The story of a group of thieves who specialize in invading the mind through one’s dreams, Inception explores the Nolan’s signature psychological themes of memory, paranoia, and self-doubt as the protagonist, Dom Cobb, is pitted against a hostile subconscious spurred on by personal demons and regrets from the past. In a conversational preface, Nolan discusses with brother and frequent collaborator, Jonah, the genesis of the idea for the film and the decade-long process it took to write it. Detailing the results of Nolan’s efforts, Inception: The Shooting Script includes key storyboard sequences, full-color concept art, and an appendix on the workings of the mysterious Pasiv Device that Cobb and his fellow extractors use to initiate the dream-share. An exclusive exploration of a highly original concept, Inception: The Shooting Script is the record of a writer-director at the height of his craft.

    Blade Runner, Back to the Future, Jurassic Park and E.T: The Extraterrestrial to name but a few.The first ever book to cover Struzan’s iconic poster artwork in depth, with the final artwork for each piece accompanied by background and anecdotes from an exclusive interview with the artist. With an introduction to Struzan’s philosophies and techniques, this stunning hardcover will include photos, sketches and reference material, plus closeups and a brief history of each poster featured, from Star Wars to The Goonies.

    As Ebert noted in the introduction to the first collection of those pieces, “They are not the greatest films of all time, because all lists of great movies are a foolish attempt to codify works which must stand alone. But it’s fair to say: If you want to take a tour of the landmarks of the first century of cinema, start here.Enter The Great Movies III, Ebert’s third collection of essays on the crème de la crème of the silver screen, each one a model of critical appreciation and a blend of love and analysis that will send readers back to the films with a fresh set of eyes and renewed enthusiasm—or maybe even lead to a first-time viewing. From The Godfather: Part II to Groundhog Day, from The Last Picture Show to Last Tango in Paris, the hundred pieces gathered here display a welcome balance between the familiar and the esoteric, spanning Hollywood blockbusters and hidden gems, independent works and foreign language films alike. Each essay draws on Ebert’s vast knowledge of the cinema, its fascinating history, and its breadth of techniques, introducing newcomers to some of the most exceptional movies ever made, while revealing new insights to connoisseurs as well.Named the most powerful pundit in America by Forbes magazine, and a winner of the Pulitzer Prize, Roger Ebert is inarguably the most prominent and influential authority on the cinema today. The Great Movies III is sure to please his many fans and further enhance his reputation as America’s most respected—and trusted—film critic.

    A leading Hollywood screenwriting instructor shows anyone who's ever wanted to write a screenplay how to do it 10 minutes at a time.

    This book has struck a chord worldwide and is being translated into several languagesAfter 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

    Plus hundreds of stills, posters, covers, candid shots and images, many in full color! The most comprehensive and insane book ever made about punk and/or movies!!!

    Weta Workshop's artists created the special make-up effects and physical creature elements, the alien weapons and special props, armor, custom vehicles and developed the graphic language that defines the film's distinctive alien aesthetic.This book illuminates the creative design process, detailing two years of interaction between Weta's artists and District 9 director Neill Blomkamp, including hundreds of images of concept art from both the designers and director, museum quality photographs of the props and sculptures, and insights in the form of quotes directly from the artists. Many of the images included have never been made public before, including some that were cut or barely glimpsed in the finished film.Written by designer Daniel Falconer, with a foreword by Neill Blomkamp and introduction by Richard Taylor, The Art of District 9 offers an unrivalled glimpse behind the scenes at the creative processes that shaped all of Weta Workshop's contributions to this amazing film.

    It premiered 37 years ago, in 1973, and, after 31 series it finally came to an end last year – even though all its original protagonists – Compo, Foggy, even Nora Batty – are now dead. Remarkably, for a series of such longevity and international appeal, it is all about elderly people, has little action or plot, and is set and filmed in and around the small Yorkshire town of Holmfirth. Now, Andrew Vine, the deputy editor of Yorkshire’s daily newspaper, has written the definitive history of this television phenomenon. It covers the show’s inauspicious beginnings, with low ratings, its endless reinvention as participants like Bill Owen, Michael Bates, Brian Wilde and Kathy Staff retired or died, the appearance of a string of guest stars from John Cleese and Norman Wisdom to Thora Hird and Russ Abbott (both of whom soon found themselves fixtures in the cast), and the ingenious plot contrivances as the protagonists became too old and frail to attempt any of the slapstick stunts with runaway prams – indeed any outdoor action. Holmfirth is now a year-round tourist attraction, and endless repeats and new DVD box sets will ensure a readership for this book for years to come.

    During its Golden Age, the studio employed the likes of Garbo, Astaire, and Gable, and produced innumerable iconic pieces of cinema such as The Wizard of Oz, Singin’ in the Rain, and Ben-Hur.It is estimated that a fifth of all films made in the United States prior to the 1970s were shot at MGM studios, meaning that the gigantic property was responsible for hundreds of iconic sets and stages, often utilizing and transforming minimal spaces and previously used props, to create some of the most recognizable and identifiable landscapes of modern movie culture.All of this happened behind closed doors, the backlot shut off from the public in a veil of secrecy and movie magic. M-G-M: Hollywood’s Greatest Backlot highlights this fascinating film treasure by recounting the history, popularity, and success of the MGM company through a tour of its physical property.Featuring the candid, exclusive voices and photographs from the people who worked there, and including hundreds of rare and unpublished photographs (including many from the archives of Warner Bros.), readers are launched aboard a fun and entertaining virtual tour of Hollywood’s most famous and mysterious motion picture studio.

    Opening to international critical acclaim (including nine Academy Award® nominations) and unprecedented box-office success, Avatar quickly, within a few short weeks, became the highest-grossing film on record. An epic for our times, this next-generation spectacle blends action, adventure, and romance with a timely message of ecological responsibility while using, and inventing, cutting-edge technologies to transport audiences to a lush, fully realized alien world. No less epic, however, was the groundbreaking and exhaustive process of bringing the film to life. Early brainstorming sessions in Malibu jumpstarted a vast production effort that ultimately spanned several years and multiple continents. The Making of Avatar reveals never-before-seen illustrations and photographs, with a text that charts the technical challenges, innovations, and discoveries that made the film's breakthroughs possible. Working in tandem, artists and technicians created new tools and processes to realize the film's vision, including those for performance capture, which allows the nuances of the actors' performances to be translated faithfully to their digital characters; a virtual camera system, which empowered Cameron to direct within a virtual world with unprecedented range, generate real-time composites, and blend live action and special effects more naturally and intuitively than ever before; and stereoscopic photography, which produced the most immersive 3-D experience to date. Here is the behind-the-scenes celebration of this monumental undertaking, the official record of how Cameron, the actors, and the crew made a film, and made history.

    The book covers techniques and solutions all VFX artists, producers, and supervisors need to know, from preproduction, to digital character creation and compositing of both live-action and CG elements.In-depth lessons on stereoscopic moviemaking, color management and digital intermediates are included, as well as chapters on interactive games and full animation authored by artists from EA and Dreamworks respectively. Written by 88 top leading visual effects practitioners and covering everything about visual effects from pre-production, production, and post-production.Simply a must-have book for anyone working in or wanting to work in the VFX industry. A Note on the Kindle Version: There are several images throughout chapters 3, 5, 6, and 7 that are not visible in the Kindle edition of this book due to rights restrictions.Special ThanksThe completion of this book required the efforts of many hardworking, talented and dedicated people in order to help it become a reality. Accordingly, the VES and Focal Press would like to offer very special thanks to all of our team Captains and Co-Captains:Chapter 1: Michael Fink, Captain Jacquelyn Ford Morie, Co-CaptainChapter 2: Scott Squires, Captain Mat Beck, Co-CaptainChapter 3: Bill TaylorChapter 4: John Root, Captain Demian Gordon, Co-CaptainChapter 5: Rob Engle, Captain Lenny Lipton, Co-CaptainChapter 6: Marshall Krasser, CaptainChapter 7: Kevin Rafferty, CaptainChapter 8: Richard Taylor, Captain Habib Zargarpour, Co-CaptainChapter 9: Stephan V. Bugaj, Captain Lyndon Barrois, Co-CaptainChapter 10: Dan Novy, Captain Stephan V. Bugaj, Co-CaptainAdditionally, we would like to thank Ron Brinkmann and Lenny Lipton for the exhaustive efforts in compiling the Glossary

    This illustrated book provides instant and in-depth access to the film noir genre.

