Book picks similar to
When Women Wrote Hollywood: Essays on Female Screenwriters in the Early Film Industry by Rosanne Welch
nonfiction
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film_silent-cinema
non-fiction
Shoot Your Novel: Cinematic Techniques to Supercharge Your Writing
C.S. Lakin - 2014
No other writing craft book teaches you the secret of how to "show, don't tell." Best-selling authors of every genre know the secret to hooking readers—by showing, not telling, their story. But writers are not taught how to “show” scenes in a cinematic way. Without a clear, concise, and precise method for constructing dynamic scenes, a writer will likely end up with a flat, lifeless novel. Filmmakers, screenwriters, and movie directors utilize cinematic technique to create visual masterpieces, and novelists can too—by adapting their methods in their fiction writing. By “shooting” your novel, you can supercharge your story! Sol Stein, in his book Stein on Writing said, “Readers, transformed by film and TV, are used to seeing stories. The reading experience . . . is increasingly visual.” Novelists today—regardless of genre—need to learn cinematic storytelling because that's what readers want!
Inside, you’ll learn:
The real secret to “show, don’t tell” and how it’s all about “the moment” More than a dozen “camera shots” novelists can borrow from screenwriters and directors to create powerful, active scenes Instruction on how to piece camera shots together to create cinematic scene segments Examples from novels and screenplays showcasing each facet of cinematic technique How to devise a thematic image system of key shots, motifs, and images Ways to use colors, shapes, sounds, and angles for purposeful subliminal effect Shooting your novel with a filmmaker’s eye will transform your good novel into a great one and will change forever the way you approach constructing your scenes. No other book gives you such deep, thorough instruction in cinematic storytelling for fiction writing. Here's what some best writing instructors and best-selling authors have to say about this essential novel writing book: “With such an extensive amount of experience in the screenwriting process (since childhood), it comes as no surprise that C. S .Lakin writes with a trustworthy authority and wealth of insight when it comes to the craft of building dynamic scenes within novels. The pace and flow of Shoot Your Novel makes it easy to follow and the various tips and pointers strewn throughout are succinct. Of particular note is the smart curation of novel excerpts, authors, and filmmakers she cites as examples for the tips she suggests. If you have trouble understanding some of the pointers/tips theoretically, the excerpts always make it more clear. Having myself adapted The War of the Roses for both film and stage I can say that I have actually used quite a few of the techniques Lakin discusses and the one I like the most is the use of portraying "daydreaming" when writing from the POV of a character, effectively blending past, present, and future in one single scene—there is a lot of this going on in The War of the Roses and it is one of the aspects of the story flow that has made the rendering of the character a success.
Independent Ed: Inside a Career of Big Dreams, Little Movies, and the Twelve Best Days of My Life
Edward Burns - 2015
The Brothers McMullen went on to win the Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival in 1995, and established the working-class Irish American filmmaker as a talent to watch. In the twenty years since, Burns has made ten more films (She’s the One, Sidewalks of New York, and The Fitzgerald Family Christmas), while also acting in big budget Hollywood movies (Saving Private Ryan), hit television shows (Entourage and Mob City), and pioneering a new distribution network for indie filmmakers online and with TV’s On Demand service (“why open a film in twenty art houses when you can open in twenty million homes?”).Inspired by Burns’s uncompromising success both behind and in front of the camera, students and aspiring filmmakers are always asking Burns for advice. In Independent Ed, Burns shares the story of his two remarkable decades in a fickle business where heat and box office receipts are often all that matter. He recounts stories of the lengths he has gone to to secure financing for his films, starting with The Brothers McMullen (he told his father: “Shooting was the twelve best days of my life”). How he found stars on their way up—including Jennifer Aniston and Cameron Diaz—to work in his films, and how he’s adhered religiously to the dictum of writing what you know, working as if he was just starting out, and always “looking for the next twelve best days of my life.”Chronicling the struggles and the long hours as well as the heady moments when months of planning and writing come to fruition, Independent Ed is a must-read for movie fans, film students, and everyone who loves a gripping tale about what it takes to forge your own path in work and life.
And Here's the Kicker: Conversations with 21 Top Humor Writers on their Craft and the Industry
Mike Sacks - 2009
In this entertaining and inspirational book you'll hear from 21 top humor writers as they discuss the comedy writing process, their influences, their likes and dislikes, and experiences in the industry. Funny and informative, And Here's the Kicker is a must have guide for aspiring humor writers and simply a great read for fans.
