Cinematography


Kris Malkiewicz - 1989
    Now completely revised and updated, it clearly and concisely covers what today's filmmaker needs to know about camera structure and operation, lenses, film stocks, filters, lighting and light measuring, and accessory equipment. In addition it provides up-to-date information on sound recording, editing, video transfer, studio and location shooting, production logistics, and modern techniques of picture manipulation with optical printers -- a subject rarely treated in such detail in existing film books. Building on the groundwork he lays, Kris Malkiewicz explores more advanced techniques of overall picture quality control -- how the filmmaker can translate the envisaged image to the screen through coordinating all aspects of cinematography. As Malkiewicz explains, whatever concept is desired, the filmmaker must be in full control of the technology in order to ensure success. Illustrated with more than 350 photographs and drawings, this new second edition of "Cinematography" will continue to prove invaluable to filmmakers, film students, and film teachers.

Complete Guide to Film Scoring


Richard Davis - 2000
    Interviews with top film scoring professionals add the priceless insight of the wisdom that comes with experience.

Music of James Bond


Jon Burlingame - 2012
    In The Music of James Bond, author Jon Burlingame throws open studio and courtroom doors alike to reveal the full and extraordinary history of the soundsof James Bond, spicing the story with a wealth of fascinating and previously undisclosed tales.Burlingame devotes a chapter to each Bond film, providing the backstory for the music (including a reader-friendly analysis of each score) from the last-minute creation of the now-famous James Bond Theme in Dr. No to John Barry's trend-setting early scores for such films as Goldfinger andThunderball. We learn how synthesizers, disco and modern electronica techniques played a role in subsequent scores, and how composer David Arnold reinvented the Bond sound for the 1990s and beyond.The book brims with behind-the-scenes anecdotes. Burlingame examines the decades-long controversy over authorship of the Bond theme; how Frank Sinatra almost sang the title song for Moonraker; and how top artists like Shirley Bassey, Tom Jones, Paul McCartney, Carly Simon, Duran Duran, GladysKnight, Tina Turner, and Madonna turned Bond songs into chart-topping hits. The author shares the untold stories of how Eric Clapton played guitar for Licence to Kill but saw his work shelved, and how Amy Winehouse very nearly co-wrote and sang the theme for Quantum of Solace.New interviews with many Bond songwriters and composers, coupled with extensive research as well as fascinating and previously undiscovered details--temperamental artists, unexpected hits, and the convergence of great music and unforgettable imagery--make The Music of James Bond a must read for 007buffs and all popular music fans. This paperback edition is brought up-to-date with a new chapter on Skyfall.

On Directing Film


David Mamet - 1991
    Most of this instructive and funny book is written in dialogue form and based on film classes Mamet taught at Columbia University. He encourages his students to tell their stories not with words, but through the juxtaposition of uninflected images. The best films, Mamet argues, are composed of simple shots. The great filmmaker understands that the burden of cinematic storytelling lies less in the individual shot than in the collective meaning that shots convey when they are edited together. Mamet borrows many of his ideas about directing, writing, and acting from Russian masters such as Konstantin Stanislavsky, Sergei M. Eisenstein, and Vsevelod Pudovkin, but he presents his material in so delightful and lively a fashion that he revitalizes it for the contemporary reader.

The Cinema of Cruelty: From Buñuel to Hitchcock


André Bazin - 1975
    

Stanley Kubrick: A Biography


Vincent Lobrutto - 1997
    Strangelove, 2001: Space Odyssey. A Clockwork Orange, The Shining, and Full Metal Jacket, is arguably one of the greatest American filmmakers. Yet, despite being hailed as “a giant” by Orson Welles, little is known about the reclusive director. Stanley Kubrick—the first full-length study of his life—is based on assiduous archival research as well as new interviews with friends, family, and colleagues.Film scholar Vincent LoBRutto provides a comprehensive portrait of the director, from his high school days, in the Bronx and his stint as a photographer for Look magazine, through the creation of his wide-ranging movies, including the long-awaited Eyes Wide Shut. The author provides behind-the-scenes details about writing, filming, financing, and reception of the director’s entire output, paying close attention to the technical innovations and to his often contentious relationships with actors. This fascinating biography exposes the enigma that is Stanley Kubrick while placing him in context of film history.

Directing Actors


Judith Weston - 1996
    Internationally-renowned directing coach Weston demonstrates what constitutes a good performance, what actors want from a director, what directors do wrong, script analysis and preparation, how actors work, and shares insights into the director/actor relationship.

The DV Rebel's Guide: An All-Digital Approach to Making Killer Action Movies on the Cheap


Stu Maschwitz - 2006
    The Orphanage was created by three twenty-something visual effects veterans who wanted to make their own feature films and discovered they could do this by utilizing home computers, off the shelf software, and approaching things artistically. This guide details exactly how to do this: from planning and selecting the necessary cameras, software, and equipment, to creating specific special effects (including gunfire, Kung Fu fighting, car chases, dismemberment, and more) to editing and mixing sound and music. Its mantra is that the best, low-budget action moviemakers must visualize the end product first in order to reverse-engineer the least expensive way to get there. Readers will learn how to integrate visual effects into every aspect of filmmaking--before filming, during filming and with "in camera" shots, and with computers in postproduction. Throughout the book, the author makes specific references to and uses popular action movies (both low and big-budget) as detailed examples--including El Mariachi, La Femme Nikita, Die Hard, and Terminator 2. Note from the Publisher: If you have the 3rd printing of The DV Rebel’s Guide, your disc may be missing the data files that accompany the book. If this is the case, please send an email to Peachpit in order to obtain the files at ask@peachpit.com

Goodbye, Dragon Inn


Nick Pinkerton - 2021
    In this wide-ranging and elegiac essay, Nick Pinkerton reflects upon Tsai Ming-liang’s 2003 film Goodbye, Dragon Inn, a modern classic haunted by the ghosts and portents of a culture in flux.