    An eagerly anticipated successor to the author's internationally acclaimed book Scriptwriting Updated, it covers classic to avant-garde scripts, from The African Queen and Tootsie to 21 Grams, Pulp Fiction, Memento, and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. Whether you want to write features, shorts, adaptations, genre films, ensemble films, blockbusters, or art house movies, this book is your road map, it takes you all the way from choosing a brilliant idea to plotting, writing, and rewriting a successful script. Featuring a range of insider survival tips on creativity under pressure, time-effective writing, and rising to the challenge of international competitions, The 21st-Century Screenplay is essential reading for newcomers and veterans alike.

    Cynical and stylish, bloody and baroque, Euro-Westerns replaced straight-shooting sheriffs and courageous cowboys with amoral adventurers, whose murderous methods would shock the heroes of Hollywood Westerns. These films became box-office sensations around the world, and their influence can still be felt today. Any Gun Can Play puts the phenomenon into perspective, exploring the films' wider reaches, their recurrent themes, characters, quirks and motifs. It examines Euro-Westerns in relation to their American ancestors and the mechanics of the Italian popular film industry, and spotlights the unsung actors, directors and other artists who subverted the 'code' of the Western and dragged it into the modern age. Based on years of research backed up by interviews with many of the genre's leading lights, including actors Franco Nero, Giuliano Gemma and Gianni Garko, writer Sergio Donati, and directors Sergio Sollima and Giuliano Carnimeo, Any Gun Can Play will satisfy both connoisseurs and the curious. Complete with a foreword by Euro-Western legend Franco Nero, this stunningly illustrated reference guide takes aim at the lingering notion that the genre has little to offer beyond the 'Dollars' films and a fistful of others, exposing the full, vibrant history of the Euro-Western. In much the same way that FAB Press's best-seller Book of the Dead has become the definitive text on the zombie movie, Any Gun Can Play is positioned to become the go-to source for everything any fan of Euro-Westerns could ever want to know.

    For the first time in 25 years, the cast and crew of all five films in this franchise reveal the stories behind the movies, offering their own opinions and details about life on the sets of some of the most fraught productions in cinema history. Supported by dozens of cast and crew members, The Complete History of the Return of the Living Dead features hundreds of previously unreleased behind-the-scenes photographs and exclusive artwork. This eye-catching, comprehensive book is the ultimate celebration of The Return of the Living Dead franchise and all those who contributed to its creation.

    Akira Kurosawa is arguably the greatest of all Japanese film directors and is respected around the world as one of the masters of the art form. This is the first illustrated book to pay tribute to his unmistakable style—with more than two hundred images, many never before published. The filmmaker is also famous for his attention to detail, and fans will delight in seeing annotated script pages, sketches, and storyboards that reveal the meticulous craft behind Kurosawa’s genius. Peter Cowie examines how Kurosawa took the samurai genre to its apogee in such films as Yojimbo and Seven Samurai; his literary influences in such films as Throne of Blood [Macbeth] and Ran [King Lear]; and in his take on our relationship to the modern world in such films as High and Low and Dreams. "Akira Kurosawa is one of the greatest directors ever to work in the cinema. His films meant an enormous amount to me when I was starting my own career, and it’s fitting that in the year of his centennial this book by Peter Cowie should pay tribute to him."—Francis Ford Coppola

    Follow the film's complete artistic evolution, from initial concept through armor design and on to the final rendering seen on screen

    DeMille lived a life as epic as any of his cinematic masterpieces. As a child DeMille learned the Bible from his father, a theology student and playwright who introduced Cecil and his older brother, William, to the theater. Tutored by impresario David Belasco, DeMille discovered how audiences responded to showmanship: sets, lights, costumes, etc. He took this knowledge with him to Los Angeles in 1913, where he became one of the movie pioneers, in partnership with Jesse Lasky and Lasky’s brother-in-law Samuel Goldfish (later Goldwyn). Working out of a barn on streets fragrant with orange blossom and pepper trees, the Lasky company turned out a string of successful silents, most of them directed by DeMille, who became one of the biggest names of the silent era. With films such as The Squaw Man, Brewster’s Millions, Joan the Woman, and Don’t Change Your Husband, he was the creative backbone of what would become Paramount Studios. In 1923 he filmed his first version of The Ten Commandments and later a second biblical epic, King of Kings, both enormous box-office successes. Although his reputation rests largely on the biblical epics he made, DeMille’s personal life was no morality tale. He remained married to his wife, Constance, for more than fifty years, but for most of the marriage he had three mistresses simultaneously, all of whom worked for him. He showed great loyalty to a small group of actors who knew his style, but he also discovered some major stars, among them Gloria Swanson, Claudette Colbert, and later, Charlton Heston. DeMille was one of the few silent-era directors who made a completely successful transition to sound. In 1952 he won the Academy Award for Best Picture with The Greatest Show on Earth. When he remade The Ten Commandments in 1956, it was an even bigger hit than the silent version. He could act, too: in Billy Wilder’s classic film Sunset Boulevard, DeMille memorably played himself. In the 1930s and 1940s DeMille became a household name thanks to the Lux Radio Theater, which he hosted. But after falling out with a union, he gave up the program, and his politics shifted to the right as he championed loyalty oaths and Sen. Joseph McCarthy’s anticommunist witch hunts. As Scott Eyman brilliantly demonstrates in this superbly researched biography, which draws on a massive cache of DeMille family papers not available to previous biographers, DeMille was much more than his clichéd image. A gifted director who worked in many genres; a devoted family man and loyal friend with a highly unconventional personal life; a pioneering filmmaker: DeMille comes alive in these pages, a legend whose spectacular career defined an era.

    This craft is an art form that often takes years to perfect and many trial-and-error attempts at getting it right. Here to help both the newcomer and professional who needs to brush up on their skills is the first book to cover a wide variety of techniques that can be used by colorists, no matter what system they're using. Whether you're using a video editing package with a color correction tool built in (Final Cut Pro, Premiere Pro) of a dedicated application (Apple Color, Assimilate Scratch, Baselight, or DaVinci), this book covers it all. From the most basic methods for evaluating and correcting an overall image, to the most advanced targeted corrections and creative stylizations typically employed, you'll find this highly organized book a solid reference that's easy to navigate. The accompanying DVD contains footage as well as cross-platform exercises and project files for readers to experiment with. After reading the techniques, readers will learn to apply the methods that all of the color correction applications use, how to problem-solve and trouble-shoot, how to maximize the effectiveness of each tool that's available, and they will discover how to creatively combine techniques and tools to accomplish the types of stylizations that colorists are often called upon to create. Praise for Color Correction Handbook: "From Alexis Van Hurkman comes an up-to-date, most welcome, encyclopedic guide for colorists: Color CorrectionHandbook (Professional Techniques for Video and Cinema). The breadth of this work is almost impossibly ambitious: Van Hurkman embraces all the important topics, and the liberal use of illustrated examples, with accompanying waveforms and solutions from various platforms, succeeds in providing a single reference work for the colorist at almost any level of expertise.... Colorists will find gaps in their knowledge are as well-served by this book as the aspiring colorist already under the tutelage of a master." Ron LingelbachColorist, Dolby Laboratories; Founder, TKcolorist Internet Group (TIG) "Color correction is a complex and subtle craft. The student needs to sit next to professionals on a real jobs, and ask them continuously what they just did, and why they did it. The professional rarely has the time and the patience to answer newbie questions, and the earnest scholar quickly ends up outside the grading suite, wondering sadly whether there was an easier road to knowledge.Now, at last, there may be. Alex Van Hurkman's book comes with a DVD of example material you can load onto your color grading workstation. It covers many useful real examples, explaining what you might do to make the images look better, what is the easiest way to do it on any of the popular platforms, and even how to explain what you are doing to others. If you want to learn color correction, this book will make a difference."Dr Richard KirkColour Scientist, FilmLight LtdRecipient of 2010 AMPAS Scientific and Engineering Award"Van Hurkman covers the theory and the practical application of color-correction very well...it's always good to understand the theory of *why* the image looks good or bad and how it relates to photography, electronics, and physics. I have no doubt Van Hurkman's book is as close as we're going to get to a standard textbook for the world of color correction. If nothing else, I think it communicates the idea to neophyte filmmakers that there's far more to color-correction than just having the software or the box. It's *experience* that makes good color -- not the system."Highly recommended.--Marc Wielage/Senior ColoristLowry Digital/Burbank

    His students have written more than ten projects for Steven Spielberg alone, plus hundreds of other Hollywood blockbusters and prestigious indie productions, including two Oscar winners for best original screenplay--Milk (2008) and Sideways (2006).In this updated edition, Walter integrates his highly coveted lessons and principles from Screenwriting with material from his companion text, The Whole Picture, and includes new advice on how to turn a raw idea into a great movie or TV script-and sell it. There is never a shortage of aspiring screenwriters, and this book is their bible.

