How To Write High Structure, High Concept Movies Paperback – August 28, 2000

When my agent said "You should turn your novel into a screenplay", I foolishly said "Sure!" You could see the dollar signs in my eyes, just like in the cartoons. But it was easier recommended than done. After spending hundreds of dollars on screenplay writing books (which are themselves a cottage industry), I finally decided I would do what Tony Robbins calls "expert modeling", that is, learn screenwriting from people who actually wrote and, more importantly SOLD screenplays.I mean, home many screenplays did Syd Field, Robert McKee, Michael Hauge, Vicki King and all the other 'guru' out there ever sell? They must be too busy counting money from their seminars to write screenplays. Well, that and coming up with artsy-fartsy theories that make your eyes gloss over 5 minutes into the lecture.I want my knowledge, fast and efficient, and that's where Rob Tobin's "How To Write High Structure, High Concept Movies" comes in. It's a lean 182 page paperback filled with great stuff. Loglines, structure, high concept, characters, conflict, every step in the process, every step in your story is explained here in great detail.So needless to say, the other screenwriting books, except for Trottier's "The Screenwriter's Bible", Bill Martell's "The Secrets of Action Screenwriting" and Rob's book were donated to the public library.- William Mize, Shamus Award nominee, creator of the Denton Ward and Monty Crocetti mystery series.

I looked him up on IMDB Pro. Make up your own mind about his filmography.

I've read a lot of books on screenwriting in my quest to learn the craft. This one is the best as far as I'm concerned. Rob's book, like Blake Snyder's, reeks of experience. Tobin ties together character and plot into the same process. Something most of the others fail to do. I would also agree with the last reviewer, that Martell's book is worth reading. I would add Karl Iglesias's, Jeff Kitchen's, and Hauge's books too. Rob told me he is writing an update, but this one is fine.

I love this book! It has been quite helpful to me with my screenwriting. I really enjoyed reading it and using it as a resource for future screenplays I write.

Despite its straightforward yet unfortunately gimmicky title, I found Rob Tobin's "How To Write High Structure, High Concept Movies" surprisingly helpful as a basic screenwriting guide.I read Tobin's book on a whim, after finishing Robert McKee's ubiquitous "Story" tome a second time and, ironically, feeling even more confused and hindered in my writing. I needed to see how the craft of screenwriting could be approached from a different angle--preferably one with more recent, prescient examples. Tobin's guide did the trick. Don't get me wrong; I found plenty of helpful insight within McKee's holy book. But compared to the dense, erudite, often stifling pages of "Story," Tobin's streamlined, simplified "How To" was refreshing and encouraging.One aspect that I found particularly enlightening: In the later chapters, Tobin uses his preferred method (admittedly adapted from several better-known methods developed by the likes of John Truby, et al) to spontaneously create several "structurally sound" log lines and even the rough outline of an original screenplay, from scratch. Whereas other screenwriting self-help books strain to arbitrarily wrap their particular formulas around a few classic films (usually the well-tread "Casablanca," which does not escape this book unmentioned), Tobin has the good sense to actually demonstrate his writing method, so that readers can learn by example, not just by analysis and "reverse engineering." It also instills confidence in the reader to know that Tobin is a working writer and script doctor, not just a theorist like most of the big-name screenwriting gurus.My one gripe with this book is its lackluster publishing. Full of typos, spelling and grammar errors, inconsistent use of pronouns, incorrect movie titles, actors' names used interchangeably with characters' names and so on, one would assume that this book was sent to press unproofed, unedited, and carelessly self-published. The blame lies with the publisher, Xlibris Corporation, I suppose. The most annoying of these oversights is the author's maddeningly inconsistent and blushingly oversensitive use of the feminine pronouns "she" and "her" in place of the traditional yet patriarchal "he" and "him" in reference to the "hero." I have no problem with Tobin's choice, in principle, but the author slings these pronouns around so carelessly that he ends up using them interchangeably, at one point even referring to Sylvester Stallone's famous character Rocky as "she." By the end of the book, the author has abandoned this circa-1990s "politically correct" feminization of pronouns altogether. Other readers may be able to easily overlook the poor editing, but I found these quirks and errors to be quite distracting, and can only hope that the 2007 reissue of Tobin's book (under the title " The Screenwriting Formula: Why It Works and How To Use It " from Writer's Digest Books) has been thoroughly revised and corrected.Complaints aside, I would recommend this book to the fledgling screenwriter still working to master traditional story structure. This guide largely strips away the mystery and weight of the story creation process.

If you have a high concept screenplay idea floating around in your head, this book will help get you started. Then the rest is up to you.