Alright, Alright, Alright: The Oral History of Richard Linklater's Dazed and Confused


Melissa Maerz - 2020
    Embraced as a cultural touchstone, the 1993 film would also make Matthew McConaughey’s famous phrase—alright, alright, alright—ubiquitous. But it started with a simple idea: Linklater thought people might like to watch a movie about high school kids just hanging out and listening to music on the last day of school in 1976.    To some, that might not even sound like a movie. But to a few studio executives, it sounded enough like the next American Graffiti to justify the risk. Dazed and Confused underperformed at the box office and seemed destined to disappear. Then something weird happened: Linklater turned out to be right. This wasn’t the kind of movie everybody liked, but it was the kind of movie certain people loved, with an intensity that felt personal. No matter what their high school experience was like, they thought Dazed and Confused was about them.Alright, Alright, Alright is the story of how this iconic film came together and why it worked. Combining behind-the-scenes photos and insights from nearly the entire cast, including Matthew McConaughey, Parker Posey, Ben Affleck, Joey Lauren Adams, and many others, and with full access to Linklater’s Dazed archives, it offers an inside look at how a budding filmmaker and a cast of newcomers made a period piece that would feel timeless for decades to come.

A Short Guide to Writing about Film


Timothy Corrigan - 1989
    Both an introduction to film study and a practical writing guide, this brief text introduces students to film terms and the major film theories, enabling them to write more critically. With numerous student and professional examples along the way, this engaging and practical guide progresses from taking notes and writing first drafts to creating polished essays and comprehensive research projects. Moving from movie reviews to theoretical and critical essays, the text demonstrates how an analysis of a film becomes more subtle and rigorous as part of a compositional process.

The Film Director's Intuition: Script Analysis and Rehearsal Techniques


Judith Weston - 2003
    Acclaimed director Judith Weston offers a deeply creative exploration on how to access and stimulate the filmmaker's most precious assets: instincts, imagination, and intuition.

Zenspirations Dangle Designs


Joanne Fink - 2013
    Zenspirations dangles are a unique form of patterning...and although they look complicated, they are actually easy to create. If you enjoyed Joanne's first book, Zenspirations Paterns & Lettering then you'll love Zenspiration Dangle Designs.

Making Movies


Sidney Lumet - 1995
    Drawing on 40 years of experience on movies ranging from Long Day's Journey Into Night to The Verdict, Lumet explains the painstaking labor that results in two hours of screen magic.

The Geeks Shall Inherit the Earth: Popularity, Quirk Theory and Why Outsiders Thrive After High School


Alexandra Robbins - 2009
    Of course, in middle school and high school, almost everyone is an outsider: the nerds, the new girls, the band geeks, the loners; even the "popular" cheerleaders. Alexandra Robbins' The Geeks Shall Inherit the Earth takes us inside the hallways of real schools to show us how shifting cliques and permanent marginalization affect children. Following individual students over the course of a year, she tracks the plight and possibilities of self-confessed nerds, freaks, punks, Goths, and weirdos. Her central message is heartening: Our increasingly homogenized society ultimately needs and welcomes the cafeteria fringe.

The Monster Show: A Cultural History of Horror


David J. Skal - 1993
    Skal chronicles one of our most popular and pervasive modes of cultural expression. He explores the disguised form in which Hollywood's classic horror movies played out the traumas of two world wars and the Depression; the nightmare visions of invasion and mind control catalyzed by the Cold War; the preoccupation with demon children that took hold as thalidomide, birth control, and abortion changed the reproductive landscape; the vogue in visceral, transformative special effects that paralleled the development of the plastic surgery industry; the link between the AIDS epidemic and the current fascination with vampires; and much more. Now with a new Afterword by the author that looks at horror's popular renaissance in the last decade, The Monster Show is a compulsively readable, thought-provoking inquiry into America's obsession with the macabre.

The Student Leadership Challenge: Five Practices for Exemplary Leaders


James M. Kouzes - 2008
    With engaging stories and keen insights the authors delve into the fundamental aspects of leadership to help students keep pace with our ever-changing world.

Homebody: A Guide to Creating Spaces You Never Want to Leave


Joanna Gaines - 2018
    This comprehensive guide will help you assess your priorities and your instincts, as well as your likes and dislikes, with practical steps for navigating and embracing your authentic design style.Room by room, Homebody gives you an in-depth look at how these styles are iterated as well as how to blend the genres you’re drawn to in order to create spaces that look and feel distinctly yours.In each chapter are practical takeaways to help problem solve potential pain points in your home. A fold out design guidebook at the back of the book offers a place for you to take notes and sketch out your own design plans as you make your way through the rooms.The insight shared in Homebody will instill in you the confidence to thoughtfully create spaces that you never want to leave.

The Art of Watching Films


Joseph M. Boggs - 2003
    By suggesting what to look for and how to look for it, it challenges students to sharpen their powers of observation, establish habits of perceptive watching, and discover complex aspects of film art that will enhance their enjoyment of the medium. The most up-to-date issues in modern film-making are discussed including a new section called Focus on Filmmaking: DVD Extras, leading students to elements on specific DVDs, computer-generated images and animation effects, colour in black-and-white film, and cinematic liberties taken in fact-based films.

