Following in the maverick mold of Quentin Tarentino, Spike Lee, and Richard Rodriguez, Joe Queenan becomes an auteur and, in the process, funnier than ever, as he tries to master the art of writing, directing, scoring, casting, and marketing a movie--all by himself.

    The final six weeks of the series had guests like Julia Roberts, George Clooney, Oprah Winfrey, and the Obamas. All names you have heard many times. But it was the people behind the scenes who pulled off these twenty-eight unforgettable episodes of late-night television.Author Scott Ryan conducted over twenty interviews with the staffers of David Letterman. Most of the participants had never given interviews before. The writers, directors, producers, and stage managers offer a behind-the-scenes look at what it was like to work on these shows. Find out what it takes to write a Top Ten list, book a president for a guest spot, and what it was like working at the Ed Sullivan Theater.Long time Letterman writer Bill Scheft penned the foreword for the book. Included are over 100 color photos from staffers' personal collections, as well as publicity photos from the show. Get the first truly inside look at creating an episode of Late Show.Pre-order the book at lastdaysofletterman.com Interviews with:Barbara Gaines - Executive Producer; Sheila Rogers - Supervising Producer/ Talent Executive; Randi Grossack - Associate Director; Kathy Mavrikakis, Supervising Producer; Rick Sheckman, Associate Producer; Brian Teta - Supervising Producer/Segment Producer; Sheryl Zelikson - Music Producer; Jay Johnson - Creative Director, Digital Media; Jerry Foley - Director; Michael Barrie - Writer; Lee Ellenberg - Writer; Jim Mulholland - Writer; Joe Grossman - Writer; Jeremy Weiner - Writer; Steve Young - Writer; Vincent Favale - Executive of Late Night Programing; Eddie Valk - Stage Manager; Bill Scheft - Writer; Janice Penino - Vice President, Human Resources; Jill Goodwin - Writer; and Mike Buczkiewicz - Senior Producer/Segment Producer; Rupert Jee - Hello Deli Owner.Author Scott Ryan (thirtysomething at thirty: an oral history, The Blue Rose, Scott Luck Stories) weaves together memories from the staff with moments from the show in this new book recounting the final six weeks of Letterman's historic thirty-three-year reign as late-night talk show host.Pre-order the book at lastdaysofletterman.com

    Second City, The: Backstage at the World's Greatest Comedy Theate, by Patinkin, Sheldon

    It is a complete resource for anyone who wants to write and produce for a television drama series or create an original series, as well as for teachers in screenwriting classes and workshops. Offering practical industry information and artistic encouragement, the book is both nuts-and-bolts and inspiration. The Third Edition leads readers into the future and engages provocative issues about the interface between traditional TV and emerging technologies and endless possibilities.

    Her work on The Dick Van Dyke Show and The Mary Tyler Moore Show garnered multiple Emmys, followed by critical acclaim for her acting on Broadway and in film. Now, in her witty, candid, heartbreaking autobiography, Mary Tyler Moore tells all, about...the Dick Van Dyke nobody knows...Elvis, her sly, seductive co-star in Change of Habit...how Carl Reiner taught her to cry while being funny...Robert Redford's confession after casting her in Ordinary People...about then-First Lady Betty Ford's inebriated debut on The Mary Tyler Moore Show, and years later, her phone call that saved Mary's life.Mary spares nothing as she recounts her traumatic childhood, two failed marriages, her own alcoholism, the tragic death of her son, and her third, happy marriage to a cardiologist eighteen years her junior. Moving, inspiring, and brutally frank, After All will touch every reader's heart and soul.

    The author provides vivid descriptions of classic pictures such as The Birth of a Nation, Intolerance, Sunrise, The Covered Wagon, and Greed, and lucidly discusses their technical and artistic merits and weaknesses. He pays tribute to acknowledged masters like D. W. Griffith, Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton, Douglas Fairbanks, Mary Pickford, and Lillian and Dorothy Gish, but he also gives ample attention to previously neglected yet equally gifted actors and directors. In addition, the book covers individual genres, such as the comedy, western gangster, and spectacle, and explores such essential but little-understood subjects as art direction, production design, lighting and camera techniques, and the art of the subtitle. Intended for all scholars, students, and lovers of film, this fascinating book, which features over 150 film stills, provides a rich and comprehensive overview of this unforgettable era in film history.

    It's not the whole story, but it's a mosaic of what went on, and why, and of where things are heading.What changed in one Hollywood year to produce a record-breaking box office after two years of decline? How can the Sundance Festival influence a film's fate, as it did for Beasts of the Southern Wild and Searching for Sugar Man, which both went all the way to the Oscars? Why did John Carter misfire and The Hunger Games succeed? How did maneuvers at festivals such as South by Southwest (SXSW), Cannes, Telluride, Toronto, and New York and at conventions such as CinemaCon and Comic-Con benefit Amour, Django Unchained, Moonrise Kingdom, Silver Linings Playbook, Les Misérables, The Life of Pi, The Avengers, Lincoln, and Argo? What jeopardized Zero Dark Thirty's launch? What role does gender bias still play in the industry? What are the ten things that changed the 2012 Oscar race?When it comes to film, Anne Thompson, a seasoned reporter and critic, addresses these questions and more on her respected daily blog, Thompson on Hollywood. Each year, she observes the Hollywood machine at work: the indies at Sundance, the exhibitors' jockeying at CinemaCon, the international scene at Cannes, the summer tentpoles, the fall's "smart" films and festivals, the family-friendly and big films of the holiday season, and the glamour of the Oscars®. Inspired by William Goldman's classic book The Season, which examined the overall Broadway scene through a production-by-production analysis of one theatrical season, Thompson had long wanted to apply a similar lens to the movie business. When she chose 2012 as "the year" to track, she knew that box-office and DVD sales were declining, production costs were soaring, and the digital revolution was making big waves, but she had no idea that events would converge to bring radical structural movement, record-setting box-office revenues, and what she calls "sublime moviemaking."Though impossible to mention all 670-plus films released in 2012, Thompson includes many in this book, while focusing on the nine Best Picture nominees and the personalities and powers behind them. Reflecting on the year, Thompson concludes, "The best movies get made because filmmakers, financiers, champions, and a great many gifted creative people stubbornly ignore the obstacles. The question going forward is how adaptive these people are, and how flexible is the industry itself?"

