Newmarket Press: The Shooting Script series

I have promoted the Newmarket Press: Shooting Script series a few times before — here and here. Time to pimp them again.

Why? You know how DVDs have all those commentary tracks you can access to provide deeper insight into a movie? These books by Newmarket Press are similar. They not only include the shooting script, but also forewords, introductions, notes and conversations with people involved in the production of the movie.

For example, here are their most recently published Shooting Series books with the various add-ons:

Coriolanus, Screenplay by John Logan, based on the play “Coriolanus” by William Shakespeare, Foreward by Ralph Fiennes, Introduction and Scene Notes by John Logan

Hugo, Screenplay by John Logan, based on the book entitled “The Invention of Hugo Cabret” by Brian Selznick, Foreword by Brian Selznick, Introduction by John Logan

J. Edgar, Screenplay and notes by Dustin Lance Black, Foreword by Brian Grazer, Introduction by Robert Lorenz, Conversation with Clint Eastwood

It’s great we have access to a zillion movie screenplays as PDFs online. What I like about this Newmarket Press series:

* While I have been converted to reading most scripts in an electronic format, sometimes it’s nice to feel actual pages in your hand, the directness of that tactile experience.

* Any time anybody promotes screenwriters — in this case by spotlighting the script and including notes and observations from the writers — that’s a good thing in counterbalancing all of the focus that tends to go toward directors and actors.

* This series continues to promote the idea of screenplay as literature. Indeed I have talked about this before [see the first link above], how the screenplay format has and continues to evolve, away from merely a blueprint to make a movie, loaded down with camera shots and transitions, toward a more ‘literary style.’ This is great for two big reasons: (1) It makes screenplays more readable as stories. (2) It makes what we do reflect more of the artistic aspect of the craft, not just the technical.

Newmarket Press has numerous script titles in this series and they keep adding to it. To learn more, go here.