NONFICTION - Jan. 4, 1987

THE ELEMENTS OF SCREENWRITING by Irwin R. Blacker (Macmillan: $14.50; 160 pp.). According to successful screenwriter William Goldman, the basic rule of the film business regarding what will sell is: “Nobody knows anything.” Given that, the best you can do for aspiring screenwriters is to show them how to present a professional-looking, professional-reading screenplay, and wish them luck.

The late Irwin Blacker’s book does just that. In this brief, intelligently laid out handbook, he runs through the essential forms and functions of the screenplay: conflict, structure, character, exposition and dialogue, along with the basic elements of format and style.

The book’s virtues are simple, common-sense rules and plenty of examples from popular movies. Its faults lie in its far-too-brief treatment of the larger questions of dramatic structure for theatrical films, while completely ignoring the somewhat different rules for TV movies or episodic shows.

But good advice is always of value, and, as anyone who has read first-time screenplays knows, it is something needed quite as much as luck in making that first sale. And this book provides plenty of it in a concise, easily accessible form.