    Taking what he knew from vaudeville--ingenuity, athleticism, audacity and wit--Keaton applied his hand to the new medium of film, proving himself a prodigious acrobat and brilliant writer, gagman, director and actor in more than 100 films. Between 1920 and 1929, he rivaled Fatty Arbuckle, Harold Lloyd, and even Charlie Chaplin as the master of silent comedy by writing, directing, and starring in more than 30 films. The book celebrates Keaton in his prime--as an antic genius, equal parts auteur, innovator, prankster and daredevil--while also revealing the pressures in his personal and professional life that led to a collapse into drunkenness and despair before his triumphant second act as a television pioneer and Hollywood player in everything from beach movies to Beckett. McPherson describes the life of Keaton--in front of the camera and behind the scenes--with the kind of exuberance and narrative energy displayed by the shrewd, madcap films themselves.

    

    The definitive, authorized history of the worlds most beloved musical, The Sound of Music is packed with rare full-color illustrations and little-known facts, its evolution from stage to screen, and the composers, writers, and performers who brought the show to immortal life.

    He is a fan favorite and his book opens all of the doors and windows into his personal life of tragedy and redemption, the murder of his mother, familial mental illness, and Thom's now openly gay and proud lifestyle. Thom has forgiven his schizophrenic brother, Troy, who will spend the rest of his life in a Wisconsin state prison.

    He was less an actor than a symbol, the most popular pop icon of the 20th century, & one of the most important political figures in America. People shaped their lives or adopted political stands to conform to him as a template of authentic Americanism. Wayne became the lens which people saw their own & their country's history. In this groundbreaking study of the relationship between politics & popular culture, Pulitzer Prize-winning author Wills focuses on the manufacture of "John Wayne" from the raw materials of Marion Morrison, the person born in Iowa who became a myth, his own reality swallowed up in his meaning as master directors such as John Ford crafted films that made him a personification of America's frontier myth. Unlike other actors & actresses with whom we associate political views, Wayne embodied a politics of large meanings--a politics of gender (male), ideology (patriot), character (self-reliant) & personal responsibility. It was a politics of implicit dogmas often transcending his own views & behavior. Altho Wayne avoided serving in WWII, he became, thru screen roles, the model of the American soldier. Likewise, altho his popular image is that of a staunch anti-Communist, in reality he avoided taking a stand in the ideological war that raged in Hollywood until after the issue had been decided. He acquired his larger political meaning gradually, as he moved from one film role to the next: from the young, individualist cowboy hero (Ringo Kid in Stagecoach) to the middle-aged authority figure weighed down with responsibility (Sergeant Stryker in Sands of Iwo Jima) to the cool, determined patriot in the midst of Cold War dangers (Davy Crockett in The Alamo) to the elderly lone survivor of a past heroic time (Rooster Cogburn in True Grit). Wayne himself became aware of his larger political meaning only thru a progressive act of self-identification, in much the same way that his fans came to associate their ideals with his screen personae. In this work, the biography of an idea, Wills shows how Wayne & the Hollywood image factories distorted or ignored important facts of his life to create his myth. Wills shows how Wayne, thru his screen characters, spoke to the needs of his audience at crucial periods in history, & how in response Americans invested their emotions in that embodiment of their deepest myths. John Wayne's America traces the way Wayne's countrymen became "entangled in his story, by the dreams he shaped or inhibited in us or in others, by the things he validated & those he scorned, by the particular definition he gave to 'being American.'"

    Badham’s list of “12 Questions You Must Ask Before Stepping On Set” is an absolute must in any filmmaker’s toolbox. Whether actor, director, cinematographer, production designer, or any other creative, Badham gives you the tools to deconstruct and solve scenes that either don’t work or need sharpening. Continuing the work begun in his best-selling book I’ll Be In My Trailer, Badham shares more insights into working with difficult actors, rehearsal techniques, and getting the best performance from your cast.

    In The Billy Bob Tapes, he leads us into his Cave Full of Ghosts, spinning colorful tales of his modest (to say the least) Southern upbringing, his bizarre phobias (komoda dragons?), his life, his loves (including his marriage to fellow Oscar winner Angelina Jolie), and, of course, his movie career. Best of all, he’s feeding these truly incredible stories and righteous philosophical rants through his close friend, Kinky Friedman—legendary country music star, bestselling author, would-be politician, and all-around bon vivant. Put these two iconoclasts together and you get a star’s story that’s actually an insightful pop culture manifesto—a hybrid offspring of Born Standing Up with Sh*t My Dad Says.

    They cannot act adjectives, they need verbs. This thesaurus of active verbs helps the actor to refine the action-word until they hit exactly the right one to make the action come alive.