Man of Steel: Inside the Legendary World of Superman


Daniel Wallace - 2013
    Man of Steel: Inside the Legendary World of Superman explores the remarkable creative process behind the movie and showcases the exceptional concept art that shaped its unique visual style. From the stark alien vistas of Krypton to the down-to-earth warmth of Smallville, this book uncovers the intensive world-building process that makes Superman’s universe both thrilling and believable. Also featuring in-depth interviews with the cast and crew, and candid on-set photography, Man of Steel: Inside the Legendary World of Superman is the ultimate insider’s look at one of the most electrifying movies in recent memory.MAN OF STEEL, SUPERMAN and all related characters and elements are trademarks of and © DC Comics. (s13)

Cinema 1: The Movement-Image


Gilles Deleuze - 1983
    For Deleuze, philosophy cannot be a reflection of something else; philosophical concepts are, rather, the images of thought, to be understood on their own terms. Here he puts this view of philosophy to work in understanding the concepts—or images—of film.Cinema, to Deleuze, is not a language that requires probing and interpretation, a search for hidden meanings; it can be understood directly, as a composition of images and signs, pre-verbal in nature. Thus he offers a powerful alternative to the psychoanalytic and semiological approaches that have dominated film studies.Drawing upon Henri Bergson’s thesis on perception and C. S. Peirce’s classification of images and signs, Deleuze is able to put forth a new theory and taxonomy of the image, which he then applies to concrete examples from the work of a diverse group of filmmakers—Griffith, Eisenstein, Pasolini, Rohmer, Bresson, Dreyer, Stroheim, Buñuel, and many others. Because he finds movement to be the primary characteristic of cinema in the first half of the twentieth century, he devotes this first volume to that aspect of film. In the years since World War II, time has come to dominate film; that shift, and the signs and images associated with it, are addressed in Cinema 2: The Time-Image.

The Nashville Chronicles: The Making of Robert Altman's Masterpiece


Jan Stuart - 2000
    Illustrated throughout with behind-the-scenes photos.

The Conversations: Walter Murch and the Art of Editing Film


Michael Ondaatje - 2002
    From those conversations stemmed this enlightened, affectionate book -- a mine of wonderful, surprising observations and information about editing, writing and literature, music and sound, the I-Ching, dreams, art and history.The Conversations is filled with stories about how some of the most important movies of the last thirty years were made and about the people who brought them to the screen. It traces the artistic growth of Murch, as well as his friends and contemporaries -- including directors such as Francis Ford Coppola, George Lucas, Fred Zinneman and Anthony Minghella -- from the creation of the independent, anti-Hollywood Zoetrope by a handful of brilliant, bearded young men to the recent triumph of Apocalypse Now Redux.Among the films Murch has worked on are American Graffiti, The Conversation, the remake of A Touch of Evil, Julia, Apocalypse Now, The Godfather (all three), The Talented Mr. Ripley, and The English Patient."Walter Murch is a true oddity in Hollywood. A genuine intellectual and renaissance man who appears wise and private at the centre of various temporary storms to do with film making and his whole generation of filmmakers. He knows, probably, where a lot of the bodies are buried."

If It's Purple, Someone's Gonna Die: The Power of Color in Visual Storytelling


Patti Bellantoni - 2005
    This enlightening book guides filmmakers toward making the right color selections for their films, and helps movie buffs understand why they feel the way they do while watching movies that incorporate certain colors.Guided by her twenty-five years of research on the effects of color on behavior, Bellantoni has grouped more than 60 films under the spheres of influence of six major colors, each of which triggers very specific emotional states. For example, the author explains that films with a dominant red influence have themes and characters that are powerful, lusty, defiant, anxious, angry, or romantic and discusses specific films as examples. She explores each film, describing how, why, and where a color influences emotions, both in the characters on screen and in the audience. Each color section begins with an illustrated Home Page that includes examples, anecdotes, and tips for using or avoiding that particular color.Conversations with the author's colleagues - including award-winning production designers Henry Bumstead (Unforgiven) and Wynn Thomas (Malcolm X) and renowned cinematographers Roger Deakins (The Shawshank Redemption) and Edward Lachman (Far From Heaven) - reveal how color is often used to communicate what is not said.Bellantoni uses her research and experience to demonstrate how powerful color can be and to increase readers awareness of the colors around us and how they make us feel, act, and react. Learn how your choice of color can influence an audience's moods, attitudes, reactions, and interpretations of your movie's plot. See your favorite films in a new light as the author points out important uses of color, both instinctive and intentional. Learn how to make good color choices, in your film and in your world.

Tim Burton: A Child's Garden of Nightmares


Paul A. Woods - 2002
    Once a lonely teenager who found solace in horror flicks and cheesy Chiller Theater matinees, Burton relentlessly mines this history in his films, imbuing juvenile fantasy with emotional depth. This definitive study of Burton’s career tracks his life and work. Articles and interviews span his years as a malcontent animator at Walt Disney Studios through his creation of the pop-gothic aesthetic that marks all of his work. The book also features commentary by the editor on the origins of Burton’s ideas, a thorough analysis of each of his films, and images from the movies.