FOREWORD

I’ve been a writer for a long time. I’ve been writing for well over 15 years. During all that time, I’ve discovered that writing a screenplay is a funny thing. You never get it right. It’s like a math problem with a right answer, but you’ll never get that answer. You can write and rewrite five or twelve or twenty-seven drafts and your answer might get better. But the best you can ever do is get a good answer, never a perfect answer.

I think that’s because writing a screenplay is part art and part science. The art part of screenwriting comes naturally to me. The story. The characters. The action. But the science of screenwriting — the transitions, the parentheticals, the sluglines, all those tools the screenwriter uses to communicate the vision he has in his head — that part doesn’t come naturally to me. For many years I didn’t know how to use those elements. I knew what they were, of course, but I didn’t feel I had mastered them. Sometimes I would envision a scene in my head and wonder, “How do I explain this? How do I put this scene on the page so other people will see the same scene that I see?”

When I began writing the script for Training Day 2, I decided I was going to get it right, both the art and the science. I wanted to write a script that was easy to read. A script that conveyed the film I had in my head simply and clearly. I was in a store in Los Angeles and saw the cover of this book, The Hollywood Standard. I picked it up and looked inside. It looked friendly. It looked simple. When I started reading it, I discovered it contained answers to questions I’d been asking while I was writing. I used this book to guide me through the process of writing that film. The positive response I got when the script was turned in to the studio wasn’t solely a reflection of my talent for writing. It was a reflection of the fact that I’d written a script that read fluidly and in a format that people who read screenplays prefer. This book helped me communicate what I wanted to say.

A screenplay is like a map to a story. If you don’t do it right, it won’t tell the story you intended. Imagine writing a song. If you don’t put the notes on the musical chart the way professional musicians are used to seeing them, they’re not going to play the song you heard in your head and you’re not going to be happy when you hear it. If you give a script to a studio that isn’t written using standard Hollywood format, it may be a good idea, with good dialogue and action, but it doesn’t come across the way you intended.

Aspiring writers sometimes wonder why people don’t want to read their scripts. Sometimes it’s not their story. Sometimes the format distracts. Sometimes scripts don’t get passed up the chain because they’re hard to read. I suspect that the fine points of screenplay format don’t come naturally to anyone. They have to be learned. To write a screenplay, you need to learn the science. And this is the best, simplest, easiest to read book to teach you that science. It’s the one I recommend to my students at UCLA. It’s the one book I’ve found that addresses the questions I actually have. My copy is filled with sticky notes. I refer to it every day. I keep it beside my computer where I write. It’s like having an assistant.

Did I say I keep one copy? The truth is I keep two. The one beside my computer, and the one in my briefcase, so that no matter where I am I always have it with me.

But I’ve realized that I really need three copies. Because I keep giving away the one in my briefcase. I give it to people I like. I give it to creative, smart, aspiring screenwriters. I give it because learning the art and science of screenwriting takes time. It takes years. And this book helps. So I give away the copy from my briefcase, then I go out and buy myself another one.

There are a few things you happen upon in this business that you never let go of. I have two things like that. One is my copy of Final Draft. And the other is The Hollywood Standard. And that’s the truth.

Antwone Fisher