City of Angeles
Marlayna Glynn - 2012
The author unflinchingly begets a self from the unlikeliest beginnings, and now delivers a sequel illustrating both heaven and hell on her continuing flight for self discovery."An amazing story of a young girl who comes of age with only snippets of guidance from the adults around her. This is a well written book with explicit prose of Marlayna's continued journey looking for love and acceptance. She tells this very personal story vividly. There were moments I had to stop reading to absorb the "life shattering" events Marlayna experienced that would have crushed many and other moments in the book that I laughed out loud." - Eileen Cahill Moalli
Career Theory and Practice: Learning Through Case Studies
Jane L. Swanson - 1999
Each chapter applies a different theory to case examples and - to provide continuity - to a fictitious client' constructed from many past clients of the authors.
Growing Up with Manos: The Hands of Fate
Jackey Neyman Jones - 2016
Equal parts memoir/family saga/film book, Growing Up with Manos: The Hands of Fate shares the behind-the-scenes story of the making of Manos: from creator Hal Warren's alleged bet with TV producer Stirling Silliphant that "anyone could make a movie," to the tragic suicide of John Reynolds (Torgo), right up through the newest Manos-related projects that are carrying the film into the digital age. Jackey's stories dispel much of the Manos mythology while crystallizing a unique time and place in America, where a crew of actors with a bad script and a rented camera set out to make a bad movie-and succeeded beyond their wildest dreams. Jackey Neyman Jones is a professional artist living in the Great Northwest. Laura Mazzuca Toops is a writer/editor with more than 30 years' experience in business and fiction writing. She is the author of three historical novels.
Film Is Not Dead: A Digital Photographer's Guide to Shooting Film
Jonathan Canlas - 2012
The reality is that film has never gone away, and in recent years has experienced a surging, renewed popularity-sometimes simply for its retro, analog status, but mostly for film's ability to create a look and feel that many believe digital can still not achieve. If anyone can attest to this, it's Utah photographer Jonathan Canlas, who exclusively shoots with film, and has both an extremely successful wedding photography business as well as a series of popular workshops held numerous times per year around the world. In "Film Is Not Dead: A Digital Photographer's Guide to Shooting Film, " Canlas teams up with co-author Kristen Kalp to open the doors for anyone who wants to begin-or return to-shooting film. Casual, irreverent, fun, inspiring, and beautiful, this unique 10x8 hardcover book teaches the reader the basics of film, cameras, and shooting in this medium. Whether it's discussing the different tone and color characteristics of different films (Kodak, Fuji, etc.), how to load a medium-format camera back, how to create proper exposures, how and where to get film processed, or how Jonathan uses fun, plastic cameras like the Holga in his commercial and personal work, "Film Is Not Dead "appeals to anyone who is searching to finally begin creating that film look, but until now hasn't known where to start.
The Anatomy of Story: 22 Steps to Becoming a Master Storyteller
John Truby - 2007
As a result, writers will dig deep within and explore their own values and worldviews in order to create an effective story. Writers will come away with an extremely precise set of tools to work with--specific, useful techniques to make the audience care about their characters, and that make their characters grow in meaningful ways. They will construct a surprising plot that is unique to their particular concept, and they will learn how to express a moral vision that can genuinely move an audience.The foundations of story that Truby lays out are so fundamental they are applicable--and essential--to all writers, from novelists and short-story writers to journalists, memoirists, and writers of narrative non-fiction.
Case Files: Family Medicine
Eugene C. Toy - 2006
Case Files: Family Medicine reviews 60 high-yield family medicine cases, each with USMLE-format review questions and clinical pearls that highlight key concepts. In this score-boosting resource, you'll find must-know family medicine cases in an interactive and memorable format written by experienced educators.
Titanic and the Making of James Cameron: The Inside Story of the Three-Year Adventure That Rewrote Motion Picture History
Paula Parisi - 1998
Titanic and the Making of James Cameron by former Hollywood Reporter journalist Paula Parisi recounts the making of this modern classic motion picture from conception to completion, offering a fascinating, detailed, behind-the-scenes look at its stars, including Kate Winslet and Leonardo DiCaprio, its crew, and its genius director. Republished in time to commemorate the centennial anniversary of the catastrophic sinking of the gargantuan ocean liner, Titanic and the Making of James Cameron is a must-read for Titanic fans and for true movie buffs everywhere.
