“Storytelling is the knack of swiftly seizing the imagination of the audience and never letting it go. Digressions and elaborations are permissible, but only when the audience is already hooked by the promise of some satisfaction to come. The tension to that hook may be slackened now and again, but the line must be snapped tight at any moment when the dramatist senses the danger of losing his catch.”
“Direction is a matter of emphasis. In telling a story, the task of the director is to emphasize what is significant by under-emphasizing what is less so. The actors’ performances, the camera’s coverage of the performances, and the film editor’s reconstruction of these during post-production: all are designed to make certain things more significant than others to the audience.”
My friend David Cole just started working at Quora, so I decided to join and see what the fuss is all about. I’m still figuring things out, but basically a place to ask and answer questions. It’s also hopefully a place to find great answers to questions that have already been asked. You can follow me on Quora if you are so inclined.
Here are some of the questions I’ve answered so far:
- How much should I pay for film rights to a book?
- What are the most anticipated movies for 2012?
- What are some movies that contain significant amounts of improvisation?
- Why do so many big budget Hollywood movies seem to be built on scripts that lack depth and character development? What are the implications?
Most Popular - January 2012
These are the five most popular recent posts on my blog for January 2012. Because I’ve drastically increased my posting frequency this year, for the sake of the occasional reader and new visitors I will make a digest post like this each month. You can see all digest posts at the most popular tag page.
- HR Giger’s LEGO Alien
A beautiful recreation of HR Giger’s Alien creature made with LEGO. I assume this was the most popular post because it’s a beautiful recreation of HR Giger’s Alien creature made with LEGO. - The Big Filmmaking Book List
My initial list of recommended books for film lovers and aspiring filmmakers. I’ll keep reading filmmaking books in 2012, and will blog about each book under the “film books” tag. - Quick RT - A Simple Rotten Tomatoes Interface
A short introduction to Quick RT, the simplified Rotten Tomatoes interface I developed. - The Bigger Pictures: What Happens When We Find The Line As Viewers?
A link to Drew McWeeny’s excellent article on why filmmakers should be more responsible when portraying rape in film, and my thoughts on the topic. - A Note From Ti West On Piracy
Links to Ti West’s letter regarding piracy, and my response regarding the impact of piracy on filmmaking and the types of films that get made.
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A letter between two producers of Monty Python and the Holy Grail regarding potential edits for rating.
(via Letters of Note)
- Source: lettersofnote.com
The Big Filmmaking Book List
I write this blog for a specific audience. It’s all written to be appealing to the “me” of ten years ago. By that, I mean the young eager person who loves film and is avidly trying to absorb as much knowledge and experience as possible. I hope I can help share some insight, and help people realize that everyone in this industry is still trying to learn how to make a good movie.
In that spirit, these are some books that I’ve read over the last decade or so that helped shape my approach to filmmaking and my understanding of the film business. I think these books all have considerable educational value to the aspiring or working filmmaking. The list is broken into categories, but I recommend cross-pollinating your knowledge. I find that breakthroughs in one filmmaking discipline often come from knowledge and experience acquired in another. The art, craft, and businesses of filmmaking are not orthogonal; they intertwine and it’s expected for an expert in any field to at least have a basic understanding of how their work impacts their colleagues.
This list is just a starting point. I will spend a lot of my free time in 2012 reading more books related to filmmaking. Check out the list of filmmaking books on my “to read” queue, and if you want to recommend a book please shoot me a note on Twitter. I will update this list if I find a book of exceptional value, otherwise you can follow my responses to other books by browsing the “film books” tag.
Some disclaimers:
- Obviously I have not read every book on filmmaking, and please don’t take the omission of books from this list as a sign that the book does not have value.
- That said, I have omitted some well known books intentionally because I think they don’t have any meaningful value. For example, most screenwriting books.
GENERAL FILMMAKING / PERSONAL ANECDOTES
Rebel Without a Crew by Robert Rodriguez
At the age of 23, Robert Rodriguez made El Mariachi for $7,000 (excluding post-production and delivery). This book contains his personal journal from that period, and is a fascinating read. It also includes many wonderful practical tips on guerilla filmmaking.
