Going to the Movies

Syd Field may have a bad rep as a Hollywood script formula man, but I was encouraged by a source to pick up this book as it recounts his personal journey in Hollywood and cinematic movements of 60s and 70s. It was engrossing read how he developed into a famous script teacher we know him as a today before he found his true calling. He was a struggling script writer with a few ties to Hollywood, but working as a reader for a studio developed his insights and experience to judge a script based on the patterns he discovered. He exercised his formulas based on his discovery to pitch to his boss/execs, and later he began to teach/preach them at his screenplay classes. His work caught on as people found it to be helpful to write and develop scripts. Why wouldn't it when he was the gate that offered the passage to the execs' desktop?

The book offers interesting perspective on turbulent Hollywood transitional period and I found that current Hollywood's fascination with blockbuster movies were well-developed at that time before Jaws broke out as we know today. Current blockbuster movies are American myth-making combined with capitalistic bent of winner-take-all mentality. (Open big and wide! Many years of film production work is judged on single opening weekend!) Syd Field's analysis only helps to identify and develop those scripts into their "full" possibilities. I believe he became what he is today because he was one of few that developed the formal process of evaluating scripts to be pitched to execs and shared that mystical process with the rest of the world.

I'm not arrogant enough to simply dismiss his insights and analysis. Like many other people, I found his rules and formulas to be perceptive. If anything, they can be a guiding light to find a solution to a script/story problem. But like every creative endeavor, you cannot start with a formula to build your story. Your story starts within you, and his teachings help to refine it. This book is valuable enough to learn his story and his lessons, in order to become a better storyteller that he may write about someday.