Resources

Here is a collection of print and online resources that are useful for writers and anyone else interested in learning more about the fact-based film. We’ll be regularly updating the list.

Online (free content):

  • Script Magazine: lots of useful info and links.
  • The Black List: platform for writers to list their projects – paid and free options – plus resources, paid feedback, access to mentoring, writing labs and the well-known annual Black List of unproduced scripts.
  • FilmFreeway: offers easy access to entering filmmaking and screenwriting contests (& film festivals).
  • Industrial Scripts: the site offers paid services but there’s a useful blog and other free resources.
  • Save the Cat!: website offering of the popular series of ‘how to’ books, including the popular beatsheet breakdowns.
  • Sight & Sound: selection of free content from the British Film Institute’s long-running subscription film publication.
  • Stage 32: LinkedIn-style free networking site for the entertainment industry (also offers paid script services).
  • The Fact-Based Screenplay’s Substack: shameless plug for our free Substack!

Paid instruction/resources:

Film industry news:

Writers’ Guilds:

Scripts:

Here, you’ll find some script sources for free downloadable screenplays for educational purposes (copyrighted material):

Screenwriting software:

  • Final Draft: not cheap but considered the gold standard in the industry (free trial is available).
  • Fade In: offers a good-value paid product but the scriptwriting demo program is free.
  • Arc Studio Pro: relative newcomer which offers paid and free options.
  • Trelby: old school option that gets the job done.

Screenwriting opportunities:

There are hundreds out there (of varying value and cost) but a few relevant competitions, labs and other opportunities for fact-based stories are:

Books (general):

In no particular order, here is a selection of well-known titles on screenwriting and real-life adaptations:

  • The Writer’s Journey: Mythic Structure for Writers by Christopher Vogler and Michele Montez (Michael Wiese Productions, 3rd edition, 2007)
  • Save The Cat! The Last Book on Screenwriting You’ll Ever Need by Blake Snyder (Michael Wiese Productions, 2005) – also see the companion titles, including Save the Cat! Goes to the Movies (same author)
  • Story: Substance, Structure, Style and the Principles of Screenwriting by Robert McKee (ReganBooks, 1997)
  • Screenplay: The Foundations of Screenwriting by Syd Field (Delta, revised edition, 2005)
  • The Anatomy of Story: 22 Steps to Becoming a Master Storyteller by John Truby (Faber & Faber, 2008)
  • Cut to the Chase edited by Linda Venis (Avery, 2013)
  • The Screenwriter Activist: Writing Social Issue Movies by Marilyn Beker (Routledge, 2012)
  • The Art of Adaptation: Turning Fact and Fiction into Film by Linda Seger (Holt Paperbacks, 1992)
  • How to Adapt Anything into a Screenplay by Richard Krevolin (Wiley, 2003)
  • A Theory of Adaptation by Linda Hutcheon (Routledge, 2012)

Books (specialised):

If you’re interested in exploring topics discussed on TFBS more fully, here are some authors and works you might like to track down:

Robert A. Rosenstone: An author and historian who a leading scholar in the field devoted to studying the relationship between history and the visual media.

Titles to check out are:

  • Visions of the Past: The Challenge of Film to Our Idea of History (Harvard, 1995)
  • History on Film / Film on History (Pearson, 2006, 2nd edition, 2012)
  • Revisioning History: Film and the Construction of a New Past (Princeton, 1995)
  • A Blackwell Companion to Historical Film (Wiley-Blackwell, 2013)

The last two are essay collections (co-)edited by Rosenstone. In particular, the Companion to Historical Film contains interesting essays on the Oliver Stone film Nixon (1995) and the treatment of the Iraq war in cinema.

Rosenstone’s biography of John Reed, Romantic Revolutionary (Knopf, 1975), was used as the basis for the Oscar-winning Reds (1981), on which he worked as historical consultant, giving him a unique perspective on transferring history on to the screen.

Other authors’ works:

Whose Lives Are They Anyway? The Biopic as Contemporary Film Genre by Dennis Bingham (Rutgers University Press, 2010): A useful resource for anyone interested in putting real life figures on screen, including detailed analyses and critiques of around 20 biopics.

Film Nation by Robert Burgoyne (University of Minnesota Press, 2010): Looks at American cinema, history and national identity.

Cinema and History: The Telling of Stories by Michael Chapra-Gant (Wallflower Press, 2008): Useful and readable guide to the relationship between cinema and history.

Writing History in Film by William Guynn (Routledge, 2006): A study of how film can function as a form of ‘historical interpretation and representation’.

Cinematic Uses of the Past by Marcia Landy (University of Minnesota Press, 2000): Looks at how British, American, Italian, and African films represent images of the past.

The Screenplay: Authorship, Theory and Criticism by Steven Price (Palgrave Macmillan, 2010): Explores various issues relating to the screenplay.

The Adaptation of History – Essays on Ways of Telling the Past edited by Laurence Raw and Define Ersin Tutan (McFarland & Company, 2013): Interesting collection of essays on the historical film.

Inside the Historical Film by Bruno Ramirez (McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2014): Another historian who has also written historical films, this looks at the process of researching and writing history for the screen and offers interviews with leading filmmakers.

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