Semiotics for Screenwriters - by Michael Tierno (Paperback)

About the Book

"You're trying to finish a screenplay, but there's a voice in your ear whispering, "You should know more about how cinema story works." Perhaps you've heard how many successful screenwriters deconstruct or "break down" films and study them. You'd like to try this method but ask yourself, "How do I start?" Semiotics for Screenwriters can help you with this daunting task by taking you on a unique journey through 3 classic films - It's a Wonderful Life, Lost in Translation, and Get Out - that shows you the hidden universal language of plot, character, and theme at work in them. This method will reveal the mechanics of cinema story, then show you how to apply this knowledge to your own screenwriting. Semiotics is a powerful system of analysis applied in many fields, including literature and psychology. In this book you'll learn to deploy this method to break down classic films then apply it to writing, developing and correcting your own screenplays."

Book Synopsis

You're trying to finish a screenplay, but there's a voice in your ear whispering, "You should know more about how cinema story works." Perhaps you've heard how many successful screenwriters deconstruct or "break down" films and study them. You'd like to try this method but ask yourself, "How do I start?" Semiotics for Screenwriters can help you with this daunting task by taking you on a unique journey through 3 classic films - It's a Wonderful Life, Lost in Translation, and Get Out - that shows you the hidden universal language of plot, character, and theme at work in them. This method will reveal the mechanics of cinema story, then show you how to apply this knowledge to your own screenwriting.

Semiotics is a powerful system of analysis applied in many fields, including literature and psychology. In this book you'll learn to deploy this method to break down classic films then apply it to writing, developing and correcting your own screenplays.

Review Quotes

"As Story Editor at the world's largest talent agency in a career that has spanned 35 years, I have read and analyzed over 60,000 screenplays. It's hard to imagine anyone could bring something new to the table, but Michael Tierno's Semiotics for Screenwriters revolutionizes screenplay analysis, creating a way for screenwriters to have a deeper understanding of their own writing process. Semiotics might sound scary, but Tierno's conversational style offers comprehensive examples of the system in action using popular films such as It's a Wonderful Life and Get Out. It's a college course for the price of a book." --Christopher Lockhart, Story Editor, William Morris Endeavor, USA

"Semiotics for Screenwriters is a left-of-center, intellectual, and flexible approach to constructing your screenplay. Unlike formulaic script advice books, it asks you to deeply consider how and why each moment works with others to build a great story. Most importantly, Tierno's method liberates you to 'play' with story elements as you move from inspiration, to outline, to script!" --Michael Berg, Co-writer of the Ice Age Movie Franchise

About the Author

Michael Tierno is Professor Emeritus of Film and Video Production at East Carolina University, USA. He is the author of Location and Postproduction Sound for Low Budget Filmmakers (2020) and Aristotle's Poetics for Screenwriters (2002). He is a narratologist, a former Miramax story analyst, and an award-winning writer and director of independent films, such as Through a Class Darkly (2016), Nocturne, the Girl Who Played Debussy (2010), and Auditions (1999).