The Filmmaker's Handbook: A Comprehensive Guide for the Digital Age by
The authoritative guide to producing, directing, shooting, editing, and distributing your video or film. Widely acknowledged as the 'bible' of video and film production, and used in courses around the world, The Filmmaker's Handbook is now updated with the latest advances in HD and new digital formats. For students and teachers, professionals and novices, this indispensable handbook covers all aspects of movie making. Techniques for making dramatic features, documentaries, corporate, broadcast, and experimental videos and films Shooting with DSLRs, video, film, and digital cinema cameras Digital editing with the latest video editing systems In-depth coverage of lenses, lighting, sound recording, and mixing The business aspects of funding and producing your project Getting your movie shown in theaters, on TV, and on the Web
Consult your subject guide for recommended journals.
Consult your subject guide for recommended websites.
The Visual Story by
If you can't make it to one of Bruce Block's legendary visual storytelling seminars, then you need his book! Now in full color for the first time, this best-seller offers a clear view of the relationship between the story/script structure and the visual structure of a film, video, animated piece, or video game. You'll learn how to structure your visuals as carefully as a writer structures a story or a composer structures music. Understanding visual structure allows you to communicate moods and emotions, and most importantly, reveals the critical relationship between story structure and visual structure.
The Visual Story offers a clear view of the relationship between the story/script structure and the visual structure of a film, video, or multimedia work. An understanding of the visual components will serve as the guide to strengthening the overall story.
The Visual Story divides what is seen on screen into tangible sections: contrast and affinity, space, line and shape, tone, color, movement, and rhythm. The vocabulary as well as the insight is provided to purposefully control the given components to create the ultimate visual story. For example: know that a saturated yellow will always attract a viewer's eye first; decide to avoid abrupt editing by mastering continuum of movement; and benefit from the suggested list of films to study rhythmic control. The Visual Story shatters the wall between theory and practice, bringing these two aspects of the craft together in an essential connection for all those creating visual stories.
Bruce Block has the production credentials to write this definitive guide. His expertise is in demand, and he gives seminars at the American Film Institute, PIXAR Studios, Walt Disney Feature and Television Animation, Dreamworks Animation, Nickelodeon Animation Studios, Industrial Light & Magic and a variety of film schools in Europe.
The concepts in this book will benefit writers, directors, photographers, production designers, art directors, and editors who are always confronted by the same visual problems that have faced every picture maker in the past, present, and future.
Cinematography: Theory and Practice by
There's more to being a DP than holding a light meter! With this book as your guide, you are on your way to learning not only about the equipment and technology, but also about the concepts and thought processes that will enable you to shoot professionally, efficiently, and with artistic mastery. A leading book in the field, Cinematography has been translated into many languages and is a staple at the world's top film schools. Lavishly produced and illustrated, it covers the entire range of the profession. The book is not just a comprehensive guide to current professional practice; it goes beyond to explain the theory behind the practice, so you understand how the rules came about and when it's appropriate to break them. In addition, directors will benefit from the book's focus on the body of knowledge they should share with their Director of Photography.
Cinematographypresents the basics and beyond, employing clear explanations of standard practice together with substantial illustrations and diagrams to reveal the real world of film production.
Recognizing that professionals know when to break the rules and when to abide by them, this book discusses many examples of fresh ideas and experiments in cinematography. Covering the most up-to-date information on the film/digital interface, new formats, the latest cranes and camera support and other equipment, it also illustrates the classic tried and true methods.
The Technique of Film and Video Editing by
This updated sixth edition of The Technique of Film and Video Editing provides a detailed, precise look at the artistic and aesthetic principles and practices of editing for both picture and sound. Ken Dancyger puts into context the storytelling choices an editor will have to make against a background of theory, history, and practice across a range of genres, including action, comedy, drama, documentary and experimental forms, featuring analysis of dozens of classic and contemporary films. This new sixth edition includes new chapters on the influence of other media on the editing form, on the importance of surprise in editing, on the contributions of Robert Altman to the art of editing and on the experimental documentary. This edition also includes expanded coverage in technology, creative sound, point of view, and the long take. New case studies explore Whiplash (2014), Room (2015), Lincoln (2012), Tangerine (2015), The Beaches of Agnès (2008), American Sniper (2014), Son of Saul (2015), The Revenant (2015), and many more.
