Syd Field’s Advice:

“Screenwriters should know the emotional journey of the character from beginning to end.” This is the character’s arc and must be clearly in the writer’s mind. “Action and character, those are the two things to follow during the unfolding of the script.” Then the writer can start “to build the story and character utilizing the emotional journey as one of the major leads into the physical journey. The structure holds the action and character, emotionally and physically together.” “I wanted writers to understand just how the character’s arc can frame the narrative through line of the story. This is critical to the screenwriting process.” Syd Field, Writers Store Q&A

http://www.writersstore.com/q-and-a-with-syd-field 

Syd has a screenwriting software program called “Final Draft” and a series of interview webcasts with screenwriters “Screenplay Series with Syd Field”.

Syd Field’s Credits (abbreviated from the Writers Store) include:

Syd Field has taught at USC (Master’s of Professional Writing Program), Harvard, Stanford, UC Berkeley, UCLA, the AFI among others.

Syd has taught workshops taught in: Buenos Aires, Brussels, Berlin, Frankfurt, London, Mexico City, Paris, Munich, Oslo, Paris, Rio di Janeiro, Rome, Vienna, Zurich, Johannesburg, Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver, Edmonton and London.

Syd has been the keynote speaker at major international film festivals including: Berlin, Rio de Janeiro, Olso, and Norway. He was on the International Film Jury for the Flanders International Film Festival. He is has also a special consultant to the Film Preservation Project for the Getty Centre.

Syd has been a creative screenwriting consultant to Alphonso Cuaron (Y Tu Mama Tambien), James L. Brooks (Broadcast News, As Good As It Gets), Luis Mandoki (When A Man Loves A Woman), Roland Joffe (The Killing Fields, The Mission) and Tony Kaye (American History X). Syd also chaired the Academic Liaison Committee athe the Writer’s Guild of America.

Some of Syd’s former students include: Anna Hamilton (Mask, Gorillas in the Mist), John Singleton (Boyz N the Hood, Poetic Justice), Randi Mayem Singer (Mrs. Doubtfire), Laura Esquival (Like Water For Chocolate), Michael Kane (The Color of Money), and Kevin Williamson (Scream, Scream 2 &3).

Syd wrote and produced the TV series Men in Crisis, Hollywood and the Stars, National Geographics and the Jacque Cousteau Specials (1963-1965).

http://www.writersstore.com/authors/syd-field

Moira Romano