Getting Away With It
This is my favorite film-related book of all time, and one that I have revisited a few times over the years. At a low point in his career, before the huge success of the Ocean’s Eleven films and his studio system re-entry of Out of Sight, Soderbergh sat down for a series of interviews with legendary director Richard Lester. This book is a fascinating look at both artists, and you can see the conversations shape Soderbergh’s future path as a filmmaker.
DIRECTING
Making Movies
This is the single most useful book on directing that I have ever read. Lumet is obviously a legend, and this book contains priceless nuts-and-bolts wisdom. If you are going to read one book before shooting your first film, this is the book.
My First Movie edited by Stephen Lowenstein
If you are going to read two books before shooting your first film, this is the second book. This book contains interviews with twenty directors exclusively on the subject of shooting their first film. It covers the anxiety and stress of making your first film, and contains priceless tips that will help any aspiring filmmaker get over that hump. Note: there are two volumes in this series, and I think that the first volume is vastly superior to the second.
Film Directing Shot by Shot: Visualizing from Concept to Screen by Steve Katz
Another book that I read a long time ago, but I’m pretty sure helped to formulate by thoughts on visual storytelling. This book analyzes many of the options and reasons for planning composition and shot selection for a film. I haven’t revisited the book for well over a decade, so I’m not sure if my opinion would change today, but I remember liking it as a novice.
On Directing Film
It’s fascinating reading Mamet’s thoughts on directing. He has some opinions that I definitely disagree with, and I think his approach to directing has also limited the cinematic potential of his films. That said, there are some real gems of insight, and I recommend it mostly as a divisive book that can help foster your own original thought on how to approach the art and craft of filmmaking.
CINEMATOGRAPHY
Painting With Light
Supposedly the first book on cinematography written by a working director of photography (in fact one of the inventors of the film noir look), this somewhat dated book is a true classic that focuses on the use of light on film.
The Five C’s of Cinematography: Motion Picture Filming Techniques
To be honest, I read this book a very long time ago, but I remember it shaping my thoughts on cinematography and the fundamentals of visual temporal storytelling.
New Cinematographers
OK, so you’ve had enough of these old books with old fogies talking about classic cinematography. New Cinematographers contains interviews with six cutting edge current cinematographers: Lance Acord, Jean-Yves Escoffer, Darius Khondji, John Mathieson, Seamus McGarvey, and Harris Savides.
SCREENWRITING
Adventures in the Screen Trade
This memoir by William Goldman is a must read for any screenwriter. It covers the early part of his career in great detail, and even includes the script for Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. This is one of the essentials.
On Writing
This is not a book about screenwriting, but it is a book about writing. Many of the insights and thoughts that Stephen King shares in this book are wonderful. A lot of his suggestions will be totally misleading when applied to the craft of screenwriting, and when reading the book it’s important to keep in mind the differences between the two forms. However, on the whole I think this is a fascinating read on the process of a writer.
EDITING
In the Blink of an Eye by Walter Murch
If you only read one book on film editing, this is the book. Walter Murch is a master, and covers all the fundamentals of editing with wonderful expertise. This is a book to come back to again and again over the years, always gleaning new insights.
First Cut: Conversations with Film Editors
This book consists of interviews with 22 amazing film editors, and provides a huge number of insights into their creative and technical process. As I’m sure you can tell by now, I am very drawn to first-hand information from filmmakers, and this is a treasure trove of information on film editing.
The Conversations: Walter Murch and the Art of Editing Film
After reading “In the Blink of an Eye” get even more Walter Murch in this series of interviews by Michael Ondaatje. Walter reveals even more secrets and insights into his trade, making this a must read.
When The Shooting Stops… The Cutting Begins: A Film Editor’s Story by Ralph Rosenblum
There is a trend that my favorite film craft books are written by expert craftspeople, and Rosenblum is no exception having edited films like The Pawnbroker and Annie Hall (both of which I consider to contain some of the finest picture editing of all time). This book is a fascinating insight into his process, but most importantly I think it’s the best source for information on the art of cutting for comedy.
