Book picks similar to
Principal Photography: Interviews with Feature Film Cinematographers by Vincent Lobrutto
film
film-books
film-cinematography
non-fiction
Irrfan Khan: The Man, The Dreamer, The Star
Aseem Chhabra - 2020
Most of us know the man only through the characters that he has played: Roohdaar in Haider, Maqbool in the eponymous film, Rana in Piku, Saajan in The Lunchbox, and of course, Ashoke in The Namesake. Today, these characters have made him a recognized name around the world.Irrfan Khan is an intimate and meticulously researched account of this refreshingly unique and unconventional Indian icon. Drawn from personal interviews and told through many voices, Aseem Chhabra traces Irrfan’s personal and artistic life in all its many shades. Rich in detail and peppered with anecdotes, it is a fascinating look at the life and work of the actor that begins in a small household in Rajasthan and culminates in his face gazing down from billboards in Hollywood. It explores some of his greatest performances that have shown India and the world what cinema can do. At the heart of this story, however, is a man, possibly the finest actor of his generation, his passion for the craft of acting and his love for unusual characters.
The Winston Effect: The Art and History of Stan Winston Studio
Jody Duncan - 2006
Now, at last, he's opening up the Stan Winston Studio to collaborate on the first-ever book to reveal all the behind-the-scenes secrets of his groundbreaking and hugely influential artistry and effects work. Featuring an extensive array of sketches, production art, and photographs straight from the studio archives, this is the book his fans have been waiting for!
Weirdsville U.S.A.: The Obsessive Universe of David Lynch
Paul A. Woods - 1997
Weirdsville U.S.A. charts Lynch’s work from his experimental art school years and the midnight movie hit Eraserhead, the mainstream success of The Elephant Man and the commercial failure of Dune, the birth of Weird Americana with Blue Velvet and Twin Peaks and the neo-noir mystery Lost Highway, to the present day and the film The Straight Story and TV series Mulholland Drive.
Hurrell's Hollywood Portraits
Mark A. Vieira - 1993
The book traces his immense impact on the portrayal of the leading stars year by year, from his arrival in California in 1925 until his departure in 1943. During that time he photographed all of the greatest personalities, at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, Warner Brothers, and Columbia as well as independently. The prints come from the Chapman Collection, one of the most extensive archives of original Hurrell photographs in the world, and they include a number of rarities and surprises. Although some photos by Hurrell are familiar and frequently reproduced, most of the images in this book will come as a revelation, since they have not been published in over half a century. The genesis of the pictures is examined in a remarkable text by Mark A. Vieira, himself a highly regarded portrait photographer, who came to know Hurrell well during the photographer's later years. Vieira explains in detail Hurrell's technical feats of lighting and retouching. And drawing on firsthand accounts, he vividly re-creates the lively interplay between the photographer and his subjects at the shooting sessions in which these portraits were taken.
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 Comedy Film Nerds Guide to Movies: Featuring Dave Anthony, Lord Carrett, Dean Haglund, Allan Havey, Laura House, Jackie Kashian, Suzy Nakamura, Greg Proops, Mike Schmidt, Neil T. Weakley, and Matt Weinhold
Graham Elwood - 2012
Is it serious movie discussion? Is it funny? Do the writers know what the hell they are talking about? Yes, Yes, Yes, and Yes. OK, that’s too many Yes’s but you get the point. Graham Elwood and Chris Mancini, both professional filmmakers and comedians, created Comedyfilmnerds.com to mind meld the idea of real movie talk and real funny. And they called in all of their professionally funny and filmy friends to help them. Comedians and writers who have been on everything from the Tonight Show to having their own comedy specials tell you what’s what on their favorite film genres. While "The Comedy Film Nerds Guide to Movies" is funny and informative, each film genre is given a personal touch. All of the Comedy Film Nerds have a love of film and a personal connection to each genre. Read about a love of film from an insider’s perspective. "The Comedy Film Nerds Guide to Movies" is for the movie lover with a good sense of humor.
Sculpting in Time
Andrei Tarkovsky - 1984
In Sculpting in Time, he has left his artistic testament, a remarkable revelation of both his life and work. Since Ivan's Childhood won the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival in 1962, the visionary quality and totally original and haunting imagery of Tarkovsky's films have captivated serious movie audiences all over the world, who see in his work a continuation of the great literary traditions of nineteenth-century Russia. Many critics have tried to interpret his intensely personal vision, but he himself always remained inaccessible.In Sculpting in Time, Tarkovsky sets down his thoughts and his memories, revealing for the first time the original inspirations for his extraordinary films--Ivan's Childhood, Andrey Rublyov, Solaris, The Mirror, Stalker, Nostalgia, and The Sacrifice. He discusses their history and his methods of work, he explores the many problems of visual creativity, and he sets forth the deeply autobiographical content of part of his oeuvre--most fascinatingly in The Mirror and Nostalgia. The closing chapter on The Sacrifice, dictated in the last weeks of Tarkovsky's life, makes the book essential reading for those who already know or who are just discovering his magnificent work.
