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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
Writing The Fantasy Film, Heroes and Journeys, 10 May 2005
"Writing Fantasy" is, as far as I know, one of the few, if only, books dealing in just the writing of fantasy particularly for screen. One of the first things that interested me was Jak's suggestion that fantasy was a bigger field then I'd first thought, and that it fed into other genres. I'd never thought of some films as fantasy films, such as "It's a Wonderful Life." Jak also suggests that fantasy can be a potent element in even quite realistic films. The book prompts me to see other possibilities in the use of fantasy motifs. The chapter on what fantasy is expanded on this; and stimulated thoughts on the idea and applications by myself and other writers to whom I showed the book. I also showed the book to an Italian film director I knew and he got quite excited and told me he wanted his own copy. I'm interested in characterization and the chapter on that subject was quite thought provoking. Information was given without being too specific so it made those of us reading the book think a lot more about character types and their equivalents in film and literature. This, again, made us use our own imaginations. Many of us have found that when books give too much detail it tends to close down people's imagination. This book gives a good balance and because of this I've been doing more of my own research into how character types may be used or developed, even in non-fantasy films. I liked the chapter on families and its reminder of the importance in families in drama - a lot of conflict, and therefore potential stories can come out of this area and even if a group of people are not related they can become a sort of family. The exercises provided are quite stimulating as are the references that Jak gives. The book is written in a very engaging way with excitement and a spirit of wonder that makes it enjoyable to read - unlike some screenwriting books! Jak's presentation gets people engaged and gets people thinking. When that happens they are in a much better position to seek out their own examples from films and screenplays.
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(1 customer review)
