Review of The Hollywood Standard by Christopher Riley (2009)

Patrick Charsky

10/23/2019

The Hollywood Standard by Christopher Riley is an essential text about formatting a screenplay. Filled with useful information about a multitude of aspects about screenwriting it fills a void in the literature about screenwriting format and style. Christoper Riley was a proofreader for Warner Bros. script department for fourteen years. He is also a screenwriter. With his years of experience he has written an essential text about screenplay format and style.

The book is rather short. It is divided up into sections about a topic of screenplay format and style. Each chapter is organized around a concept of screenwriting. There is a major chapter about shot headings followed by other chapters concerning dialogue, direction, transitions and a few others. They go into detail about what to do in each particular situation. The book is detailed and addresses any situation a screenwriter might come across while writing a screenplay.

The book is an essential guide for screenwriters and TV writers. Every chapter has useful information about how to write for the TV and Movie industries. I read the book all the way through one time. But, I know that I will return to the book as a reference tool any time I have a question when I write a screenplay or teleplay for TV. The book is like any other reference text about how to use language, editing, and placement of words in a work of literature.

The best chapter is the one about shot headings. The text addresses when to use a shot heading, what to include in the shot heading, and what to avoid. In this chapter relevant examples are used to show the right way and the wrong way to use shot headings. It is the same throughout the book. The rule is explained, then the example of the right way to do it and the wrong way is supplied. The book is excellent in it’s presentation, use, and explanation of how to write screenplays.

The major drawback of the book is that is gets very specialized in its later chapters. The earlier chapters I felt addressed a lot of concerns of immediate concern for screenwriters. Some of the later chapters concern what to do when the screenplay is in production or when there needs to be revisions added to the screenplay or teleplay. This is a stage that writers of spec scripts probably don’t need to concern themselves with. At a later stage or in TV production I’m sure these chapters would be useful.

This book is essential for anyone trying to write a screenplay or teleplay. It is also very useful for editing scripts to make sure they are presentable to readers or other buyers of screenplays. I would recommend it to anyone who is writing a screenplay or who needs to edit a screenplay into polished form for submission to outside readers. An excellent resource for screenwriters or television writers.