PRODUCING
So You Want to Be a Producer
Larry Turman is another legend. The man produced The Graduate, The Thing, and American History X and now runs the Peter Stark Producing Program at USC. There aren’t many good hands-on books on film producing, and Larry’s book is by far the best I’ve read.
THE BUSINESS OF FILMMAKING
Ovitz: The Inside Story of Hollywood’s Most Controversial Power Broker
At one point in time Michael Ovitz was the most powerful agent, and perhaps the most powerful person in Hollywood. This official biography was published in 1997 so you won’t hear about his stunning fall from power or any real dirt. What you will hear about is how he helped form CAA (Creative Artists Agency) into a powerhouse, and a brief understanding of how agents and agencies derive their power and influence. The book is so hugely one-sided about what a great person Ovitz is, it actually exists as its own proof of how much power Ovitz could once wield.
Storming the Magic Kingdom
Maybe I have a thing for old books on the film business. The book covers the period in the early 80s when Michael Eisner and his team took over Disney and reshaped it to be the current media powerhouse that it is. It’s a fascinating read, and has a lot of detailed information and analysis of how things work at the top of an entertainment company.
Hollywood A Go-Go: The True Story of The Cannon Film Empire by Andrew Yule
Published in 1987, this book is about the rise and collapse of the Golan-Globus film empire. It goes into some detail on their business model, and holds no punches as it’s clear that the author doesn’t like what he has to see. It’s one of the few books that actually has insight into the world of international independent film finance, production, and distribution. It gives you a sense of the types of people you will end up dealing with if you get into the film industry. Unfortunately this book is long out-of-print, and isn’t even listed on Amazon’s website. The above link should go to a search for the book on AbeBooks, but if the link is broken you’ll have to search for it yourself.
So that’s the list. Was there a book you were expecting to see that wasn’t listed? Perhaps it’s in my to-read pile. If you don’t see it there, please drop me a note on Twitter with a suggestion.
Note: After writing this in January 2012, I decided to read a lot of other filmmaking books, in the hopes that I can help recommend some other gems. You can find the full series of reviews at the “film books” tag, but here are links to other books that I consider to be essential.
- On Film-Making by Alexander Mackendrick [Added February 21, 2012]
One of my favorite online film writers is Drew McWeeny, and this recent post gives a good case for why you should follow him. He gives a persuasive argument as to why filmmakers should treat the subject of rape more responsibly in their films, and I wholeheartedly agree.
Part of the job of the filmmaker is to use the content of our films to control and shape the visceral reaction of the audience, and there is a temptation to use high-impact situations to get these reactions. The problem is that once you go into high-impact situations you are playing with the deepest fears (or even worse, the horrible personal memories) of your audience. That has to be done with complete responsibility.
Think of it this way… If your film is released to the public, the odds are good that someone who was raped will eventually watch your film. You are creating story material out of what is almost certainly the most devastating and damaging moment of their lives. You are probably making them relive or at least remember this moment to some degree while they’re sitting in your audience. Now I’m not saying that this means you can’t address rape in your films, but you better have a damn good reason for doing it.
69th Golden Globe Film Award Winners (By Profession)
Actors - 7 (one is a lifetime achievement award)
Directors - 4
Songwriters - 3 (team of three; one member is an actor/director/singer)
Producers - 2+ (unclear who is nominated, but at least two)
Screenwriters - 1 (also an actor/director)
Composers - 1
Documentarians - 0
Cinematographers - 0
Editors - 0
Production Designers - 0
Art Directors - 0
Costume Designers - 0
Make Up Artists - 0
VFX Supervisors - 0
Stunt Choreographers - 0
Sound Editors/Designers - 0
Sound Mixers - 0
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FilmCritHulk has published his amazing book-length Screenwriting 101 posts. For anyone interested in screenwriting or filmmaking, I highly recommend reading these essays*.
These are long posts, so I suggest using a system like Instapaper to read them.
It might also be a good idea to read his Preamble to Screenwriting 101.
* - Yes, I know the Hulk-voice can be a little annoying, but you get used to it after a few paragraphs. The content is worth it.
Michael Giachino, the composer, on working with director Brad Bird.