Invisible Ink: A Practical Guide to Building Stories That Resonate


Brian McDonald - 2010
    Brian McDonald, an award winning screenwriter who has taught his craft at several major studios, supplies writers with tools to make their work more effective and provides readers and audiences a deeper understanding of the storyteller's art. When people think of a screenplay, they usually think about dialogue-the "visible ink" that is readily accessible to the listener, reader, or viewer. But a successful screenplay needs Invisible Ink as well, the craft below the surface of words. Invisible Ink lays out the essential elements of screenplay structure, using vivid examples from famous moments in popular movies as well as from one of his own popular scripts. You will learn techniques for building a compelling story around a theme, making your writing engage audiences, creating appealing characters, and much more. Praise for Invisible Ink: ..".If I manage to reach the summit of my next story it will be in no small part due to having read Invisible Ink." -Andrew Stanton (cowriter Toy Story, Toy Story 2, A Bug's Life, Monsters, Inc., and cowriter/director Finding Nemo and WALL-E) ..".Brian McDonald uses his deep understanding of story and character to pass on essential truths about dramatic writing. Ignore him at your peril." -Jim Taylor (Academy Award-winning screenwriter of Sideways and Election) ..". I recommend this fine handbook on craft to any writer, apprentice or professional, working in any genre or form." -Dr. Charles Johnson (National Book Award-winning author of Middle Passage) "If you want to write scripts, listen to Brian. The guy knows what he's talking about." -Paul Feig (creator of NBC's Freaks and Geeks, co-executive producer The Office) "With Invisible Ink Brian McDonald has written us a book to keep and heed forever because through the simple, graceful, graspable, original wisdom of it, we might just save our screenwriting lives." -Stewart Stern (Screenwriter of Rebel Without a Cause)

The Fangirl Life: A Guide to All the Feels and Learning How to Deal


Kathleen Smith - 2016
    However, these obsessions are sometimes the fangirl's solutions for managing stress, anxiety, and even low self-esteem. Fangirling is often branded as behavior young women should outgrow and replace with more adult concerns. Written by a proud fangirl, The Fangirl Life is a witty testament to the belief that honoring your imagination can be congruous with good mental health, and it's a guide to teach fangirls how to put their passion to use in their own lives.The Fangirl Life encourages you to use an obsession not as a distraction from the anxieties of life, but rather as a test lab for your own life story:  How can a character girl crush be useful instead of a waste of time?   How can writing fan fiction be a launching point for greater endeavors? How do you avoid the myths that fictional romance perpetuates? By showing you how to translate obsession into personal accomplishment while affirming the quirky, endearing qualities of your fangirl nature, The Fangirl Life will help you become your own ultimate fangirl.

What They Don't Teach You at Film School: 161 Strategies For Making Your Own Movies No Matter What


Camille Landau - 2000
    Here they offer 140 strategies for making movies no matter what. Amateurs as well as seasoned veterans can pick up this entertaining and incredibly useful guide in any place--at any point of crisis--and find tactics that work. Whether it's raising money or cutting your budget; dealing with angry landlords or angry cops; or jump-starting the production or stalling it while you finish the script, these strategies are delivered with funny, illustrative anecdotes from the authors' experiences and from veteran filmmakers eager to share their stories. Irreverent, invaluable, and a lot cheaper than a year's tuition, this friendly guide is the smartest investment any future filmmaker could make.Strategies from the book include: Love your friends for criticizing your work--especially at the script stage; Shyness won't get you the donuts; Duct tape miracles; Don't fall in love with cast or crew (but if you do...).

The Making of Don


Krishna Gopalan - 2013
    No one involved with the making of the film foresaw the kind of overarching impact it would have, not only in terms of its success at the box office but in spawning a cult phenomenon that would stay strong more than three decades later with its slick theme, fantastic music and unforgettable dialogues, that is what nbecame. The journey of Donwas not an easy one. Shot over four years, it faced several hurdles before making it to the theatres. While the casting and music of Don have now acquired legendary status, there were some close shaves before it all came together: Iftekhars role of the cop was eyed by a big star of the 1960s getting Kalyanji-Anandji to compose the score called for a delicate balancing act, it was only thanks to the shrewd advice of a mentor that the super-successful Khai ke paan Banaras wala was included at the very last minute. And, wonder of wonders, it was not Amitabh Bachchan who was paid the most for the film. Through a fast-paced narrative born out of interviews with the cast and crew and supplemented with rare photographs from the directors archives, The Making of Dontells a tale that is as compelling as the one that finally made it to the big screen. Engaging and captivating, this is the story of one of Bollywoods most memorable classic.

Digital Photography: A Basic Manual


Henry Horenstein - 2011
    All concepts are fully illustrated with sample work by internationally renowned professionals, representing editorial work, photojournalism, and everything in between. Topics covered include essential information for both film and digital photography, such as exposure controls and shutter speed, as well as digital-specific information on image editing, printing methods, and even file storage. The first digital textbook by legendary photography teacher Henry Horenstein, Digital Photography is the best guide yet for aspiring digital photographers, essential both for photographers transitioning from film to digital and those learning the art of photography for the first time.