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sw-american-case-studies

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Case studies of American screenwriting (美国电影剧作案例) — Mei Feng's readings of the Hollywood Western (value pairs, four oppositions), screwball comedy (strong heroine, buddy vs adversary two-hander), Billy Wilder (disguise, Lubitsch touch, meet-cute), Hitchcock and his writers, Adaptation, Mildred Pierce (eight drafts, woman's film + noir), Thelma & Louise ("but" method, mirror pair), Fargo (Coen method), Good Will Hunting (five-part structure), American Beauty (POV strategy, genre mix), Eternal Sunshine (1:5:1, image motifs); Walter's American Graffiti; the Hollywood masterclass films (Bourne, Guardians, Zootopia, Thor); Hoxter's Winter's Bone and Jojo Rabbit; Snyder's Miss Congeniality; Field's Chinatown. Use when you want a worked example of how a specific American film's script is built, when analysing a film for structure, character or theme, or when looking for a model to imitate for a Western, screwball, noir, buddy, coming-of-age, black comedy or non-linear romance.

When to use

• analysing a film for structure, character or theme
• looking for a model to imitate for a Western
• looking for a model to imitate for a screwball
• looking for a model to imitate for a noir
• looking for a model to imitate for a buddy
• looking for a model to imitate for a coming-of-age
• looking for a model to imitate for a black comedy
• looking for a model to imitate for a non-linear romance

When not to use

• principle-based screenwriting content
• non-American film case studies

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