The five rules of screenwriting

April 7th, 2007

From ~~Rossio and Elliot~~ Stuart Beattie (Pirates of the Carribean):

No bookends
No bookends
Never kill the dog
Leave the kiss till the end
Feel free to disagree with all these rules

I wasn’t quite sure what bookends were, so I asked Metafilter and got lots of feedback.

UPDATE: MaryAn says, “A good example is The Green Mile. We start with Paul Edgecomb as an old man, his story is a flashback and end with him as an old man. The beginning as end as Paul as an old man are the bookends.”

Comments (7 comments)

What’s a “bookend”?

Lyon / April 7th, 2007, 2:05 pm / #

Would have been great if “No Bookends” were rules #1 and #5.

Johnny / April 7th, 2007, 7:14 pm / #

I know - I was thinking that too…

matt / April 7th, 2007, 7:23 pm / #

I’m still waiting for an answer…

Lyon / April 8th, 2007, 2:05 pm / #

haha - i thought you were kidding, lyon. check out the ask metafilter page where i asked the same question:

http://ask.metafilter.com/60030/In-screenwriting-terminology-what-are-bookends

matt / April 8th, 2007, 2:42 pm / #

Thanks. I have no issue with bookends if they’re done stylistically and tactfully.

Lyon / April 9th, 2007, 1:18 pm / #

Those are not Ted and Terry’s rules. That was Stuart Beattie. And, bookends are not always bad. A good example is The Green Mile. We start with Paul Edgecomb as an old man, his story is a flashback and end with him as an old man. The beginning as end as Paul as an old man are the bookends.

MaryAn / April 10th, 2007, 8:25 am / #