    Satyajit Ray's three films about the boyhood, adolescence and manhood of Apu, Pather Panchali (1955), Aparajito (1956) and The World of Apu (1959) - collectively known as The Apu Trilogy - are established classics of world cinema. The Trilogy was the chief reason for Satyajit Ray's receiving a Hollywood Oscar for lifetime achievement in 1992, just before his death. This book by Ray's biographer and world authority Andrew Robinson is the first full study of the Trilogy. Robinson -- who came to know the director well during the last decade of his career -- covers the literary and cultural background to the films, their production, their music composed by Ravi Shankar, their aesthetic value, and their complex critical reception in the East and the West, from 1955 up to the present day. Extensively and beautifully illustrated and a pleasure to read, The Apu Trilogy will appeal to anyone captivated by the unique world created by Satyajit Ray.

    Hundreds of fascinating films are reviewed in depth by one of the world's foremost DVD and Blu-ray experts. The ALL NEW DVD Delirium Volume 4 perfectly compliments the previous three volumes, covering a brand new selection of the world's greatest cult movies on DVD and Blu-ray. This edition of the ultimate guide to home entertainment stands alone as an essential book for all film fanatics. It also features a comprehensive index to this volume, plus a full listing of all the films reviewed in volumes 1, 2 & 3, which combine with this book to give readers almost 2,500 DVD and Blu-ray reviews! DVD and Blu-ray collecting is a minefield for the serious fan. If readers want to know whether or not to buy a particular film, this book will become their first point of reference. If it saves them from buying even one second-rate disc, it will have paid for itself right away! Plus, readers can discover masses of amazing films they did not even know had been released. No film fan should be without this definitive guide book! *** Picture and Audio quality of discs discussed in depth *** Special Features listed and examined *** Language and Subtitle options highlighted *** Full synopsis and review of each film *** DVD case size - designed to be stocked in DVD departments as well as book stores.

    In Danger is the first anthology in English devoted to his political and literary essays, with a generous selection of his poetry. Against the backdrop of post-war Italy, and through the mid-'70s, Pasolini's writings provide a fascinating portrait of a Europe in which fascists and communists violently clashed for power and where journalists ran great risks. The controversial and openly gay Pasolini was murdered at the age of fifty-three; In Danger includes his final interview, conducted hours before his death.

    Many of these movies propagate a distorted sense of morality and ethics. Under the surface of immoral behavior and unlawfulness, however, there can be deeper problems in Hollywood's messages. What are these stories telling the viewer about life, relationships, and God? What worldviews and ideas do they espouse? If Christians are to tread carefully at the theater complex, they need resources to help them.This book is just such a resource. By exploring the relationship between Christianity and art, the theology of biblical discernment, and a brief history of filmmaking, as well as through analysis of popular films, Meaning at the Movies equips readers for careful discernment in the cinema. The book does not simply list criteria for judging film art; instead it encourages Christians to develop biblical and critical discernment in regard to not only film, but all aspects of culture.

    Written with clear instructions on How to Play and notes on the Aim of the Game, it covers every aspect of the devising process: creating characters and scenarios, using stimuli, improvising dialogue, structuring the piece, and creating an ensemble.

    Lynch's photographs, paintings, prints, drawings, and more recently, musical compositions, are an indispensable part of his oeuvre and frequently a source of inspiration for his films. Fans of such classics as Blue Velvet, Wild at Heart, Twin Peaks and Mulholland Drive will readily conjure the director's keen eye for lush but menacing neo-Surrealist tableaux, for instance, which are directly nourished by his artworks. Other hallmarks of the Lynchian style, such as cryptic messages and inscriptions, foreboding atmospherics and a famously left-field sense of humor likewise appear in the paintings, drawings and photographs collected in David Lynch: Dark Splendor--a landmark publication that reveals the breadth and accomplishment of his work in this realm. It contains such marvels as his matchbook drawings--pen-and-ink images of shrouded dreamscapes and interiors, inscribed on the inside of matchbooks--his wonderfully foreboding lithographs, in which scrawled captions jostle among murky figures, his photographs of industrial wastelands and his sinister paintings that incorporate materials and objects to further advance their gothic appeal. Dark Splendor presents these works in excellent reproductions, and will seduce fans of contemporary film and art alike.

    Here, with the help of the historic presses that have printed masterworks by such artists as Picasso, Matisse and Mir�, a durable artistic continues today. Filmmaker, photographer, painter and printmaker David Lynch (born 1946) was captivated by this place and its history, when he first chanced across it in 2007: "I fell in love," he declared. Since his earliest experiments with zinc plates and prints in black and red, Lynch has continued to labor away at Item Editions, recently producing large black-and-white lithographs by drawing directly onto the stone (rather than using the medium to create multiples of pre-existing drawings), experimenting with textures to draw figurative imagery out of abstract patterns, and adding captions to further elucidate their themes. The content of these lithographs clusters around themes familiar to Lynch fans: love, eroticism, dreams and death. David Lynch: Lithos collects all of Lynch's work in this genre. A conversation between Dominique Pa�ni, former director of the French Cinematheque and Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris, and the artist, provides further insight into Lynch's process.

    Today I Love Lucy continues to draw new generations of fans. This book, a success in hardcover and now available in paperback with a complete redesign, is jam-packed with rare photos, fan letters, inspiring celebrity tales, fun facts, and is a complete, chronological guide to each and every beloved episode of America's all-time favorite sitcom.Whether Lucy is hawking Vitameatavegamin, stuffing chocolates in her mouth, or doing some 'splainin to Ricky for her kooky adventures, she made us literally laugh 'til it hurt, ensuring that the world will always love Lucy.

    This book explores and clearly explains both traditional and contemporary principles and approaches.

    Being John Malkovich The Oscar®-nominated break-out classic from 1999 hailed as "a terrific original screenplay…intriguingly prophetic, irresistible, nimble, and very funny" (Janet Maslin, The New York Times ). Adaptation Based on The Orchid Thief by Susan Orlean, Adaptation received the PEN Center USA 2003 Literary Award for screenwriting and four Oscar® nominations, including Best Adapted Screenplay. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind Winner of the Academy Award® for Best Original Screenplay and the PEN Center USA 2005 Literary Award for screenwriting, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind is a love story about mind erasure that is "unforgettable" ( Wall Street Journal ). Synecdoche The directorial debut of Kaufman in 2008 won the Independent Spirit Award for Best First Feature, and was called "the best film of the decade," by Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times .

    Author Laurent Bouzereau puts this incredible canon into perspective, examining the master's life thematically: his archetypal anti-heroes; his complicated female characters; his charming villains; and something Bouzereau calls "the Hitchcock touch" -- those elements of film that are, quite simply, Hitchcockian.With a foreword by Hitchcock's daughter, Patricia Hitchcock O'Connell, Hitchcock, Piece by Piece is packed with photographs from the family's archive, many of which have never been published before, plus removable facsimile memorabilia such as letters, memos, and snapshots, which frame the story of the director's life and work.Praise for Hitchcock, Piece by Piece:"Few people alive know as much about Hitchcock as Bouzereau." --Leonard Maltin

    A Simon & Schuster eBook

    Complete guide for Producers for film and tv projects

    Sexy and subversive, colorful and controversial, passionate and provocative, Pedro Almodóvar’s world is unlike any other director's. Thanks to his remarkably cohesive and consistent œuvre, the Manchegan maverick has become a reliable brand, his name a byword for the visual opulence, experimentation and eroticism of post-Franco Spanish cinema. Almodóvar found fame with self-penned, gender-bending plots depicting the often comic misfortunes of junkies, nuns, housewives, whores, transvestites and transsexuals. Praised by critics, championed by fellow film-makers, adored by actors and adorned with international awards, he is the most successful Spanish film-maker since Luis Buñuel, with films such as Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown, All About My Mother, Talk to Her, and Volver. A self-taught auteur, Almodóvar draws on influences as diverse as Douglas Sirk, Frank Tashlin, Andy Warhol and John Waters. His feature films borrow liberally from, and frequently invert, traditional genres of classic American cinema—including film noir, melodrama and screwball comedy. Yet they remain unmistakably Iberian, rooted predominantly in the director's beloved Madrid, exploring Spanish myths and modernity to the rhythms of bolero-laden soundtracks. Most recently, the enfant terrible of the 1980s arthouse scene has matured into the Academy Award-winning director of All About My Mother, a film universally acknowledged for its emotional resonance, sophistication and craftsmanship. Almodóvar’s distinctive, once marginalized world has finally entered the mainstream. For this unprecedented monograph, Pedro Almodóvar has given TASCHEN complete access to his archives, including never-before-published images, such as personal photos he took during filming. In addition to writing captions for the photos, Almodóvar invited prominent Spanish authors to write introductions to each of his films, and selected many of his own texts to accompany this visual odyssey through his complete works.

