{"title":"J J Murphy","description":"","products":[{"product_id":"me-and-you-and-memento-and-fargo-book-jj-murphy-9780826428059","title":"Me and You and Memento and Fargo","description":"Within the last twenty-five years, an enormous burst of creative production has emerged from American \"independent\" filmmakers. From \"Stranger than Paradise\" (1984) and \"Slacker\" (1991) to Gus Van Sant's \"Elephant\" (2003) and Miranda July's \"Me and You and Everyone We Know\" (2005), indie cinema has become part of mainstream American culture. But what makes these films independent? Is it simply a matter of budget and production values? Or are there aesthetic qualities which set them apart from ordinary Hollywood entertainment? \"Me and You and Memento and Fargo\" argues that the American independent feature film from the 1980s to the present has developed a distinct approach to filmmaking, centering on new and different conceptions of cinematic storytelling. The film script is the heart of the creative originality to be found in the independent movement. Even directors noted for idiosyncratic visual style or the handling of performers typically originate their material and write their own scripts. By studying the principles underlying the independent screenplay, we gain a direct sense of the originality of this new trend in American cinema. There are many screenwriting manuals and guidebooks on the market, but they pose many problems for the aspiring independent filmmaker. First, they all rely on formulas believed to generate salable Hollywood films. For instance, most writers, including Syd Field (\"Screenplay\"), Richard Walter (\"Screenwriting\"), and Linda Seger (\"Making a Good Script Great\"), present a \"three-act paradigm\" as gospel and proceed to lay down very stringent rules for characterization, plotting, the timing of climaxes and so on. Some writers, notably Field and Seger, even go so far as to demand that the screenwriter present a dramatic turning point within specific pages. Even advice books that appear to be more open about such rules (e.g. Robert McKee's \"Story\") turn out to be just as inflexible in their advice. But the screenwriting manuals tend to ignore the fact that Hollywood companies do not want only the formula; they also want novelty (which is hard to teach as a set of rules). The independent filmmaker is usually aware of the rules but treats them as flexible guidelines, to be used as necessary but also to be rejected or reworked if it will be of creative benefit. The screenplay manuals have a second fault. On the rare occasions when they deal with independent films, they tend not to appreciate the genuine innovations that the films introduce. This is partly due to the fact that the manuals' authors are unaware of the historical tradition of independent cinema. Thus, McKee treats \"Stranger than Paradise\" as an \"anti-plot\" film. This category, however, cannot adequately analyse what the film does positively; it does not lack a plot, but rather has a different kind of plot. Ironically, it has a three-act structure, but the structure becomes geographical rather than plotted as a dramatic arc. Moreover, \"Stranger than Paradise\" derives its approach to storytelling from 1970s minimalist cinema, punk subculture, and the Beat tradition of \"Shadows\" and \"Pull My Daisy\". The fullest understanding of the independent film's innovations comes from an awareness of the historical tradition it continues. \"Me and You and Memento and Fargo\" offers a positive account of the various options open to the independent screenwriter. The book shows the broad range of creative principles that have been used in the narrative construction of independent films. One consequence of this is to show the uniqueness of this phenomenon by positioning it as a hybrid form that exists somewhere between the classical Hollywood tradition and \"art cinema.\"","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49539775136017,"sku":"GOR002157502","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50034685509905,"sku":"CIN0826428053G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":51416533860625,"sku":"CIN0826428053VG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":52334505165073,"sku":"NLS9780826428059","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ WELL_READ \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":52853492384017,"sku":"GOR014641149","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0826428053.jpg?v=1751986434"},{"product_id":"you-might-as-well-die-book-jj-murphy-9780451235329","title":"You Might As Well Die","description":"When second-rate illustrator Ernie MacGuffin's artistic works triple in value following his apparent suicide off the Brooklyn Bridge, Dorothy Parker smells something fishy. Enlisting the help of magician and skeptic Harry Houdini, she goes to a s ance held by MacGuffin's mistress, where Ernie's ghostly voice seems hauntingly real...","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49562834895121,"sku":"GOR006570475","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ WELL_READ \/ SBYB","offer_id":49876388446481,"sku":"CIN0451235320A","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50482422153489,"sku":"CIN0451235320G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":52410995704081,"sku":"CIN0451235320VG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0451235320.jpg?v=1750814259"},{"product_id":"murder-your-darlings-book-jj-murphy-9780451231994","title":"Murder Your Darlings","description":"One morning legendary wit Dorothy Parker discovers someone under Manhattan's famed Algonquin Round Table. A little early for a passed out drunk, isn't it? But he's not dead drunk, just dead. When a charming writer from Mississippi named Billy Faulkner becomes a suspect in the murder, Dorothy decides to dabble in a little detective work, enlisting her literary cohorts. