Going to the Movies

Acclaimed as “the guru of all screenwriters” (CNN), Syd Field (1935-2013) is still regarded by many Hollywood professionals to be the leading authority in the art and craft of screenwriting. The Hollywood Reporter called him “the most sought-after screenwriting teacher in the world.” Field's internationally acclaimed best-selling books "Screenplay: The Foundations of Screenwriting," "The Screenwriter’s Workbook," and "The Screenwriter’s Problem Solver" have established themselves as the “bibles” of the film industry. "Screenplay" and "The Screenwriter’s Workbook" are in their fortieth printing and are used in colleges and universities across the country. They have been translated and published in more than 25 languages. Field was also a special consultant to the Film Preservation Project for the famed Getty Center, was the first inductee into the prestigious Screenwriting Hall of Fame of the American Screenwriting Association and is a recipient of the distinguished Final Draft Hall of Fame Award. Field chaired the Academic Liaison Committee at The Writer’s Guild of America, west; was on the faculty at the USC Master’s of Professional Writing Program; taught at Harvard, Stanford, UC Berkeley, UCLA, the AFI and many other noted institutions. He was a Special Script Consultant to 20th-Century Fox, the Disney Studios, Universal and Tristar Pictures. He was a creative screenwriting consultant to the governments of Austria, Argentina, Brazil, Germany, Mexico, Norway, and collaborated with such noted filmmakers as Alfonso Cuaron (Gravity, 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). Field taught screenwriting workshops in Berlin, Bombay, Brussels, Buenos Aires, the Canadian Film Industry in Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver and Edmonton, in Frankfurt, Johannesburg, London, Madrid, Mexico City, Munich, Oslo, Paris, Rio de Janeiro, Rome, South Africa, Sydney, Warsaw, and by special invitation of the Ministries of Culture in Vienna and Zurich. He was the Keynote Speaker at the International Film Festivals in Berlin, Rio de Janeiro and Oslo, Norway, and the President of the International Film Jury at the Flanders International Film Festival, Ghent, Belgium. Some of Field’s former students include Golden Globe-nominated writer/director Judd Apatow (The Zen Diaries of Garry Shandling, Bridesmaids, Girls), Oscar-winning filmmaker Alfonso Cuaron (Gravity, Y Tu Mama Tambien), Oscar-nominated writer/producer Frank Darabont (Shawshank Redemption, The Green Mile), Oscar-nominated writer Anna Hamilton Phelan (Mask, Gorillas in the Mist), Oscar-nominated writer/director John Singleton (Snowfall, Boyz N the Hood), Randi Mayem Singer (Mrs. Doubtfire), Laura Esquivel (Like Water For Chocolate), and Kevin Williamson (The Vampire Diaries, Scream 1 – 4).