Syd Field
Template:Short description Template:About Template:Infobox person Sydney Alvin Field (December 19, 1935Template:Spaced en dashNovember 17, 2013) was an American author who wrote several books on screenwriting, the first being Screenplay: The Foundations of Screenwriting (Dell Publishing, 1979). He led workshops and seminars about producing salable screenplays. Hollywood film producers use Field's ideas on structure to measure the potential of screenplays.<ref name="obit">Template:Cite news</ref>
In 2001, he was inducted into American Screenwriters Association's Screenwriting Hall of Fame.<ref name=":1">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
Early lifeEdit
Syd Field was born on December 19, 1935, in Hollywood, California.<ref name=":2">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> His uncle, Sol Halprin, was the head of the camera department at 20th Century Fox, and his neighbor was a talent agent who got him minor screen time in Gone with the Wind (1939) which was cut from the final film.<ref name=":2" /> He also played the trumpet in State of the Union (1948).<ref name=":2" />
He attended Hollywood High School where he met Frank Mazzola, the "gang consultant" on Rebel Without a Cause (1955), who encouraged him to pursue acting.<ref name=":2" /> His mother passed away during his senior year, which caused him to drift across the US for two years.<ref name=":2" />
He considered medical school at the behest of his mother to consider a "professional life",<ref name=":3">Template:Cite book</ref> but he eventually earned a bachelor's degree in English from University of California, Berkeley, where he studied under Jean Renoir and was cast in his play, Carola.<ref name=":2" /><ref name=":4">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Renoir recommended that Field attend UCLA Film School where Field collaborated on a short film with Jim Morrison and Ray Manzarek of The Doors.<ref name=":2" /><ref name=":3" />
CareerEdit
Field worked as a script reader in the 1970s.<ref name=":2" /> Field got his start in the shipping department of David L. Wolper Productions, where he later worked his way up to writer/researcher for the company's Biography series, hosted by reporter Mike Wallace, in the early 60's.<ref name=":1" /> By the release of the expanded edition for Screenplay 1994, he was credited as writer/producer at Wolper Productions.<ref name=":0">Template:Cite book</ref>
Field was also a freelance screenwriter and script consultant.<ref name=":1" /> He wrote nine screenplays, one of which was produced as the Argentinian film, Los Banditos.<ref name=":4" /> Field wrote and produced the television series Men in Crisis in 1964 and the Vegas nightlife documentary, Spree, in 1967; the latter of which he also narrated.<ref name=":1" /><ref name=":5">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
He wrote Hollywood and the Stars, National Geographic, and Jacques Cousteau Specials from 1963 −1965 for David L. Wolper Productions.Template:Citation needed
He was the head of story at Cinemobile System when founder Fouad Said decided to diversify the location services company into an entertainment studio.<ref name=":0" />
TeachingEdit
Field taught screenwriting for the Master of Professional Writing Program at University of Southern California until 2001.<ref name=":5" /><ref name=":4" /> In the mid-1970s, Field began teaching screenwriting at the Sherwood Oaks Experimental College (now Sherwood Oaks College) in Hollywood.<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":2" /> He also led screenwriting workshops across the world.<ref name=":2" /> Previous students include Judd Apatow, John Singleton, Anna Hamilton Phelan, and Alfonso Cuarón.<ref name=":2" />
The paradigmEdit
Field's most notable contribution is his paradigm "three-act structure". In this structure, a writer sets a film's plot within the first twenty to thirty minutes. Then the protagonist experiences a plot point, providing the protagonist with a goal. About half of a movie's running time focuses on the protagonist's struggle to achieve this goal. The second act is called the confrontation. Field also refers to the midpoint, a turning point around the middle of the screenplay (such as on or around page 60 of a 120-page screenplay). This turning point is often a devastating reversal of the protagonist's fortune. The third act depicts the protagonist's struggle to achieve (or not achieve) his or her goal, as well as the aftermath.
Personal lifeEdit
He met his second wife, Aviva, while leading a workshop in Vienna in the early 1990s.<ref name=":2" /> He had one daughter from a previous marriage.<ref name=":2" /> His brother is a doctor.<ref name=":2" />
Field died on November 17, 2013, aged 77, at his home in Beverly Hills, California.<ref name="obit" /><ref>SydField.com</ref>
BooksEdit
- Screenplay: The Foundations of Screenwriting (1979)
- The Screenwriter's Workbook (1984)
- Selling a Screenplay: The Screenwriter's Guide to Hollywood (1989)
- Four Screenplays: Studies in the American Screenplay (1994)
- The Screenwriter's Problem Solver: How To Recognize, Identify, and Define Screenwriting Problems (1998)
- Going to the Movies: A Personal Journey Through Four Decades of Modern Film (2001)
- The Definitive Guide to Screenwriting (2003)
ReferencesEdit
External linksEdit
| name/{{#if:{{#invoke:ustring|match|1=0276055|2=^nm}}
| Template:Trim/
| nm0276055/
}}
| {{#if: {{#property:P345}}
| name/Template:First word/
| find?q=%7B%7B%23if%3A+Syd+Field%0A++++++%7C+Syd+Field%0A++++++%7C+%5B%5B%3ATemplate%3APAGENAMEBASE%5D%5D%0A++++++%7D%7D&s=nm
}}
}}{{#if: 0276055 {{#property:P345}} | {{#switch:
| award | awards = awards Awards for | biography | bio = bio Biography for
}}}} {{#if: Syd Field
| Syd Field
| Template:PAGENAMEBASE
}}] at IMDb{{#if: 0276055{{#property:P345}}
| Template:EditAtWikidata
| Template:Main other
}}{{#switch:{{#invoke:string2|matchAny|^nm.........|^nm.......|nm|.........|source=0276055|plain=false}}
| 1 | 3 = Template:Main otherTemplate:Preview warning | 4 = Template:Main otherTemplate:Preview warning
}}{{#invoke:Check for unknown parameters|check|unknown=Template:Main other|preview=Page using Template:IMDb name with unknown parameter "_VALUE_"|showblankpositional=1| 1 | 2 | id | name | section }}