This work is the first of its kind to single out individual short fiction films for comprehensive presentation and close study. Two Men and a Wardrobe (Roman Polanski, Poland, 1958, 15 min.), Coffee and Cigarettes (Jim Jarmusch, USA, 1986, 6 min.), Sunday (John Lawlor, Ireland, 1988, 8 min.), Cat's Cradle (Liz Hughes, Australia, 1991, 12 min.), Eating Out (Pal Sletaune, Norway, 1993, 7 min.), Come (Marianne Olsen Ulrichsen, Norway, 1995, 4.5 min.), Wind (Marcell Ivanyi, Hungary, 1996, 6 min.), Possum (Brad McGann, New Zealand, 1997, 14 min.), and The War Is Over (Nina Mimica, Italy, 1997, 7 min.) are the nine short fiction films studied. The films represent a broad range of storytelling approaches and a number of very different film cultures. Each film has a chapter of its own, including a shot-by-shot reproduction of the film with a still from every shot. In most cases, an interview with the director and an original screenplay and storyboard is also included. The book also describes a new conceptual model, derived from the films studied in the work, which can be used both for analyzing the ways in which a short fiction film tells its story and as a set of guidelines for student filmmakers writing their own screenplays. Instructors considering this book for use in a course may request an examination copy here.

"52 great authors, their best short fiction, and their insights on writing"--Cover.

Writing Short Films is one of the bestselling university text books on writing short film screenplays. This updated and revised edition includes several new chapters.

This new general introduction emphasises the importance of the short story to an understanding of modern fiction.In twenty succinct chapters, the study paints a complete portrait of the short story - its history, culture, aesthetics and economics. European innovators such as Chekhov, Flaubert and Kafka are compared to Irish, New Zealand and British practitioners such as Joyce, Mansfield and Carter as well as writers in the American tradition, from Hawthorne and Poe to Barthelme and Carver.Fresh attention is paid to experimental, postcolonial and popular fiction alongside developments in Anglo-American, Hispanic and European literature. Critical approaches to the short story are debated and reassessed, while discussion of the short story is related to contemporary critical theory. In what promises to be essential reading for students and academics, the study sets out to prove that the short story remains vital to the emerging culture of the twenty-first century.

Former private investigator and New York Times notable author David Corbett offers a unique and indispensable toolkit for creating characters that come vividly to life on the page and linger in memory. Corbett provides an inventive, inspiring, and vastly entertaining blueprint to all the elements of characterization-from initial inspiration to realization-with special insights into the power of secrets and contradictions, the embodiment of roles, managing the "tyranny of motive," and mastering crucial techniques required for memorable dialogue and unforgettable scenes. This is a how-to guide for both aspiring and accomplished writers that renders all other books of its kind obsolete.

From the New York Times bestselling author of NOS4A2 and Horns comes this e-short story—from Joe Hill’s award-winning collection 20th Century Ghosts. Imogene is young and beautiful. She kisses like a movie star and knows everything about every film ever made. She's also dead and waiting in the Rosebud Theater for Alec Sheldon one afternoon in 1945. . . . Arthur Roth is a lonely kid with big ideas and a gift for attracting abuse. It isn't easy to make friends when you're the only inflatable boy in town. . . . Francis is unhappy. Francis was human once, but that was then. Now he's an eight-foot-tall locust and everyone in Calliphora will tremble when they hear him sing. . . . John Finney is locked in a basement that's stained with the blood of half a dozen other murdered children. In the cellar with him is an antique telephone, long since disconnected, but which rings at night with calls from the dead. . . .

Over a half century, a small Indiana town hosts a circus troupe during the off-seasons in linked stories “as graceful as any acrobat’s high-wire act” (San Francisco Chronicle). A Story Prize Finalist From 1884 to 1939, the Great Porter Circus made the unlikely choice to winter in an Indiana town called Lima, a place that feels as classic as Sherwood Anderson's Winesburg, Ohio, and as wondrous as a first trip to the Big Top. In Lima, an elephant can change the course of a man's life—or the manner of his death. Jennie Dixianna entices men with her dazzling Spin of Death and keeps them in line with secrets locked in a cedar box. The lonely wife of the show’s manager has each room of her house painted like a sideshow banner, indulging her desperate passion for a young painter. And a former clown seeks consolation from his loveless marriage in his post-circus job at Clown Alley Cleaners. In this collection of linked stories spanning decades, Cathy Day follows the circus people into their everyday lives and brings the greatest show on earth to the page. “[An] exquisite story collection.” —The Washington Post “Often funny, always graceful, and rich with a mix of historical and imaginative detail.” —Tim O’Brien, author of The Things They Carried “Sublimely imaginative and affecting.” —The Boston Globe

An ... anthology suitable for both introduction to fiction and fiction writing courses, [this text] brings you ... short stories from classic to contemporary. To illustrate the evolution of this ... genre, the stories are arranged into four historical eras, with ... introductions to each era. From short story precursors, such as Aesop's fables and fairy tales, to ZZ Packer's twenty-first-century tales of ambiguity and alienation, these stories will guide readers toward [an] understanding of the genre. -Back cover.

Interviews with 21 prominent feature film editors highlight this long-overdue look at the role of film editors, the importance of their work, and the nature of their craft. Organized to provide historical continuity and to trace professional collaborations among the subjects, Selected Takes features editors whose credits include such diverse films as Ben Hur, The French Connection, The Godfather, and E.T. Each chapter includes a brief introduction to the artist, background information, a filmography of feature-length works, and personal recollections of specific films, producers, and directors, as well as helpful comments on editing techniques. A glossary of terms commonly used in film editing and pertinent references found in the interviews complement the work. Film students, scholars, and educators, as well as film industry professionals and moviegoers, will find Selected Takes both entertaining and instructive.

Presents a master-class turning a short story into an effective film ... analyses in painstaking detail two parallel scripts made out of the same story [Nikolai Shpikovsky's Banner (Znamia) as Leonid Leonov's Feast at Zhimunka (Pir v Zhirmunke)], and ... explains why one works better. [Also imagines at length adapting Ambrose Bierce's The Affair at Coulter's Notch. Describes excitation and compression of the plot through the use of imagery as found in: Honore Daumier's and Michelangelo's depiction of movement, and the works of writers Tolstoy, Edgar Lee Masters, Ford Madox Ford, and more]--