Syd Field facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Syd Field
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Field at the 2008 Screenwriting Expo
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| Born |
Sydney Alvin Field
December 19, 1935 |
| Died | November 17, 2013 (aged 77) Beverly Hills, California, United States
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| Occupation | Screenwriter |
| Years active | 1960–2013 |
| Spouse(s) | Aviva Field (1991–2013; his death) |
Sydney Alvin Field (December 19, 1935 – November 17, 2013) was an American author and teacher. He wrote many books about screenwriting, which is the art of writing scripts for movies. His first famous book was Screenplay: The Foundations of Screenwriting in 1979.
Syd Field also taught workshops and classes. He helped people learn how to write movie scripts that could be sold to film studios. Many Hollywood film producers used his ideas to see if a script was good enough to become a movie. In 2001, he was honored in the American Screenwriters Association's Hall of Fame.
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Early Life and Education
Syd Field was born in Hollywood, California, on December 19, 1935. He grew up around the movie business. His uncle worked at a big film studio called 20th Century Fox. A neighbor helped him get small roles in movies like Gone with the Wind (1939), though his scenes were later cut. He also played the trumpet in the movie State of the Union (1948).
He went to Hollywood High School. There, he met Frank Mazzola, who worked on the movie Rebel Without a Cause (1955). Frank encouraged Syd to try acting.
After high school, Syd studied English at the University of California, Berkeley. He even acted in a play directed by the famous filmmaker Jean Renoir. Renoir suggested Syd go to UCLA Film School. At UCLA, Syd worked on a short film with Jim Morrison and Ray Manzarek, who later formed the band The Doors.
Career in Film
In the 1970s, Syd Field started working as a "script reader." This meant he read movie scripts and gave his opinion on them. He began his career in the shipping department at David L. Wolper Productions. He worked his way up to become a writer and researcher for their Biography TV series.
Syd Field also wrote and produced his own projects. He wrote nine screenplays, and one of them, Los Banditos, was made into a film in Argentina. He also wrote and produced TV series like Men in Crisis and a documentary called Spree.
He wrote for popular shows like Hollywood and the Stars and National Geographic specials. He also worked on Jacques Cousteau Specials, which were about underwater adventures.
Teaching Screenwriting
Syd Field taught screenwriting for many years. He taught at the University of Southern California until 2001. In the mid-1970s, he started teaching at Sherwood Oaks Experimental College in Hollywood. He also traveled the world, leading screenwriting workshops.
Many of his former students became successful filmmakers. Some famous names include Judd Apatow, John Singleton, and Alfonso Cuarón.
The Three-Act Structure
Syd Field is best known for his idea called the "three-act structure." This is a way to organize a movie script. He believed almost all successful movies follow this pattern.
Here's how the three-act structure works:
- Act One: The Setup
* This is the beginning of the movie, usually the first 20 to 30 minutes. * It introduces the main character, called the protagonist, and their world. * Near the end of Act One, something big happens. Syd Field called this a plot point. This event gives the protagonist a clear goal.
- Act Two: The Confrontation
* This is the longest part of the movie, about half of the total running time. * The protagonist tries to reach their goal, but they face many challenges and problems. * Around the middle of Act Two, there's often another big turning point, called the midpoint. This can be a moment where everything seems to go wrong for the protagonist.
- Act Three: The Resolution
* This is the final part of the movie. * The protagonist makes a final effort to achieve their goal. * The story comes to an end, showing whether the protagonist succeeded or failed, and what happens next.
This structure helps writers create clear and engaging stories for movies.
Personal Life
Syd Field met his second wife, Aviva, while teaching a workshop in Vienna in the early 1990s. He had one daughter from an earlier marriage.
Syd Field passed away on November 17, 2013, at his home in Beverly Hills, California. He was 77 years old.
Books by Syd Field
Syd Field wrote several important books about screenwriting. These books helped many people learn how to write movie scripts.
- 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)