    Taking its cue from Hitchcock, grind-house movies, and the gory Italian giallo thrillers of the 1970s, slasher movies brought a new high in cinematic violence and suspense to mainstream cinema. For six bloody years (1978–1984) - the “golden age” of slashers - cinema screens and video stores were stalked by homicidal maniacs with murder and mayhem on their minds.The Slasher Movie Book details the subgenre’s surprising beginnings, revels in its g(l)ory days, and discusses its recent resurgence. Packed with reviews of the best (and worst) slasher movies and illustrated with an extensive collection of distinctive and often graphic color poster artwork from around the world, this book also looks at the political, cultural, and social influences on the slasher movie and its own effect on other film genres.

    It is ideal if you want to gain insight into the underlying scientific principles of photography and digital imaging, whether you are a professional photographer, lab technician, researcher or student in the field, or simply an enthusiastic amateur. This comprehensive guide takes you from capture to output in both digital and film media, with sections on lens use, darkroom techniques, digital cameras and scanners, image editing techniques and processes, workflow, digital file formats and image archiving.This iconic text was first published in 1890 and has aided many thousands of photographers in developing their own techniques and understanding of the medium. Now in full colour, The Manual of Photography still retains its clear, reader-friendly style and is filled with images and illustrations demonstrating the key principles. Not only giving you the skills and know-how to take stunning photographs, but will also allowing you to fully understand the science behind the creation of great images.

    Fox, and the South Korean sensation The Chaser, Roger Ebert's Movie Yearbook 2011. includes every movie review Ebert has written from January 2008 to July 2010.Also included in the Yearbook are:* In-depth interviews with newsmakers such as Muhammad Ali and Jason Reitman.* Tributes to Eric Rohmer, Roy Disney, John Hughes, and Walter Cronkite.* Essays on the Oscars, reports from the Cannes Film Festival, and entries into Ebert's Little Movie Glossary.

    Includes stories from Brian Cox, Judi Dench, Ralph Fiennes, Rebecca Hall, Derek Jacobi, Jude Law, Adrian Lester, Ian McKellen, Helen Mirren, Tim Pigott-Smith, Kevin Spacey, Patrick Stewart, and Penelope Wilton.

    Including groundbreaking oldies (Flash Gordon, One Million B.C.); 1950s and 1960s milestones (The War of the Worlds, Psycho, House of Usher); classic schlock (Queen of Outer Space, Attack of the Crab Monsters); and cult TV favorites (Lost in Space, Land of the Giants), the discussions offer a frank and fascinating behind-the-scenes look. Among the interviewees: Roger Corman, Pamela Duncan, Richard and Alex Gordon, Tony "Dr. Lao" Randall, Troy Donahue, Sid Melton, Fess Parker, Nan Peterson, Alan Young, John "Bud" Cardos, and dozens more.

    His artwork was first unveiled to the general public in March 2007 by the Fondation Cartier pour l'art contemporain in Paris.Sketches, watercolours, or simple doodles, this vast collection - carefully conserved by David Lynch since his adolescence and regularly used by him as a source of inspiration - offers a unique glimpse into the artist's creative process. Using all types of media, from Post-it notes to napkins, the diverse and complementary nature of these drawings allows us to dive into David Lynch's universe and establish links between his artwork and his films.This exceptional book, both in terms of its format and the quality of reproduction of the works, is a co-publication between the Fondation Cartier pour l'art contemporain and Steidl.

    Filled with hundreds of hidden techniques and profusely illustrated in color, it will help you discover new ways to use the system and mold it to your working style. Whether you've been using Media Composer for years or are just moving to it, you'll find material that will speed your work and help you tell better stories. TOPICS COVERED INCLUDE: Advanced Editing & Trimming; the Smart Tool; Visual Effects & Advanced Keyframes; Color Correction; Titles; Mixing, RTAS & Stereo Audio; Multi-Camera Editing; Toolsets & Workspaces; AMA & Media Management; Film & 24p; and much more. REVIEWS: ?The most ambitious and comprehensive book on Avid Media Composer I?ve read. Avid Agility will make you a better editor, guaranteed!? -- Jonathan Moser, Post Magazine ?The quickest path to becoming a Media Composer Jedi Master. This book is essential reading!? -- Lawrence Jordan, founder, 2-pop.com & HollywoodReinvented.com ?A definitive book about the Media Composer environment.? -- Ray Zone, Editors Guild Magazine ?An easy read, logically laid out, and useful to novice and experienced editor alike. I highly recommend this book.? -- Frank Capria, Consulting Designer, Media Composer, Avid Technology ?Cohen?s book will guide you to the next exciting level in the art of editing.? -- Edgar Burcksen, CinemaEditor Magazine EDITIONS: This first edition offers detailed coverage of Media Composer 4 and 5. You?ll find even more information, with a focus on Media Composer 5.5, in Avid Agility, Second Edition.

    On the contrary, there are many unwritten laws and a sense of propriety that are never discussed or taught in film schools or in other books.Based on their own experiences, first as upcoming assistant editors, then as successful Hollywood editors, the authors guide you through the ins and outs of establishing yourself as a respected film and video editor.Insight is included on an array of technical issues such as script breakdown, prepping for sound effects, organizing camera and sound reports, comparison timings, assemply footages and more. In addition, they also provide first-hand insight into industry protocol, providing tips on interviewing, etiquette, career planning and more, information you simply won't find in any other book.The book concludes with a chapter featuring Q+A sessions with various established Hollywood editors about what they expect from their assistant editors.

    Largely self-taught, Takemitsu created his own unique sound world-one that was not bound by convention. In "A Memoir of Toru Takemitsu," his wife of forty-two years reveals a candid, behind-the-scenes glimpse into his fascinating life, his legendary music, and his final days.After rising to prominence in 1957 when Igor Stravinsky praised his Requiem for Strings, Takemitsu became best known in the West for his concert music, but was also a master composer of music for film, television, theater, and radio drama. Through six extensive interviews, Asaka Takemitsu reveals previously unknown information regarding the composer's compositional processes and his private life-including the difficult period after the war and the subsequent post-war art movement in Japan, his bond with his friends, love of movies, and daily routine.This inspiring memoir shares an unforgettable story of how a young boy without any musical training or affluence used the power of positive thinking to make his dream of becoming a composer come true.

    Written by Jack Pulman, it proved one of the corporation's most successful drama serials of all time. It also provided popular initial exposure for several actors who would eventually become well known, such as Derek Jacobi, Si[n Phillips, Patrick Stewart, John Rhys-Davies and John Hurt.

    Considered the bible of the movie industry and a must-have for all movie fans, the new edition is better than ever with a multitude of cross-referencing within its nine primary indexes.

    A Companion to Michael Haneke is a definitive collection of newly-commissioned work that covers Haneke's body of work in its entirety, catering to students and scholars of Haneke at a time when interest in the director and his work is soaring.Introduces one of the most important directors to have emerged on the global cinema scene in the past fifteen years Includes exclusive interviews with Michael Haneke, including an interview discussion of The White RibbonConsiders themes, topics, and subjects that have formed the nucleus of the director's life's work: the fate of European cinema, Haneke in Hollywood, pornography, alienation, citizenship, colonialism, and the gaze of surveillance Features critical examinations of La Pianiste, Time of the Wolf, Three Paths to the Lake and Cache, amongst others

    Inspired by female psychology and gender issues, this how-to book casts a refreshingly honest and empowering women-centric light on every stage of the screenwriting process.

