5 Reasons to Buy Our Screenwriting Book

1. It's inspirational and practical. It tells you what you ought to be looking for in your work, how to recognize when it isn't there, and how to self-diagnose what is missing and how and where to find it.

2. It takes writers seriously and is equally useful to beginning and experienced writers.

3. It contains a series of practical writing exercises, dubbed Writers Gym Exercises, that will exercise your brain like the muscle that it is.

4. It uses concrete examples from modern films to help make issues of character, plot, and structure relatable to today's viewing audience.

5. Pamela Gray. Sacha Gervasi. Scott Kosar. Felicia Henderson. The list goes on. Each of these writers has had a feature film script produced. Some have won or been nominated for major awards. All studied under Hal Ackerman at UCLA, in a class that was structured almost identically to the book.

SO

If you're good at self-direction, consider taking this master class in book format. It's significantly cheaper than an MFA, and the nice thing is, you can keep going back to it.

Little Bits O'News

Janice Lynde recently appeared in the season finale of Six Feet Under and on Soapdom.com... Hal Ackerman and Write Screenplays That Sell was mentioned in this week's L.A. Times Magazine review of screenwriting books... and our website is now equipped to take pre-orders of 10 Minutes to the Audition.

Hey All You Horror Fans

I'm with you. I'm a huge fan of horror films. This is why I'm excited for our October 17 event at Vidiots, when our author, UCLA screenwriting prof Hal Ackerman, talks to screenwriter Scott Kosar about the art of writing quality scripts.

In addition to The Machinist (which premiered at Sundance), Scott also wrote the scripts for:

• The Amityville Horror (coming out next year)
• The Crazies (a remake of a George Romero film)
• The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (last year's remake)

As a reminder, that's 5:00 p.m. on October 17. The event is FREE. For more info and directions check our press release below, or go to the Vidiots web page.

Visit Our Online Store!

For those of you who are new to our blog -- please be aware that we do have an online store where you can buy any of the books that interest you. I'll add a link to the sidebar to make sure people know about it. Someone just called me at the office to ask if Hal's book is available now in stores, and I have a sneaking suspicion he found out about it here, thanks to the publicity efforts I've been doing on behalf of the upcoming Vidiots event (see press release below).

NEWS

On October 14 we're holding a launch party at the Samuel French in Studio City. It's for the release of our newest book, "10 Minutes to the Audition." The event will run from 7-9 p.m. and should be fun. So far it's a private guest list, though we may be running a promotion that will allow a few aspiring actors to attend. Check this site for more news...

What the Next Batman Did Before Donning His Cape

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

UCLA Professor Hal Ackerman and Screenwriter Scott Kosar Talk Shop at the Video Store this October 17

LOS ANGELES, CA (PRWEB) September 7, 2004 - On October 17 at 5 p.m., UCLA Screenwriting instructor Hal Ackerman and former student Scott Kosar, writer of the upcoming THE MACHINIST, will chat about the craft and realities of screenwriting at Vidiots video store in Santa Monica.

Kosar's film script, directed by Brad Anderson (SESSION 9) and starring Christian Bale (BATMAN: YEAR ONE), premiered at Sundance this winter. It's a thriller about a machinist whose insomnia-induced exhaustion may have lead to the injury of a co-worker. When peers blame him for the accident, his resultant paranoia leads to a startling physical and mental deterioration as he loses the ability to tell reality from fantasy. The film has received advanced buzz in part because of the shocking amount of weight Bale lost for the role.

Ackerman, an eighteen-year member of the UCLA faculty, is a playwright and screenwriter who has optioned and sold material to several networks and major studios. Over the last decade, a dozen screenplays written in his class have been sold and six have become films, including the recent Spielberg/Hanks project THE TERMINAL.

His new book, “Write Screenplays That Sell: The Ackerman Way” (ISBN # 1-931290-52-0, Tallfellow Press), combines the basic rules of storytelling and structure with creative writing exercises designed to act as a “writers' gym.” It has been adopted as a new classic text by university film studies departments around the country and has been called “exceptional” by Scr(i)pt Magazine.

Vidiots, voted Best Video Store in L.A. by Los Angeles Magazine and called “one of America's best-kept secrets” by Entertainment Weekly, is located at 302 Pico Boulevard, Santa Monica, CA. For more information about this and other in-store events, call (310) 392-8508 or go to their web page, www.vidiotsvideo.com.

For additional information about the book or its author, contact Claudia Sloan at Tallfellow Press, (310) 203-3837.

Tallfellow Press is an eclectic publisher located in Los Angeles. Its predecessor, Price Stern Sloan, is best known for publishing the popular word game “Mad Libs,” the ever-true “Murphy's Law” and the melodious “Wee Sing” Series.

CONTACT INFORMATION:
Claudia Sloan
Tallfellow Press
(310) 203-3837
(310) 203-3893 fax
http://www.tallfellow.com

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