Scenario – Written by Syd Field

To all scenario students, writers, and readers in the UAE and everywhere else.

This book is a practical guide for scenario readers and writers. Professional screenwriters, as well as aspiring writers who lack experience, will find this book valuable for expanding their understanding and adding to their practical knowledge and information.

About the Author of the Book – Syd Field

The author of this book, Syd Field, was a screenwriting instructor at Sherwood Oaks Experimental College in the United States, a specialized institution where major actors such as Dustin Hoffman, Paul Newman, and Lucille Ball also lectured on acting. It was a school dedicated to film professionals, including directors, actors, cinematographers, and screenwriters. In addition, Syd Field served as head of the story department at Cinemobile, where screenplays were referred to him for examination and evaluation. This book is the result of many years of serious and dedicated work in reading and evaluating screenplays and can be considered a summary of his extensive experience reading screenplays submitted to major Hollywood film companies.

Syd Field is considered an authority on the art of screenwriting in Hollywood. After publishing his first book, “Screenplay: The Foundations of Screenwriting,” several years earlier, he devoted himself to writing this second work. It was warmly received by American film critics, and the American arts and film press gave it extensive critical attention upon its publication. The book is considered one of the finest works on the art of screenwriting published during that decade.

The Translator’s Introduction (Sami Mohammed) to the Screenwriting Book

Perhaps this book, which is now in the hands of the reader, is one of the most important translated books about screenwriting. Although Arabic libraries have witnessed many studies and articles dealing with screenwriting, some collected in books and others published in magazines and periodicals, the special value of this book is that it gives the reader a precise understanding of screenwriting as a craft, a form of writing, and an art. As its title suggests, it presents the reader with the essential foundations of the art of screenwriting, both theoretically and through practical application.

It is no secret that screenwriting, as an independent literary art, is one of the more difficult fields of writing. Those who have not acquired specific concepts and ideas about the screenwriting process itself, and who are not sufficiently familiar with the craft of filmmaking, cannot easily master it.

The screenplay is the language of cinema itself. Cinema cannot truly exist without written cinematic texts based on practical and tangible concepts of cinema as both an art and an industry.

Screenwriting is not an easy art. It has its components, foundations, rules, and principles. Therefore, the screenwriter is a creative professional in a specialized field. Through the screenplay, the writer presents a project capable of becoming a film. There is no good film without a good screenplay. This has been a golden rule of cinema from its birth to the present day.

While world cinema introduces us from time to time to prominent names in directing, acting, cinematography, editing, and art direction, it is more difficult for it to consistently introduce us to new names among screenwriters.

Does this mean that screenwriting is in a permanent crisis? Yes, this is what the reality of the film industry tells us. There are enormous financial incentives for screenwriters. In Hollywood studios, for example, a screenwriter’s fee for a single film can sometimes reach millions of dollars.

The reality is that there is always a shortage of good screenplays when we take Hollywood simply as a model of an advanced film industry. Nevertheless, this does not mean that screenwriting is an impossible art to master. Anyone who understands the rules, foundations, and requirements of screenwriting can write a successful screenplay, and this is the ultimate purpose of this book.

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