Best £6 ever spent

I first heard a chapter of this on YouTube and was very keen to hear more. I’m only half way through (in one sitting) and I couldn’t wait to tell how good it is. There is some confusion because I was expecting to hear the book and I think the author would benefit from explaining what is going on. Is the book the same as this?
As it’s a seminar, there are some bits that don’t make sense without seeing the slides but it doesn’t take away how good this is.

The delivery is well paced and genuine. I am happy to listen to him speak for hours. I’ll probably buy the book anyway as I think I would refer to it often.

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Misleading/False Advertising. But still good.

The blurb advertised this as being based on the authors lectures. in reality they are the audio recordings of his lectures, silence gaps, stuttering and all, and a podcast episode thrown in for good measure at the end.

I'd have been OK with that if Mr Iglesias had been upfront about it, but as it stands...there were a few issues with the sound quality and there were a lot of instances where it was obvious that a visual aid was being used to emphasise a point. I may be wrong but I don't believe that any extra material is available to support the audio.

Which is a pity, because I found the lectures interesting, if a bit repetitive. A little bit of the polish and professionalism that he recommends would have raised the quality of this product to a level where it could have received a solid four star review.

Now, having said all of that, I must add that if you're new to writing in general, then you'll probably find the lectures content beneficial. Mr Iglesias approach isn't new but he does do a good job of explaining the nuances of emotional writing, with plenty of examples from contemporary screenplays to back up his argument.

I wouldn't put anyone off buying this product, because I did gain a lot from it. It's just a pity it wasn't done to a higher professional standard.

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1 person found this helpful

If only this was the book

Some writing advice will tell you to be as invisible as possible in the scenes you write. Iglesias would have done well to take this advice. But no. He was all 'My book' and 'When I told you before' and 'I wrote about this in Screen Writing Habits 101...the book I wrote.'

I bought this thinking it would be an audio book. it is not. It's audio for a series of lectures by Iglesias who's obviously using PowerPoint as he refers often to what we cannot see. There's a lot of repetition, too, as his audience changes from lecture to lecture. All in all, this is a bad idea.

The book does sound good, though.

I will listen before I buy from now on.

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Priceless for screenwriters

Everythin promised in the title and a lot more. Great for beginners and mid range practiced writers

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1 person found this helpful

Brilliant investment

My one regret is leaving this invaluable information sitting in my library for a year. If I’d listened to it earlier, I could have saved hours of writing time.

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That has it all - Amazing Karl Iglesias

I have read the top screen wring books. Found Karl via a podcast - amazing seminars!!!

A must have!

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1 person found this helpful

Better than reading the book.

This audiobook is a series of lectures the written book is based on. It’s a fantastic listen and you come away with a lot of practical knowledge of the craft without any gimmicks.

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Great listen - but misleading.

Its a great listen. However it is not the audio version of the book. Its an audio of some workshops.

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4 people found this helpful

Not really what it claims to do

The premise of the book is it that it's an instructional for creating emotional impact with your reader i.e. techniques to make them feel surprise, fear, joy etc.

What it is in reality is a collection of lectures where the author recommends important elements of a good screenplay along with some examples.

I'm sorry but that's not teaching technique, it's illustrating it.

Save your money and buy Jim Mercurio's Craft of Scenewriting instead, it's ten times better.

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Uninteresting.

This audiobook is not really a guide for better emotional writing. It’s more about a guy talking about how to achieve better screenwriting without giving you the exercises or information to practise the writing.

It was quite a struggle to listen to. It chops and changes sporadically and didn’t have any real sustenance to it. Quite the waste of a credit.

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