    In Jim Shepard's deft and darkly brilliant tale about the master behind a legendary film, the complexities of creating a monster and shooting special effects resonate exactly with one man's inner life. No one writes like Shepard, quietly layering loss over loss--and no one orchestrates catastrophe better.--Andrea Barrett As in Nosferatu, with its smartly imagined life of the German film director F. W. Murnau, here Shepard considers the Japanese special effects director Eiji Tsuburaya and his cinematic inventions for the science-fiction movie we know as Godzilla. And like many of Shepard's stories, Master of Miniatures limns the intense and alienated world of a focused expert obsessed with his field of endeavor, at a cost to his marriage and children. For Japanese survivors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in the fifties, America itself seemed king of the monsters, to be looked at with fear and awe. This is a poignant and important story that seems to me a summation and condensation of many themes that have preoccupied Shepard before. Like a diamond held aloft, each turn of this tale in his deft hand flashes still more light.--Ron Hansen

    Now his unique work, which relies heavily on such archaic means as black and white small-format cinematography and silent-film storytelling, premieres at major film festivals around the world and is avidly discussed in the critical press. Into the Past provides a complete and systematic critical commentary on each of Maddin's feature films and shorts, from his 1986 debut film The Dead Father through to his highly successful 2008 full-length 'docu-fantasia' My Winnipeg.William Beard's extensive analysis of Maddin's narrative and aesthetic strategies, themes, influences, and underlying issues also examines the origins and production history of each film. Each of Maddin's projects and collaborations showcase his gradual evolution as a filmmaker and his singular development of narrative forms. Beard's close readings of these films illuminate, among other things, the profound ways in which Maddin's art is founded in the past - both in the cultural past, and in his personal memory.

    seminars, television producer Robert Thirkell provides a professional toolkit for creating compelling storylines for factual or reality-based film and television.The book features program examples from the UK and U.S. and includes well-known series such as Kitchen Nightmares, Wife Swap, The Apprentice, Undercover Boss and Oprah’s Big Give, plus advice from leading filmmakers and TV producers on the process of finding stories and characters, structuring scripts, filming, editing, delivery, and attracting an audience. As anyone who has watched a video on YouTube knows, amateur video usually focuses on subject areas rather than storyline construction. To make the jump to professional reality programming and engage your audience, video producers must know how to identify the components of story and organize them, employing narrative construction while not interfering with the events of the documentary. This book will become the professional handbook for this popular genre. Excerpt from the text: "The Hundred Rules of Television: To create winners, get different genres banging into each other. Pick a mythic story, and stick to it.Films do not need introductions, they need to get going, so get rid of the next ten minutes. Your subject and story should seem big, while being small enough to film."

    Working in the United States and in Mexico, Iñarritu crosses national borders while his movies break the barriers of distribution, production, narration, and style. His features also experiment with transnational identity as characters emigrate and settings change._x000B__x000B_In studying the international scope of Iñarritu's influential films Amores Perros, 21 Grams, and Babel, Celestino Deleyto and María del Mar Azcona trace common themes such as human suffering and redemption, chance, and accidental encounters. The authors also analyze the director's powerful visual style and his consistent use of multiple characters and a fragmented narrative structure. The book concludes with a new interview of Iñarritu that touches on the themes and subject matter of his chief works.

    Hoberman. Here he applies the same dynamic synergy of American politics and American popular culture to the Cold War’s first decade that he brought to the 1960s in the critically acclaimed The Dream Life.The years between 1946 and 1956 brought U.S. dominance over Europe and a new war in Asia, as well as the birth of the civil rights movement and the stirrings of a new youth culture. The period saw the movie industry purged of its political left while the rise of ideological action hero John Wayne came to dominate theaters. Analyzing movies and media events, Hoberman has organized a pageant of cavalry Westerns, apocalyptic sci-fi flicks, and biblical spectaculars wherein Cecil B. DeMille rubs shoulders with Douglas MacArthur, atomic tests are shown on live TV, God talks on the radio, and Joe McCarthy is bracketed with Marilyn Monroe. Here is a history of film that is also, to paraphrase Jean-Luc Godard, about the film of history.Essential reading for film and history buffs, An Army of Phantoms recasts a crucial era in the light of the silver screen.

    Beautiful, immensely talented and popular with moviegoers and co-workers alike, she had seemed destined to become a major star - but her ascent was sabotaged by unresolved problems with her domineering, alcoholic mother and three exploitative marriages. Foxy Lady is based on author Jeff Gordon's extensive conversations with Bari, a warm and highly intelligent woman with a delicious sense of humor and the gift of total recall. Gordon's research also involved interviews with dozens of Lynn's friends, family members and professional associates, including Anthony Quinn, Alice Faye, Claire Trevor, Roddy McDowall and George Montgomery. Jeff Gordon is a noted film historian whose work has appeared in Classic Images, Films of the Golden Age, Focus on Film, and numerous other entertainment-oriented publications. In 1984 he formed Jagarts, a retail business and rental archive dealing with the history of American movies through graphic art, photography and publicity. Gordon had been at the helm of a cinema society in New York City for seven years. Since 2004 he has been running a film group in Knoxville, Tennessee, where he currently resides.

    Purchase includes a free trial membership in the publisher's book club where you can select from more than a million books without charge. Chapters: The Hero With a Thousand Faces, the Power of Myth, Historical Atlas of World Mythology, a Skeleton Key to Finnegans Wake, the Flight of the Wild Gander, the Inner Reaches of Outer Space, Thou Art That, Myths to Live By. Source: Wikipedia. Free updates online. Not illustrated. Excerpt: The Hero with a Thousand Faces (first published in 1949) is a non-fiction book, and seminal work of comparative mythology by Joseph Campbell. In this publication, Campbell discusses his theory of the journey of the archetypal hero found in world mythologies. Since publication of The Hero with a Thousand Faces, Campbell's theory has been consciously applied by a wide variety of modern writers and artists. The best known is perhaps George Lucas, who has acknowledged a debt to Campbell regarding the stories of the Star Wars films. The Joseph Campbell Foundation and New World Library issued a new edition of The Hero with a Thousand Faces in July, 2008 as part of the Collected Works of Joseph Campbell series of books, audio and video recordings. Campbell explores the theory that important myths from around the world which have survived for thousands of years all share a fundamental structure, which Campbell called the monomyth. In a well-known quote from the introduction to The Hero with a Thousand Faces, Campbell summarized the monomyth: In laying out the monomyth, Campbell describes a number of stages or steps along this journey. The hero starts in the ordinary world, and receives a call to enter an unusual world of strange powers and events (a call to adventure). If the hero accepts the call to enter this strange world, the hero must face tasks and trials (a road of trials), and may have to face these trials alone, or may have assistance. At its most intense, the hero mu...More: http: //booksllc.net/?id=62499

    Greta Garbo’s influence over fashion has transcended time. Her dresses, suits, impeccably-tailored coats with a slightly masculine look and the indispensable accessories (shoes, bags, glasses, foulards) has created a style emulated, imitated, even occasionally reviled, but never fully examined. For the first time a catalogue of great glamour and a travelling exhibition detail this extraordinary wardrobe whose minimalism fits so well with current fashion trends. Edited by Stefania Ricci, the Director of Museo Salvatore Ferragamo in Florence, as the Divine Greta Garbo was a Ferragamo client from the 1920s until her death, and the founder of the Italian maison designed hundreds of original, classical, futuristic, hand-made shoes and sandals exclusively for her, most of them shown here for the first time. A stunning selection of black and white Garbo portraits by celebrated photographers completes the volume.

    Beginning with an engaging introduction to kung-fu cinema, this examination then launches into a collection of 700 martial arts reviews that include the movie name, time and place of theatrical release, director name, list of principal actors, fight instructors, and interesting tidbits about the film. Each entry also includes statistics such as the number and length of training and fight sequences. Complete indexes are also featured, listing actors and movies by their English variations as well as countries of origin. Both a fun read and an accurate resource, this handbook is a must-have for movie fans and martial artists.

    Yet even as 5.1 has become the standard for audiovisual media, its impact has gone unexamined. Drawing on works from the past two decades, as well as dozens of interviews with sound designers, mixers, and editors, Mark Kerins uncovers how 5.1 surround has affected not just sound design, but cinematography and editing as well. Beyond Dolby (Stereo) includes detailed analyses of Fight Club, The Matrix, Hairspray, Disturbia, The Rock, Saving Private Ryan, and Joy Ride, among other films, to illustrate the value of a truly audiovisual approach to cinema studies.

    Specifically, it explores the structure of feeling that is emerging today in tandem with new digital technologies, together with economic globalization and the financialization of more and more human activities. The 20th century was the age of film and television; these dominant media shaped and reflected our cultural sensibilities. In the 21st century, new digital media help to shape and reflect new forms of sensibility. Movies (moving image and sound works) continue to be made, but they have adopted new formal strategies, they are viewed under massively changed conditions, and they address their spectators in different ways than was the case in the 20th century. The book traces these changes, focusing on four recent moving-image works: Nick Hooker's music video for Grace Jones' song Corporate Cannibal; Olivier Assayas' movie Boarding Gate, starring Asia Argento; Richard Kelly's movie Southland Tales, featuring Justin Timberlake, Dwayne Johnson, and other pop culture celebrities; and Mark Neveldine and Brian Taylor's Gamer.

