I Tell? remain at the top of the list in the screenwriting how-to space, and he popularized the so-simple-but-couldn't-be-more-true line that in Hollywood, "nobody knows anything." And Deep Throat — the person who guided Woodward and Bernstein through the Watergate years — never said, ‘Follow the money.’ Those iconic words were a line Goldman wrote for the character of Deep Throat in the film All the President’s Men. According to Goldman, the single most important fact in the movie industry is that "Nobody Knows Anything".