Directors' Diaries: The Road to Their First Film
Rakesh Bakshi - 2015
In this book, Rakesh Bakshi attempts to demystify the director's invisible and omnipotent presence in films. He documents the lives and experiences of some of the finest Hindi film-makers - Ashutosh Gowariker, Mahesh Bhatt, Prakash Jha, Shyam Benegal, Tigmanshu Dhulia, Vishal Bhardwaj, Zoya Akhtar, Santosh Sivan, Subhash Ghai, Farah Khan, Imtiaz Ali, Govind Nihalani. In fascinating interviews, these directors reveal the many and unexpected turns their lives have taken, how and why they came to direct their first films and what influenced the choices they made. About the AuthorFilm scriptwriter, director, actor, author, photographer, swimmer, walker and cyclist, Rakesh Anand Bakshi is the son of the legendary lyricist Anand Bakshi. He is the founder of Bicycle Angels, a non-profit social initiative that helps donate bicycles to the underprivileged as a means of livelihood. He loves reading biographies, self-help books and novels and watching different kinds of cinema and documentaries.
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.
Save the Cat!® Writes for TV: The Last Book on Creating Binge-Worthy Content You'll Ever Need
Jamie Nash - 2021
Screenwriter Jamie Nash takes up Snyder’s torch to lay out a step-by-step approach using Blake’s principles so that both new and experienced writers can learn how to: -Use all the nuances, tricks, and techniques of pilot-writing (The Opening Pitch, The Guided Tour, The Whiff of Change) with examples from today’s hottest series -Discover the Super-Secret Keep It On The Downlow TV Pitch Template that combines all the critical points of your amazing TV series into one easy-to-read-over-lunch high-level document -Define the 9 TV Franchise Types -Crack your story using the Save the Cat! beat sheet -Devise high-level series concepts with multi-season potential -Map out and organize TV pilots and multi-season shows -Break down the best and most diverse TV series using examples from Atlanta, Barry, Ozark, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, What We Do in the Shadows, Black-ish, The Mandalorian, Law and Order: SVU and more -Create layered characters who are driven by complex internal struggles It’s time for Save the Cat! Writes for TV to help you create your binge-worthy TV series!
Paul Thomas Anderson: Masterworks
Adam Nayman - 2020
In Paul Thomas Anderson: Masterworks, Anderson’s entire career—from Hard Eight (1996), Boogie Nights (1997), Magnolia (1999), Punch Drunk Love (2002), There Will Be Blood (2007), The Master (2012), Inherent Vice (2014), and Phantom Thread (2017) to his music videos for Radiohead to his early short films—is examined in illustrated detail for the first time. Anderson’s influences, his style, and the recurring themes of alienation, reinvention, ambition, and destiny that course through his movies are analyzed and supplemented by firsthand interviews with Anderson’s closest collaborators—including producer JoAnne Sellar, actor Vicky Krieps, and composer Jonny Greenwood—and illuminated by film stills, archival photos, original illustrations, and an appropriately psychedelic design aesthetic. Masterworks is a tribute to the dreamers, drifters, and evil dentists who populate his world.
Cary Grant: A Celebration of Style
Richard Torregrossa - 2006
With rare and never-before-published photographs, personal letters, and documents, this groundbreaking book reveals the style secrets that helped make Grant a fashion icon.
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.
Peter Cushing: The Complete Memoirs
Peter Cushing - 2013
Cushing was widely known as ‘the gentleman of horror’, his kind and sensitive nature a sharp contrast with the Hammer Horror roles that dominated his work from the 1950s onwards. This is Cushing’s own account of his remarkable career, and the devastating sense of loss he suffered following the death of his wife. It offers unparalleled insight to the meticulous professionalism and private torment of a legendary film star.
Pictures at a Revolution: Five Movies and the Birth of the New Hollywood
Mark Harris - 2008
Explores the epic human drama behind the making of the five movies nominated for Best Picture in 1967-Guess Who's Coming to Dinner, The Graduate, In the Heat of the Night, Doctor Doolittle, and Bonnie and Clyde-and through them, the larger story of the cultural revolution that transformed Hollywood, and America, forever.