    In the vein of Deborah Landis’s Dressed: A Century of Hollywood Costume Design, Whitlock’s Designs on Film delivers a fascinating tour through Hollywood’s back lots, including the stories of how numerous movies came to their final on-screen looks—whether by collaboration, conflict, or divine chance. Movie enthusiasts, set designers, and fans of classic and modern Hollywood will thrill for this look behind the scenes of Tinsel Town’s greatest triumphs.

    The study of film theory has changed dramatically over the past 30 years with innovative ways of looking at classic debates in areas like film form, genre, and authorship, as well as exciting new conversations on such topics as race, gender and sexuality, and new media. Until now, no film theory anthology has stepped forward to represent this broader, more inclusive perspective. Critical Visions also provides the best guidance for students, giving them the context and the tools they need to critically engage with theory and apply it to their film experiences.

    Off-screen, the actor was as humble and retiring as his film characters were mean and heartless. This biography examines William's life and career in detail, from his rural Minnesota roots through his service in World War I, his Broadway stage success, and his meteoric rise and gradual fall from Hollywood fame in the 1930s and 1940s. Also analyzed are his film persona and the curious mechanisms by which our culture selects certain film personalities to remember and others to forget. Featured is a wealth of biographical material never before available, including rare candid photos of William's early years. Interviews with his surviving nieces provide intimate family details and personal remembrances.

    This examination of Price's horror films focuses on how the principal female characters--portrayed by such notable actresses as Barbara Steele, Hazel Court and Diana Rigg, to name but a few--are simultaneously villains, victims and objects of veneration. Also considered are issues of gender and sexuality as addressed in Vincent Price's most memorable movies. Included are dozens of rare production stills and a selected filmography that provides significant background information on the films cited.

    Six years earlier, an English immigrant to the West Coast named Eadweard Muybridge, going by the commercial name of Helios, had already pushed photography far in the opposite direction: not to soak up time into pictures, but to divide time with the quickest exposures then imaginable. In 1872, the tycoon Leland Stanford had commissioned Muybridge to photograph his horse, Occident, to determine whether it ever lifted all four hooves off the ground at once. In proving that this was indeed the case, Muybridge achieved a five-hundredth-of-a-second exposure, and so began an anatomy of motion--in humans, horses, birds--that exploded the possibilities of photography and ultimately led to the development of the motion picture. Helios: Eadweard Muybridge in a Time of Change offers an opportunity to trace the life and art of the great photographer. In the wake of a wave of recent scholarship and renewed interest, it pitches his entire body of work against the backdrop of one of the most transformative periods of American and European history. Published to accompany a retrospective exhibition organized by the Corcoran Gallery of Art, Helios features essays by Philip Brookman, Marta Braun, Corey Keller and Rebecca Solnit that provide a variety of new approaches to Muybridge's art and influences.Born in England, Eadweard J. Muybridge (1830-1904) moved to the United States in his early twenties, working as a bookseller for nearly ten years, until, after a stagecoach accident, he learned photography while convalescing in England. Returning to San Francisco in 1867, operating under the name of Helios, he commenced the work that was to secure his fame.

    Drawing on the narrative tools of the creative writer, the unique strengths of a visual and aural media, and the power of real-world content truthfully presented, biDocumentary Storytelling /i/boffers advice for producers, directors, editors, and cinematographers seeking to make ethical and effective nonfiction films, and for those who use these films to educate, inform, and inspire. Special interview chapters explore storytelling as practiced by renowned producers, directors, and editors. This third edition has been updated and expanded, with discussion of newer films including iWaltz with Bashir/i and iWhy We Fight/i.pbull; Storytelling techniques are one of the most powerful tools in the documentary filmmaker's arsenal-learn how to harness them with this book brbull; Top documentary filmmakers provide their storytelling strategies brbull; Covers a wide range of documentary styles

    The wild days of non-monogamy in the 1970s, the development of a queer aesthetic in the 1980s, the fight for visibility during the culture wars of the 1990s, her search for meaning as she contemplates mortality in the past ten years—HAMMER! includes texts from these periods, new writings, and fully contextualized film stills to create a memoir as innovative and disarming as her work has always been.Barbara Hammer has made over eighty films and video works over the past forty years. Her experimental films of the 1970s often dealt with taboo subjects such as menstruation, female orgasm, and lesbian sexuality. In the 1980s she used optical printing to explore perception and the fragility of 16mm film life itself. Her documentaries tell the stories of marginalized peoples who have been hidden from history. Her most recent work, A Horse is Not a Metaphor, won the 2009 Teddy Award for Best Short Film at the Berlin International Film Festival. A retrospective screening of her work will be presented at the Museum of Modern Art in spring 2010 and will travel to the Reina Sophia in Madrid and the Tate Modern in London.

    Each of the 16 key pieces has its own chapter, introduced by a text from fashion writer Antonio Mancinelli and packed with unforgettable images.

    Most of Williams' humorous radio broadcasts were improvised. Williams was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role. This film is number 36 on Bravo's "100 Funniest Movies."

    It begins with an introduction to the history and science of photography and addresses questions about the principles of photography, such as why a camera needs a lens, how lenses work, and why modern lenses are so complicated.Digital photography raises more questions because enlarged images on computer screens reveal defects in color and resolution that are not obvious in small snapshots. What limits resolution, what is "noise" in images, and what level of detail can be appreciated by an observer? All of these questions and others concerning human perception of color and subjective image quality are treated in detail with some mathematics when appropriate. Finally the creation and appreciation of art in photography is presented from the standpoint of modern cognitive science. This book is appropriate for serious photographers and for students from college freshman to graduate level.

    It describes both the present state of the independent film industry and the significant technological developments that have begun to take place, and what changes these might effect.The International Film Business: describes the present organization of the entirety of the film industry as a business discusses how digital technology is currently and how it potentially may change the structure of the industry in the future gives information and advice on the different business skills that are necessary to navigate what is a very high-risk, pyrotechnical industry.Taking an entrepreneurial perspective on what future opportunities will be available to prepared and informed business students and emerging practitioners, this text includes case studies that take students through the successes and failures of a variety of real film companies/projects and exclusive interviews with leading practitioners in all sectors of the industry, from production to exhibition.

    The book systematically surveys todays diverse and at times conflicting theoretical perspectives on fictional character, spanning research on topics such as the differences between fictional characters and real persons, the ontological status of characters, the strategies of their representation and characterization, the psychology of their reception, as well as their specific forms and constellations in - and across - different media, from the book to the internet."

    This book gets us closer to understanding North Korea beyond the usual headlines, and does so in a richly detailed, well-researched, and theoretically contextualized way." ---Charles K. Armstrong, Director, Center for Korean Research, Columbia University"One of this book's strengths is how it deals at the same time with historical, geographical, political, artistic, and cultural materials. Film and theatre are not the only arts Kim studies---she also offers an excellent analysis of paintings, fashion, and what she calls 'everyday performance.' Her analysis is brilliant, her insights amazing, and her discoveries and conclusions always illuminating."---Patrice Pavis, University of Kent, CanterburyNo nation stages massive parades and collective performances on the scale of North Korea. Even amid a series of intense political/economic crises and international conflicts, the financially troubled country continues to invest massive amounts of resources to sponsor unflinching displays of patriotism, glorifying its leaders and revolutionary history through state rituals that can involve hundreds of thousands of performers. Author Suk-Young Kim explores how sixty years of state-sponsored propaganda performances---including public spectacles, theater, film, and other visual media such as posters---shape everyday practice such as education, the mobilization of labor, the gendering of social interactions, the organization of national space, tourism, and transnational human rights. Equal parts fascinating and disturbing, Illusive Utopia shows how the country's visual culture and performing arts set the course for the illusionary formation of a distinctive national identity and state legitimacy, illuminating deep-rooted cultural explanations as to why socialism has survived in North Korea despite the fall of the Berlin Wall, the collapse of the Soviet Union, and China's continuing march toward economic prosperity. With over fifty striking color illustrations, Illusive Utopia captures the spectacular illusion within a country where the arts are not only a means of entertainment but also a forceful institution used to regulate, educate, and mobilize the population.Suk-Young Kim is Associate Professor in the Department of Theater and Dance at the University of California, Santa Barbara, and coauthor with Kim Yong of Long Road Home: A Testimony of a North Korean Camp Survivor.

