1. Student films come in three sizes; Too Long, Much Too Long, and Very Much Too Long.
2. PASSIVITY is the capital crime in drama.
3. Obscurity is seldom a virtue. If the point you want to make is of any significance, then there is no harm in making it clearly.
4. Improvisation is only valuable when it has its roots in the highly disciplined and often exhausting work that has gone before.
5. Aristotle’s phrase ‘unity of action’ refers to the sense of completeness that is a basic satisfaction in almost every dramatic work. So if ou think you have a great beginning of a story, but the end is weak, the real truth is that you don’t yet have the right beginning
6. Film dialogue is best when it has an immediate purpose and produces reactions in others.
7. ‘Protagonist’ (the name given to the leading character in your story) literally means the person who initiates the agon (struggle). But a figure who does not (or cannot) actually do things or who hasn’t got the gumption to struggle in a way that produces new situations and developments is apt – in dramatic terms – to be a dead weight on the narrative.

It’s a brilliant book. I enjoy revisiting it now that I’ve made two more films. The lessons have some more weight to them.