A Killer Life: How an Independent Film Producer Survives Deals and Disasters in Hollywood and Beyond
Christine Vachon - 2006
Here is an account of a filmmaker who looks straight into the eye of the Hollywood blockbuster storm and dares not to blink.In "A Killer Life," Christine Vachon follows up her independent producing handbook, "Shooting to Kill," with a behind-the-scenes memoir of the battle between creativity and commerce -- and a renegade's rise to being one of the most powerful female producers in independent film today."A Killer Life" traces the early years Vachon spent producing such controversial and critically acclaimed movies as "Poison, Happiness," and "Kids," films that paved the way for Academy Award-winning triumphs like "Boys Don't Cry." She recounts the birth and rise of independent film and the evolution of her company, Killer Films, revealing the stories behind star castings and firings and films that never got made; how sexuality factors into the films she produces; and how the often lethal combination of finance and creativity affects what we see on the big screen.Intelligent and tough as nails, but endearingly self-effacing, Vachon's account of her filmmaking experiences, and the successes and failures that have made Killer Films one of the few truly independent film companies in New York, is a thoroughly entertaining and thought-provoking read for filmmakers and fans alike.
A Woman's View: How Hollywood Spoke to Women, 1930-1960
Jeanine Basinger - 1993
Films widely disparate in subject, sentiment, and technique, they nonetheless shared one dual purpose: to provide the audience (of women, primarily) with temporary liberation into a screen dream - of romance, sexuality, luxury, suffering, or even wickedness - and then send it home reminded of, reassured by, and resigned to the fact that no matter what else she might do, a woman's most important job was...to be a woman. Now, with boundless knowledge and infectious enthusiasm, Jeanine Basinger illuminates the various surprising and subversive ways in which women's films delivered their message. Basinger examines dozens of films, exploring the seemingly intractable contradictions at the convoluted heart of the woman's genre - among them, the dilemma of the strong and glamorous woman who cedes her power when she feels it threatening her personal happiness, and the self-abnegating woman whose selflessness is not always as "noble" as it appears. Basinger looks at the stars who played these women (Kay Francis, Barbara Stanwyck, Joan Crawford, Bette Davis, Rosalind Russell, Susan Hayward, Myrna Loy, and a host of others) and helps us understand the qualities - the right off-screen personae, the right on-screen attitudes, the right faces, the right figures for carrying the right clothes - that made them personify the woman's film and equipped them to make believable drama or comedy out of the crackpot plots, the conflicting ideas, and the exaggerations of real behavior that characterize these movies. In each of the films the author discus
Motion Picture and Video Lighting
Blain Brown - 1992
Written by the author of the industry bible Cinematography, this book explores technical, aesthetic, and practical aspects of lighting for film and video. It will show you not only how to light, but why. Written by an experienced professional, this comprehensive book explores light and color theory; equipment, and techniques to make every scene look its best. Now in full color, Motion Picture and Video Lighting is heavily illustrated with photos and diagrams throughout. This new edition also includes the ultimate 'behind the scenes' DVD that takes you directly on a professional shoot and demonstrates technical procedures and equipment. In addition, 20 video clips include lighting demonstrations, technical tests, fundamentals of lighting demos, and short scenes illustrating different styles of lighting.
Adventures in the Screen Trade
William Goldman - 1983
Two-time Academy Award-winning screenwriter and the bestselling author of Marathon Man, Tinsel, Boys and Girls Together, and other novels, Goldman now takes you into Hollywood's inner sanctums...on and behind the scenes for Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, All the President's Men, and other films...into the plush offices of Hollywood producers...into the working lives of acting greats such as Redford, Olivier, Newman, and Hoffman...and into his own professional experiences and creative thought processes in the crafting of screenplays. You get a firsthand look at why and how films get made and what elements make a good screenplay. Says columnist Liz Smith, "You'll be fascinated.
Easy Riders, Raging Bulls
Peter Biskind - 1998
This down-and-dirty romp through Hollywood in the 1970s introduces the young filmmakers--Coppola, Scorsese, Lucas, Spielberg, Altman, and Beatty--and recreates an era that transformed American culture forever.