    Now he’s back, and this time he’s got all of ‘the films of badass cinema’ in his sights... From Die Hard to The Discrete Charm of the Bourgeoisie, Transformers to Mary Poppins, Vern has an opinion on everything, and he’s not shy about sharing them...

    He has produced a string of groundbreaking films that have achieved both critical and commercial success, while constantly challenging audiences to rethink their expectations of generic boundaries. David Fincher: Films That Scar is the first truly analytical work on the films of this mysterious and complex filmmaker. This insightful book analyzes all of Fincher's feature films, as well as examples of his commercials and pop videos, tracing key influences that include his background in special effects. It considers how he creates roles for strong women, how he has extended the detective genre, and how he adapts cult texts. The book also questions whether Fincher's films, famous for their downbeat endings and "dark" visual style, are really bleak or just part of an unconventional approach to filmmaking. In the end, readers will understand the development of Fincher's individual films and appreciate how the films relate closely to each other.

    But the roots of such critical and commercial successes as The Hurt Locker and Precious can be traced to the first boom of independent cinema in the 1960s, when a raft of talented filmmakers emergedto capture the attention of a rapidly growing audience of young viewers.A thorough overview of a thriving area of cultural life, Directory of World Cinema: American Independent chronicles the rise of the independent sector as an outlet for directors who challenge the status quo, yet still produce accessible feature films that not only find wide audiences but enjoy considerable box office appeal—without sacrificing critical legitimacy. Key directors are interviewed and profiled, and a sizeable selection of films are referenced and reviewed. More than a dozen sub-genres—including African American cinema, queer cinema, documentary, familial dysfunction, and exploitation—are individually considered, with an emphasis on their ability to engage with tensions inherent in American society. Copious illustrations and a range of research resources round out the volume, making this a truly comprehensive guide.At a time when independent films are enjoying considerable cultural cachet, this easy-to-use yet authoritative guide will find an eager audience in media historians, film studies scholars, and movie buffs alike.

    It examines each of Scorsese's lms as a mythological journey through which the main character is offered an opportunity for psychological and spiritual enlightenment, focusing especially on how each character is led to recognize, accept, and embrace his or her awed traits. The book also explores the ways in which Scorsese's lms incite extreme reactions and strike deep chords among his viewers, particularly by speaking the language of the unconscious and forcing readers to examine their own hidden aws.

    Charlene Regester poses questions about prevailing racial politics, on-screen and off-screen identities, and black stardom and white stardom. She reveals how these women fought for their roles as well as what they compromised (or didn't compromise). Regester repositions these actresses to highlight their contributions to cinema in the first half of the 20th century, taking an informed theoretical, historical, and critical approach.

    The 'Radio Times Guide to Films' reviews thousands of films and includes cast, character, writer and director credits, plus family viewing advice and BBFC classification, as well as Blu-ray, HD and DVD availability for all titles.

    A Queer Film Classic: this brilliant 1974 Canadian cinema verité film, set in Montreal's bohemian neighborhood "The Main" and hailed at its Whitney Museum debut, is a fascinating take on social mores and relationships in the 1970s and a twentysomething photographer's attraction for the teenaged son of acquaintances.

    How real is the external world? How valid are our memories? Could we ever go back in time? Are there parallel universes out there? What happens when we are touched by the famous Butterfly Effect? Are we really the people we think we are? Are we truly in control of our own minds? Our sense of reality has been sent reeling by the sciences of matter and of mind and this revolution can be seen in its most graphic form in movies, a place and time where we "dream in the dark." A Flickering Reality explores the most exciting, creative, and mind-expanding movies of the last decades—movies that stretch our vision of reality to the limit.

    Also discussed are the many sequels to the film, its place in film history, and every critical perspective you could imagine. With an extensive bibliography and film stills, this edition is indispensable for any film student.

    Included are some rare and never before seen pictures.

    Learn when to use green screens instead of blue, find out how the pros operate in professional studios, and get amazing results--even on a shoestring budget.Topics include matting and keying basics; setups using fabric, portable background panels, or paint; lighting and digital camera essentials; broadcast TV hardware switchers; professional HD and major motion picture compositing; multiple-colored screen composites (background, foregrounds, and objects); directing storyboards and talent; working with virtual sets; motion tracking; and much more.See how to plan, set up, and execute your shots to reduce fixes in postChoose the right keying process for your projectMaster basic shooting setups and live broadcast keyingUnderstand proper lighting and how to match subjects to the backgroundCreate a working storyboard and learn how to select and direct talentComposite your footage and fix problem shotsWork creatively with virtual sets, motion tracking, and match movingMaster techniques that apply to all compositing software and plug-insThe DVD includes sample footage and all project files to accompany the chapters in the book.Note: CD-ROM/DVD and other supplementary materials are not included as part of eBook file.

    Although nonfiction film may have captured imaginations, many viewers enter and leave theaters with a nanve concept of "truth" and "reality"-for them, documentaries are information sources. But is truth or reality readily available, easily acquired, or undisputed? Or do documentaries convey illusions of truth and reality? What aesthetic means are used to build these illusions? A documentary's sounds and images are always the product of selection and choice, and often underscore points the filmmaker wishes to make. Crafting Truth illuminates the ways these films tell their stories; how they use the camera, editing, sound, and performance; what rhetorical devices they employ; and what the theoretical, practical, and ethical implications of these choices are. Complex documentary concepts are presented through easily accessible language, images, and a discussion of a wide range of films and videos to encourage new ways of thinking about and seeing nonfiction film.

    Wilson on the unity of knowledge, Steven Pinker on the transformation of psychology into an explanatory science, and David Sloan Wilson on the integration of evolutionary theory into cultural critique. Later sections include essays on the adaptive function of the arts, discussions of evolutionary literary theory and film theory, interpretive commentaries on specific works of literature and film, and analyses using empirical methods to explore literary problems. Texts under the microscope include folk- and fairy tales; Homer's Iliad; Shakespeare's plays; works by William Wordsworth, Charles Dickens, Emily Bront', and Zora Neale Hurston; narratives in sci-fi, comics, and slash fiction; and films from Europe, America, Asia, and Africa. Each essay explains the contribution of evolution to a study of the human mind, human behavior, culture, and art.

    But cinema did not arrive in Japan fully formed at the end of the nineteenth century, nor was it simply adopted into an ages-old culture. Aaron Gerow explores the processes by which film was defined, transformed, and adapted during its first three decades in Japan. He focuses in particular on how one trend in criticism, the Pure Film Movement, changed not only the way films were made, but also how they were conceived. Looking closely at the work of critics, theorists, intellectuals, benshi artists, educators, police, and censors, Gerow finds that this trend established a way of thinking about cinema that would reign in Japan for much of the twentieth century.

    Each of the 100 directors is featured on two spreads, with one recent film and an original essay written by the nominating curator.

    It establishes the degree to which nonhuman animals, domesticated and wild, have contributed to the emotional lives and care of humans in contemporary Western culture. In examining the historical depiction of animals in literature and art, as well as their interpretations in contemporary mass media, the aim of my book is to provide an inâ€depth analysis of the cultural interpretation of animals as they interconnect with a diverse array of humanâ€constructed realities principally in the area of 'wellness and suffering.' It seeks to explore the dichotomy between those species which have been utilised primarily as products for human consumption and those species of animals that have become regarded as human companions which can enhance or ameliorate the lives of human beings suffering from illnesses or disabilities on an emotional and/or physical basis.