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e It's up to the Algonquins to outwit the true culprit-preferably before cocktail hour-and before the clever killer turns the tables on them.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49620058374417,"sku":"GOR005740717","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":49797132779793,"sku":"CIN0451231996G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50797602439441,"sku":"CIN0451231996VG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":51002484326673,"sku":"NIN9780451231994","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ WELL_READ \/ SBYB","offer_id":51327580766481,"sku":"CIN0451231996A","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0451231996.jpg?v=1751135320"},{"product_id":"florida-project-book-j-j-murphy-9781477324042","title":"The Florida Project","description":"In Sean Baker's award-winning 2017 film The Florida Project, a young girl, her single mother, and her friends live in rundown motels near Disney World, the children's summer fun contrasting with the grim conditions around them. In this book, J. J. Murphy delves deep into the movie's development and filming while also examining it within the wider context of Baker's career.    Using production documents, different versions of the screenplay, and interviews with principal members of the production team, Murphy traces the evolution of The Florida Project from initial idea through its various stages of production. He highlights Baker's unconventional strategies in making a film about a marginalized subculture, including alternative scripting, guerrilla-like filmmaking, improvisation, and the unorthodox casting of local and first-time actors. Murphy also explores how Baker's impromptu style sometimes rankled crew members and caused a major crisis on set, revealing the difficulties indie filmmakers can face when working with professional crews on larger films. A lively analysis of this critically acclaimed movie, its director, and its production, The Florida Project also betters our understanding of contemporary independent cinema as a whole.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ GARDNERS","offer_id":49759091851537,"sku":"NGR9781477324042","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":52830990237969,"sku":"CIN1477324046G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/1477324046.jpg?v=1763478744"},{"product_id":"rewriting-indie-cinema-book-j-j-murphy-9780231191975","title":"Rewriting Indie Cinema","description":"Most films rely on a script developed in pre-production. Yet beginning in the 1950s and continuing through the recent mumblecore movement, key independent filmmakers have broken with the traditional screenplay. Instead, they have turned to new approaches to scripting that allow for more complex characterization and shift the emphasis from the page to performance.  In Rewriting Indie Cinema, J. J. Murphy explores these alternative forms of scripting and how they have shaped American film from the 1950s to the present. He traces a strain of indie cinema that used improvisation and psychodrama, a therapeutic form of improvised acting based on a performer’s own life experiences. Murphy begins in the 1950s and 1960s with John Cassavetes, Shirley Clarke, Barbara Loden, Andy Warhol, Norman Mailer, William Greaves, and other independent directors who sought to create a new type of narrative cinema. In the twenty-first century, filmmakers such as Gus Van Sant, the Safdie brothers, Joe Swanberg, and Sean Baker developed similar strategies, sometimes benefitting from the freedom of digital technology. In reading key films and analyzing their techniques, Rewriting Indie Cinema demonstrates how divergence from the script has blurred the divide between fiction and nonfiction. Showing the ways in which filmmakers have striven to capture the subtleties of everyday behavior, Murphy provides a new history of American indie filmmaking and how it challenges Hollywood industrial practices.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50956729450769,"sku":"CIN0231191979G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0231191979.jpg?v=1750973611"},{"product_id":"murder-your-darlings-book-j-j-murphy-9781611733709","title":"Murder Your Darlings","description":"One morning legendary wit Dorothy Parker discovers someone under Manhattan's famed Algonquin Round Table. A little early for a passed out drunk, isn't it? But he's not dead drunk, just dead. 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