Writing for Visual Media, 3rd ed. by Anthony Friedmann (review)

Anthony Friedmann has written an engaging and accessible introduction to the art and practice of visual media writing. Topics include developing a creative concept and treatment; developing a script; describing sight and sound; creating ads and public service announcements; working with interactive design; and writing corporate communications, documentary and nonfiction narratives, and long-form, television, and interactive scripts. In addition, the author addresses contracts and copyright issues and offers practical advice to beginning writers.

Friedmann begins part 1 by addressing the challenge that so many writers face: how to think and write visually. He differentiates visual media writing from writing for print and coins the term "meta-writing" to describe the "pre-writing activity of the creative imagination" (xxiv).

In discussing the differences between print and moving images, Friedmann offers a brief history of visual media and sets scriptwriting in a historical context. For example, in a section devoted to defining a strategy, he buttresses his argument with both ancient wisdom—Aristotle's Rhetoric—and an understanding of the limits to the attention span of contemporary audiences (32-33).

Friedmann effectively applies an antismoking public service announcement (PSA) to the various stages of script development, including background research, interviews, location research, concept, pitching, treatment, first draft, narration and dialogue, revision, final draft, and shooting script. In describing sight and sound, Friedmann does an excellent job of introducing the vocabulary of scriptwriting and includes a number of user-friendly charts of terms for camera angles, camera movements, transitions, and sound directions.

Part 2, "Solving Communication Problems with Visual Media," covers copywriting, PSA writing, corporate communications, and documentary and nonfiction narratives. Although the section on PSAs is less than clear in delineating the contrast between copywriting and script writing, Friedmann does a good job of conveying the tried-and-true elements used to capture an audience's attention: humor, shock, suspense, and sexuality, among others. Writing for audio and radio is also given adequate treatment.

In covering corporate communications, Friedmann uses historical examples effectively, noting that "[t]he 'modern age' of mass communication began in 1924, when sound was linked to pictures for the first talkie. . . . for a classic public relations use—a 1924 informational tour of Western Electric's Hawthorne plant" (106). He then discusses how to choose an appropriate medium and perform formative and functional evaluations.

Friedmann provides a detailed history of documentary visual media and a discussion of what is truth in documentary film, including seminal examples such as Robert Flaherty's Nanook of the North and Leni Reifenstahl's Triumph of the Will. His treatment of various types of documentaries, interviewing styles, and commentaries is cursory but sufficient.

Part 3, "Entertaining with Visual Media," examines dramatic structure and form and writing techniques for film and television. To illustrate dramatic structure and form, Friedmann discusses three-act structure, flashback, genres (which could be defined more thoroughly), script development, treatment, and screenplay. His use of "Little Red Riding Hood" to explain dramatic structure and Star Wars to illustrate through lines is effective.

Character, dialogue and action, plot, comedy, drama, adaptation, length, point of view, and setting are discussed in detail in chapter 9. Here, again, Friedmann makes good use of classic and contemporary film examples to illustrate the techniques for writing long-form scripts, including It's a Wonderful Life and Bartleby, for which scripts are included in online materials.

On the subject of writing for television, Friedmann covers series, sitcoms, and soaps, discussing premises, three-act structure, use of commercial breaks, TV dialogue, pacing, beat sheet (or scene outline), series bible, audiences, and script formats. His coverage of television comedy conventions is good, but the script examples for running and visual gags, double takes, one-liners, and laugh lines are uncharacteristically weak.

In Part 4, "Writing for Interactive and Mobile Media," Friedmann defines interactive media and compares linear and nonlinear media. He describes how formats for interactive media are constructed, noting that no industry standard has been established. Friedmann's discussion about the Internet and definitions of HTML...