    Encompassing historical, cultural, and aesthetic realms, Radical Light features critical analyses of films and videos, reminiscences from artists, and interviews with pioneering filmmakers, curators, and archivists. It explores artistic movements, film and video exhibition and distribution, artists' groups, and Bay Area film schools. Special sections of ephemera—posters, correspondence, photographs, newsletters, program notes, and more—punctuate the pages of Radical Light, giving a first-hand visual sense of the period. This groundbreaking, hybrid assemblage reveals a complex picture of how and why the San Francisco Bay Region, a laboratory for artistic and technical innovation for more than half a century, has become a global center of vanguard film, video, and new media.Among the contributors are Rebecca Solnit and Ernie Gehr on Bay Area cinema's roots in the work of Eadweard Muybridge and others; Scott MacDonald on Art in Cinema; P. Adams Sitney on films by James Broughton and Sidney Peterson; Stan Brakhage, Bruce Conner, Lawrence Jordan, and Yvonne Rainer on the Bay Area film scene in the 1950s; J. Hobeman on films by Christopher Maclaine, Bruce Conner, and Robert Nelson; Craig Baldwin on found footage film; George Kuchar on student-produced melodramas; Michael Wallin on queer film in the 1970s; V. Vale on punk cinema; Dale Hoyt and Cecilia Dougherty on video in the 1980s and 1990s; and Maggie Morse on new media as sculpture.Copub: Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive

    While the films enjoy great popularity at home, they haven't received the respect they deserve beyond their borders. Frequently, Turkey's cinema has been painted as imitative, simplistic or underdeveloped, casting it in shadow to the West. But things are finally changing. Turkish filmmakers like Nuri Bilge Ceylan are turning up in cinematheques worldwide. Critics are taking notice. And now general readers will have the overview they need to contextualize this remarkablebody of work.Examining both popular genres and art films, Cinema in Turkey deals with the country's entire cinematic tradition, including not only its high point with Yesilcam-Turkey's popular film industry of the 1950s to the 1980s-but also its early years and current revival. In addition to surveying thecinematic landscape and recounting its history, Cinema in Turkey analyzes the arts conventions from which the first films emerged, region-specific permutations, and the cultural ramifications of Turkey's distinct forms of modernization and nation-building.

    The series has been hailed for having more complete international coverage than any comparable film guide, and this edition proves it with 500 new reviews in every genre of world cinema. Dozens of appendices arrange movies by category — from dramas, thrillers, and comedies to Italian, Japanese, and Iranian films. Cast and director lists make it easy to locate a favorite star or auteur, and they include the year of each film cited. Extensive cross-indexes, one of the series’ trademarks, have been updated. And finally, reviews of notable DVD releases and a list of the world’s 100 key film websites help make this the one must-have film guide.

    German and American films competed on the world market, and the stylistic accomplishments of the many German film artists who emigrated to Hollywood before Hitler took power deeply affected American cinema. Weimar Cinema is the first comprehensive survey of this period to include popular films--musicals, comedies, the daydreams of the working class--along with the nightmarish classics such as Fritz Lang's Dr. Mabuse der Spieler and M; F.W. Murnau's Nosferatu, eine Symphonie des Grauens; and G.W. Pabst's Pandora's Box. Richly illustrated with film stills, the book examines how and why our understanding of these films has changed in the last half century, and investigates important themes in films from this period, including the portrayal of women and the role of sound. Supplementing the essays is a detailed illustrated filmography of the 75 films featured in the exhibition; each film is accompanied by a brief description and excerpts from contemporaneous reviews.

    While movie studios adapted their production facilities to accommodate the new technology and movie theatres converted to sound, filmmakers continued to produce silents, albeit in dwindling numbers. And though talkies would overtake the industry and the public's demand soon enough, the silent motion picture did not disappear immediately.The Last Silent Picture Show: Silent Films on American Screens in the 1930s looks at this cultural shift. Drawing primarily on contemporary records, this book details the fate of an entire art form--the silent cinema--in the United States during the 1930s and how it managed to survive the onslaught of sound. Through the most diverse venues, from tent shows to universities, political meetings to picture palaces, ghetto theaters to art houses, the silent film continued to play an important role in American culture in the Depression years, culminating in the first efforts to chronicle and preserve cinema history.Through the voices of the audiences, critics, editors, and artists, Drew relates the impact of various silent films, whether new releases, reissues, or foreign imports, on the public and culture of the 30s--how they affected both the popular and intellectual environment and how they were promoted for their audiences. Providing an in-depth examination of the transitional period, which led to the birth of modern film studies, The Last Silent Picture Show is aimed not only at academics but also the large number of film devotees who will discover new information on a relatively neglected chapter of film history.

    Fuchs' introduction to moviemaking came as one of the world's leading "special photographers" on movie sets in Europe and North America. Starting as a freelance magazine photographer, he was one of the rare outsiders invited onto movie sets, where he often befriended actors, actresses, and filmmakers and captured candid shots both during shooting and after hours while socializing with the stars. With the support of his dear friend Cary Grant, Fuchs gave up photography in 1964 and spent the next 20 years as a motion picture producer.Fuchs' photographs of Hollywood's undisputed heyday are collected for the first time in Leo Fuchs: Special Photographer from the Golden Age of Hollywood, along with a rare essay by photography great, Bruce Weber. Film icons Rock Hudson, Audrey Hepburn, Paul Newman, Gregory Peck, Sean Connery, Shirley MacLaine, Frank Sinatra, Marlon Brando, Cary Grant, and never-before-published photographs of To Kill a Mockingbird's Harper Lee as well as such legendary directors as Billy Wilder, Otto Preminger, Fred Zinnemann, and Alfred Hitchcockall appear unguarded--unlike any other photographs of the era. These images are complemented by pages of insider details taken from the recorded remembrances of Leo Fuchs himself.Leo Fuchs: Special Photographer offers never-before-seen, behind-the-scenes photographs of the glamorous world of post-war Hollywood. It serves as a valuable piece of history and a reference for the style, attitudes, and personalities of the dream factory's elite that define modern-day celebrity. With a career spent steadily rising through the ranks of production, from outsider to boss, Leo Fuchs saw it all. Now his personal vision has been captured for the world to enjoy in Leo Fuchs: Special Photographer.

    This collection of essays covers both contemporary films and those produced in the last 50 years to provide a theoretical framework for looking at transgressive cinema and what that means. This volume begins with a number of essays that examine the aesthetic of "realism," tracing it through the late Italian Neo-Realism of Pasolini, the early films of Melvin Van Peebles, and Canadian filmmaker Guy Maddin. Another section focuses on '70s Italian horror and thrillers, including a substantially different examination of filmmaker Dario Argento, as well as essays on critically underrepresented directors Lucio Fulci and Sergio Martino. A section on New York looks at both radical independents like Troma and Andy Milligan, as well as the social context from which a view of the metropolis-in-decay emerged. Sections also cover the experimental work of the Vienna Action Group and controversial filmmaker Michael Haneke, as well as films and genres too idiosyncratic and disturbing to fit anywhere else, including analyses of Nazi propaganda films, fundamentalist Christian "scare" movies, and postwar Japanese youth films. The final essays try to come to terms with a mainstream flirtation with "transgressive" film and Grindhouse aesthetics.

    These fourteen critical essays examine both the role of science fiction in the third world and the role of the third world in science fiction. Topics covered include science fiction in Bengal, the genre's portrayal of Native Americans, Mexican cyberpunk fiction, and the undercurrents of colonialism and Empire in traditional science fiction. The intersections of science fiction theory and postcolonial theory are explored, as well as science fiction's contesting of imperialism and how the third world uses the genre to recreate itself. Instructors considering this book for use in a course may request an examination copy here.

    Taking a broad range of sequels as case studies, from the Godfather movies to the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise, Second Takes confronts the complications posed by film sequels and their aftermaths, proposing new critical approaches to what has become a dominant industrial mode of Hollywood cinema. The contributors explore the sequel's investments in repetition, difference, continuation, and retroactivity, and particularly those attitudes and approaches toward the sequel that hold it up as a kind of figurehead of Hollywood's commercial imperatives. An invaluable resource to the film student, critic, and fan, Second Takes offers new ways of looking at the film sequel's industrial, aesthetic, cultural, political, and theoretical contexts.

    The Philosophy of Steven Soderbergh breaks new ground by investigating salient philosophical themes through the unique story lines and innovative approaches to filmmaking that distinguish this celebr

    By 1960, that number had been reduced by half. With the arrival of television for the home market, the golden age of the movie theater in Milwaukee was dead. Yet their ghosts continue to haunt the old neighborhoods. Churches, warehouses, stores, nightspots, and other businesses now occupy the former Tivoli, Paris, Roosevelt, and Savoy Buildings. Others are simply vacant hulks, decaying from the inside out. The Elite, Regent, Lincoln, and Warner are but a few of the many silent sentinels from the days when Milwaukee was in love with the movies.

    It traces the arc of Zeffirelli's career in abundant detail, from his earliest productions to his most recent output.

    Don’t Look Now uncovers forgotten but richly rewarding films, including Nicolas Roeg’s Don’t Look Now and the films of Lindsay Anderson and Barney Platts-Mills. This volume offers insight into the careers of important filmmakers and sheds light on the genres of experimental film, horror, rock and punk films, as well as representations of the black community, shifts in gender politics, and adaptations of television comedies. The contributors ask searching questions about the nature of British film culture and its relationship to popular culture, television, and the cultural underground.