[Brad Bird] never directs musically. He always directs with storytelling. His whole way of communicating is through storytelling and it’s all about, “What is the character feeling at this moment?” If he feels at a certain point in a scene he needs a shift, he’s not going to say, “I just need the music to suddenly be tense,” he’s going to say, “Well here’s what happens. At this moment he notices that she is noticing something about him and that is making him nervous.”
So he’s giving you reasons why it needs to shift. He’s walking you through the reasons why those changes are happening and that’s a big difference. Not all directors are able to have the freedom to discuss it in that sense and from day one with Brad it’s always just been about he storytelling. We never really talk about the kind of music it should be outside of maybe…The times that I remember discussing music were maybe on THE INCREDIBLES (2004) where he would discuss, “a big brassy feel like the old Henry Mancini or a John Berry kind of a thing.” He might reference that just as an overall generalization but the specifics are never about music. It’s always about the emotion that’s needed and the reasons why those emotions are triggered at any given moment.
The whole interview is great, but this segment really jumped out to me. I think this is the best description of the ideal director/composer relationship and frankly the best relationship between the director and any department head. The director focuses on the character/pov/emotion/storytelling of the moment, and then communicates that information to the department heads who propose ways to attain/inform/enhance those goals with the tools of their art and craft. Things can quickly unravel if the director tries to communicate goals via technical choices rather than through emotion, point-of-view, character, and story.
Department heads aren’t just technicians taking dictation, they are artists and craftspeople who interpret character, emotion, and storytelling through the lens of their expertise.
Every time you purchase something you are making a statement. You are creating physical evidence that something has value. If something has a high value, then it becomes in high demand. So if you make a concerted effort to support lesser-known, interesting and esoteric things (Art?) then you are helping make those lesser-known things more popular. I’m sure we can all agree that there are incredible movies made every year that never get the attention they deserve - That’s not the movies’ fault. That is our collective fault for not being proactive enough to GO OUT OF OUR WAY to support them.
Filmmaker Ti West has written a heartfelt letter to the Internet, requesting that you do not pirate his new film THE INNKEEPERS. I hope letters like this become a more common occurrence. People should know that pirating independent films has a huge negative impact on people they want to support, and on the future of films that they might want to see.
Most independent distributors I know already think it’s pointless to release interesting independent films for young people. They think young people will only show up for blockbusters, and will pirate anything else. And this attitude is getting worse, because the evidence supports it. The audience for interesting youthful independent films is the same audience that heavily pirates online. Distributors and film financiers want to make films for a viable market, and you’re not a market if you don’t pay for content. Your taste literally stops mattering, and the content will be determined by people who still pay for content.
Do you want to live in a world where RESERVOIR DOGS or PULP FICTION wouldn’t be able to get made, because the distributors all assume its audience would just pirate it? Because that’s where we’re headed right now.
I’ve heard all the counterarguments, but in the end they’re just rationalizations. It comes down to this: people pirate because they want to watch whatever movie they want whenever they want for whatever price they want to pay. As a consumer, I understand that. Why wouldn’t you want that? That’s not something that the traditional distribution system gives them, but it is something that piracy offers them. I’m sure people would also love to have Apple give them a free iPhone every year, but Apple isn’t going to do that. Apple charges money because they are a business with a huge staff and expenses that go into actually designing, making, and distribution the iPhone. But you can’t torrent an iPhone, so people buy into Apple’s system.
Piracy can offer you a better short-term deal than the traditional distribution system because piracy doesn’t actually have to make movies, but in the long-term you are destroying the ability for interesting new films to be made.
Yes, there are a lot of annoying limitations on how films are released in the traditional distribution system. The films are released in different territories at different times and they are released on different media at different times. It’s confusing and it’s frustrating. But the whole purpose for this system is to try to recoup the cost of making movies, and hopefully even make a profit.
The types of films that can make money are the types of films that keep getting made. That is the simple math of the film industry. When someone loves a film they didn’t pay for, that’s a vote that doesn’t get counted. When someone hates a film they did pay for, that’s a vote for more movies like that. So if you pay to see TRANSFORMERS 3 in theaters and pirate THE INNKEEPERS, it’s a vote that you want more films like TRANSFORMERS 3 and don’t want films like THE INNKEEPERS.
