My advice, after ten years of teaching screenwriting, is to just write out
your script as a visual story BEFORE you consult any screenplay books.
Unfortunately, so many students and beginning screenwriters fixate on the
format of a script  (things like layout and "plot points" and "triggering
events", etc., that they write mechanical stories. See lots of good movies
and absorb them and take notes. Then consult a book.
        To be honest, most books are pretty much the same. The writers all
seem to have read each other. Syd Field used to be cheap and
easy--therefore a best- seller. Any of the following would serve:
        Lucey: Story Sense
        Lew Hunter: Screenwriting 434
        Swain: Film Scriptwriting
        Howard/Mabley: The Tools of Screenwriting
        Armer: Writing the Screenplay
        Dancyger/Rush: Alternative Screenwriting
Also, check the internet for websites.
 
Gene Walz
University of Manitoba
 
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