Film Directing: Shot by Shot - 25th Anniversary Edition by
Shot by Shot is the world's go-to directing book, now newly updated for a special 25th Anniversary edition! The first edition sold over 250,000 copies, making it one of the bestselling books on film di-recting of all time. Aspiring directors, cinematographers, editors, and producers, many of whom are now working professionals, learned the craft of visual storytelling from Shot by Shot, the most com-plete source for preplanning the look of a movie.The book contains over 800 photos and illustrations, and is by far the most comprehensive look at shot design in print, containing storyboards from movies such as Citizen Kane, Blade Runner, Dead-pool, and Moonrise Kingdom. Also introduced is the concept of A, I, and L patterns as a way to sim-plify the hundreds of staging choices facing a director in every scene.Shot by Shot uniquely blends story analysis with compositional strategies, citing examples then il-lustrated with the storyboards used for the actual films. Throughout the book, various visual ap-proaches to short scenes are shown, exposing the directing processes of our most celebrated au-teurs -- including a meticulous, lavishly illustrated analysis of Steven Spielberg's scene design for Empire of the Sun.
Master Shots by
Talking heads are boring! Master Shots, Vol. 2 changes all that and gives you 100 inspiring ways to shoot dialogue. Each technique is taken from a popular movie, showing how to set up your camera and move your actors to give each scene the drama, clarity, and energy it deserves. Be boring no more! Master Shots, Vol. 2 gives you everything you need to make your talking scenes look good, whatever your budget.
Lighting for Cinematography by
We can't shoot good pictures without good lighting, no matter how good the newest cameras are. Shooting under available light gives exposure, but lacks depth, contrast, contour, atmosphere and often separation. The story could be the greatest in the world, but if the lighting is poor viewers will assume it's amateurish and not take it seriously. Feature films and TV shows, commercials and industrial videos, reality TV and documentaries, even event and wedding videos tell stories. Good lighting can make them look real, while real lighting often makes them look fake. Lighting for Cinematography, the first volume in the new CineTech Guides to the Film Crafts series, is the indispensable guide for film and video lighting. Written by veteran gaffer and cinematographer David Landau, the book helps the reader create lighting that supports the emotional moment of the scene, contributes to the atmosphere of the story and augments an artistic style. Structured to mimic a 14 week semester, the chapters cover such things as lighting for movement, working with windows, night lighting, lighting the three plains of action and non-fiction lighting. Every chapter includes stills, lighting diagrams and key advice from professionals in the field, as well as lighting exercises to help the reader put into practice what was covered.
Thinking about Movies by
Thinking About Movies, Third Edition is a comprehensiveguide for students and movie lovers who want to learn how to watchmovies critically and analytically. Intended for the beginner, thetext offers the critical building blocks required to understandfilm as an important narrative and cultural form.
On Film-Making by
A masterclass in film-making from the acclaimed director of Whisky Galore and The Ladykillers
What's the Story? the Director Meets Their Screenplay by
A structured perspective on the crucial interface of Director and Screenplay, this book encompasses twenty-two seminal aspects of the approach to story and script that a Director needs to understand before embarking on all other facets of the Director's craft. Drawing on 17 years of teaching Filmmaking at a graduate level, on his prior career as a director, and in production at the BBC, Markham shows how the Filmmaker can apply rigorous analysis of the elements of dramatic narrative in a screenplay to their creative vision, whether of a short or feature, TV episode or season. Combining examination of such fundamental topics as Story, Genre, Premise, Tone, Structure, World and Setting, and Key Images with the introduction of less familiar concepts such as "Cultural, Social, and Moral Canvas", Narrative Point of View, and "The Journey of the Audience", What's The Story? The Director Meets Their Screenplayapplies the insights of each chapter to a case study -- the screenplay of the short film Contrapelo, nominated for the Jury Award at Tribeca in 2014. This book is an essential resource for any aspiring director who wants to understand exactly how to approach a screenplay in order to get the very best from it, and an invaluable resource for any filmmaker who wants to understand the important creative interplay between the director and screenplay in bringing a story to life.
The Filmmaker's Eye by
This is the only book that combines conceptual and practical instruction on creating polished and eloquent images for film and video with the technical know-how to achieve them. Loaded with hundreds of full-color examples, The Filmmaker's Eye is a focused, easy-to-reference guide that shows you how to become a strong visual storyteller through smart, effective choices for your shots. This book has struck a chord worldwide and is being translated into several languages After a short introduction to basic principles, a variety of shots are deconstructed in the following format: - Why It Works: an introduction to a particular type of shot - How It Works: callouts point out exactly how the shot works the way it does--the visual rules and technical aspects in action - Technical Considerations: the equipment and techniques needed to get the shot. - Breaking the Rules: examples where the "rules" are brilliant subverted
Sight, Sound, Motion by
Delivering the most comprehensive coverage available, Herb Zettl's SIGHT SOUND MOTION: APPLIED MEDIA AESTHETICS, 8e thoroughly describes the major aesthetic image elements -- light and color, space, time-motion, and sound -- as well as presents in-depth coverage on how they are creatively used in television and film. Real-world applications bring the text's detailed coverage of aesthetic theory to life. It equips you to think critically about media aesthetics and apply them to production situations. Now presented in full color, the Eighth Edition's engaging presentation is richly illustrated with strong visuals that often draw on traditional art forms, such as painting, sculpture, and dance.