I don’t point this out to bash TRANSFORMERS 3, but I know a lot of people who hated the film and saw it in the theater. I know some of these people also pirated smaller films that they liked. To the filmmaking and distribution system it doesn’t matter what you like, it matters what you pay for.
Make your voice count by watching films in the system. That might mean seeing films in the theater, or if you want to save money, it might mean watching them on Netflix or TV. These things all “count” and have a direct impact on what films are made in the future. Vote with your money, or your taste will be ignored.
Stanley Kubrick discovered the Steadicam from a letter sent by his producer. Makes me think I should be writing better letters.
February, 1976. Producer Jan Harlan writes to Stanley Kubrick and speaks passionately about a new piece of technology so impressive that it could lead to “shots which would not enter your mind otherwise.” That invention was the now-ubiquitous Steadicam, and Harlan was right to be so impressed. Indeed, Kubrick shared his enthusiasm, so much so that the Steadicam was used extensively and to great effect in his next movie, The Shining — most notably the smooth tracking shots in the hotel’s corridors — and in every film of his that followed.
Read the full letter at the wonderful Letters of Note website.
Devin Faraci covers Kim Jong-Il’s crazy contribution to world cinema.
Over the years Kim Jong-Il has worked on dozens of film, and he even wrote a book on the subject, called On The Art of Cinema.
But perhaps his greatest cinematic moment came with Pulgasari, a kaiju movie made in 1985. That the dictator of North Korea should ‘executive produce’ a monster movie that was a thinly veiled critique of capitalism is one thing, that he should kidnap a South Korean filmmaker to get it done is something else altogether.
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I had the pleasure of watching TO BE OR NOT TO BE at Edgar Wright’s recent film series at the New Beverly.
This film was a revelation for me. It’s the first Ernst Lubitsch film I’ve ever seen, and I was blown away by his nimble ability with tone and pace. It’s a delight to discover how well “the Lubitsch touch” works decades after his films were made.
Part of the joy of the experience was being able to watch a timeless comedy with a real audience. If you live near a revival theater like the New Beverly Cinema, I highly recommend that you take advantage of their offerings. Yes, we live in an age where it’s possible to see almost any classic film in the comfort of our own homes, but it’s a pale shadow of the experience of watching a great film on a big screen with an appreciative audience.
I say this from experience. When you make a film, you have a unique opportunity. You get to watch the same film hundreds of times in a variety of settings including huge theaters, office screening rooms, living rooms, edit suites, sound mixing stages, and yes, even on mobile devices. You get to see the film by yourself, with a small group, with a full theater, and if you’re lucky, in a crowd of thousands. And from all these experiences, I’ve learned one thing:
Every single film I’ve made plays significantly better with a large audience.
I assume the same is true of almost every film ever made. This is especially true of visceral reaction genres such as comedy, horror, and action.
When we watch a film with an audience we react to a film taking into account the emotional response of the people around us. This is why a laugh-track on television “works.” We are built to share emotional experience, and we consciously and unconsciously react to the emotions of people around us. Funny moments play funnier because we can share them. Sad moments player sadder because we can share them. Scary moments are scarier because our fears build on those of the audience around us.
Now I understand the attraction of watching films at home, and in all honesty I watch more films on DVD or Bluray than I do in theaters. But whenever I discover a great film at home for the first time, my first thought is that I wish I had seen it with an audience. The greatest emotional experience of home-watching still falls short of a shared laugh in a dark theater full of strangers.
So now I’m going to be on a hunt to watch more Lubitsch classics, and Edgar’s wonderful series has me excited to fill my own film viewing gaps. I just regret I’ll have to watch them at home, and not with the contagious enthusiasm of an appreciative audience.
Projection-mapping live-action footage onto a popup book for live performance. Delightful, perfectly creepy.
Incredibly cool. I love when people meld multiple crafts so well that they create an entirely new medium.
- Reblogged from johnholdun
- Source: johnholdun
