Semiotics for Screenwriters

Break Down Your Favorite Movies Then Write Your Own

Michael Tierno

• Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic
• Year: 2024
• Print ISBN: 9781501390999
• eBook ISBN: 9781501390982
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Media & Performing Arts
• Subtopic: Literary Criticism Theory

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.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half-Title Page
• Dedication
• Title Page
• Contents
• Acknowledgments
• Introduction—The Hollywood Screenwriter’s Breakdown System with a Semiotics Spin
• 1 The Semiotics for Screenwriters System
• 2 Isotopies Part I
• 3 Isotopies Part II—The Semiotic Square
• 4 The Narrative Level
• 5 The Deep Level of Meaning
• 6 The Breakdown of Three Specimen Movies
• 7 Demonstration of Using the Tools to Develop a Feature Screenplay—Through the Night
• 8 Using Final Draft Beat Board and Outline Editor with the Semiotics Tools
• Closing Thoughts
• Bibliography
• Glossary of Terms
• Index
• Copyright