Buy on Amazon:
USA UK Germany France Canada Italy India
Synopsis: The world of cinematography has changed more in the last few years than it has since it has in 1929, when sound recording was introduced. New technology, new tools and new methods have revolutionized the art and craft of telling stories visually. While some aspects of visual language, lighting and color are eternal, shooting methods, workflow and cameras have changed radically. Even experienced film artists have a need to update and review new methods and equipment. These change affect not only the director of photography but also the director, the camera assistants, gaffers, and digital imaging technicians.

Cinematography: Theory and Practice covers both the artistry and craftsmanship of cinematography and visual storytelling. Few art forms are as tied to their tools and technology as is cinematography. Take your mastery of these new tools, techniques, and roles to the next level with this cutting-edge roadmap from author and filmmaker Blain Brown.

Whether you are a student of filmmaking, just breaking into the business, currently working in the industry and looking to move up to the next level, or an experienced professional who wants to update their knowledge of tools and techniques, this book provides both a basic introduction to these issues as well as more advanced and in-depth coverage of the subject.

Topics Include:

Visual language, Visual storytelling, Continuity and coverage, Cameras and digital sensors, Exposure techniques for film and video, Color in-depth, Understanding digital images, Waveform monitors, vectorscopes, and test charts, Using linear, gamma, and log encoded video ,Image control and grading on the set, The tools and basics of film lighting, ASC-CDL, ACES and other new methods, Optics and focus, Camera movement, Set operations, Green screen, high speed and other topics

Buy on Amazon:
USA UK Germany France Canada Italy India
Synopsis: French critic and composer Michel Chion argues that watching movies is more than just a visual exercise it enacts a process of audio-viewing. The audiovisual makes use of a wealth of tropes, devices, techniques, and effects that convert multiple sensations into image and sound, therefore rendering, instead of reproducing, the world through cinema.The first half of Film, a Sound Art considers developments in technology, aesthetic trends, and individual artistic style that recast the history of film as the evolution of a truly audiovisual language. The second half explores the intersection of auditory and visual realms. With restless inventiveness, Chion develops a rhetoric that describes the effects of audio-visual combinations, forcing us to rethink sound film. He claims, for example, that the silent era (which he terms "deaf cinema") did not end with the advent of sound technology but continues to function underneath and within later films. Expanding our appreciation of cinematic experiences ranging from Dolby multitrack in action films and the eerie tricycle of Stanley Kubrick's The Shining to the way actors from different nations use their voices and words, Film, a Sound Art showcases the vast knowledge and innovative thinking of a major theorist.

Buy on Amazon:
USA UK Germany France Canada Italy India
Synopsis: This book is for working film/TV professionals and students alike. If you're a line producer, production manager, production supervisor, assistant director or production coordinator--the book has everything you'll need (including all the forms, contracts, releases and checklists) to set up and run a production--from finding a production office to turning over delivery elements. Even if you know what you're doing, you will be thrilled to find everything you need in one place. If you're not already working in film production, but think you'd like to be, read the book -- and then decide. If you choose to pursue this career path, you'll know what to expect, you'll be prepared, and you'll be ten steps ahead of everyone else just starting out.

New topics and information in the fourth edition include:
* Low-budget independent films, including documentaries and shorts
* Information specific to television production and commercials
* The industry's commitment to go green and how to do it
* Coverage of new travel and shipping regulations
* Updated information on scheduling, budgeting, deal memos, music clearances, communications, digital production, and new forms throughout

Buy on Amazon:
USA UK Germany France Canada Italy India
Synopsis: The award-winning director journeys inside the world of film to illuminate the arduous process of creating movies, discussing the art and craft of directing, writers and actors, the camera, art direction, editing, sound tracks, distribution and marketing, and the studio role.

Buy on Amazon:
USA UK Germany France Canada Italy India
Synopsis: An invaluable analysis of the director's art and craft, from one of the most revered of all film school directors. Alexander 'Sandy' Mackendrick directed classic Ealing comedies plus a Hollywood masterpiece, Sweet Smell of Success. But after retiring from film-making in 1969, he then spent nearly 25 years teaching his craft at the California Institute of the Arts in Los Angeles.

Mackendrick produced hundreds of pages of masterly handouts and sketches, designed to guide his students to a finer understanding of how to write a story, and then use those devices peculiar to cinema in order to tell that story as effectively as possible. Gathered and edited in this collection, Mackendrick's teachings reveal that he had the talent not only to make great films, but also to articulate the process with a clarity and insight that will still inspire any aspirant film-maker.

Buy on Amazon:
USA UK Germany France Canada Italy India
Synopsis:This definitive handbook explains how a script is transformed into a motion picture or television program. Readers will learn the methodology and craft of the script supervisor, who ensures that the continuity of a film, its logical progression, is coherent.

The book teaches all vital script supervising functions, including how to:
.prepare, or "break down" a script for shooting
.maintaining screen direction and progression
.matching scenes and shots for editing
.cuing actors
.recording good takes and prints
preparing time and log sheets for editing

This revision of an industry classic has been updated to reflect changes in the film industry in recent years, including the use of electronic media in the script supervisor's tasks. While it is written for the novice script writer, it can serve as a valuable resource for directors, film editors, scriptwriters and cinematographers.

Buy on Amazon:
USA UK Germany France Canada Italy India
Synopsis: Practical Art of Motion Picture Sound, 4th edition relies on the professional experience of the author and other top sound craftspeople to provide a comprehensive explanation of film sound, including mixing, dubbing, workflow, budgeting, and digital audio techniques. Practically grounded with real-world stories from the trenches throughout, the book also provides relevant technical data, as well as an appreciation of all the processes involved in creating optimal motion picture sound.

New to this edition are exclusive sound artist lessons from the field (including 2 new production cases studies), including insight from craftspeople who have worked on the latest Harry Potter and Batman films. All technological changes have been updated to reflect the most current systems.

Buy on Amazon:
USA UK Germany France Canada Italy India
Synopsis: The International Film Business examines the independent film sector as a business, and addresses the specific skills and knowledge it demands. It describes both the present state of the industry, the significant digital and social media developments that are continuing to take place, and what changes these might effect.
The International Film Business:

describes and analyses the present structure of the film industry as a business, with a specific focus on the film value chain
discusses and analyses current digital technology and how it potentially may change the structure and opportunities offered by the industry in the future
provides information and advice on the different business and management skills and strategies
includes case studies on a variety of films including The Guard (2011), The King’s Speech (2010), The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel (2012), Cloverfield (2008), Pobby & Dingan (aka Opal Dream, 2005), Confessions of a Dangerous Mind (2002), The Reckoning (2002)and The Mother (2003), and company case studies on Pixar, Renaissance, Redbus and Zentropa. Further case studies on films that failed to go into production include Neil LaBute’s Vapor and Terry Gilliam’s Good Omens.
Taking an entrepreneurial perspective on what future opportunities will be available to prepared and informed students and emerging practitioners, this text includes case studies that take students through the successes and failures of a variety of real film companies and projects and features exclusive interviews with leading practitioners in all sectors of the industry, from production to exhibition.

Buy on Amazon:
USA UK Germany France Canada Italy India
Synopsis:Mise-en-scene: Film Style and Interpretation explores and elucidates constructions of this fundamental concept in thinking about film. In uncovering the history of mise-en-scene within film criticism, and through the detailed exploration of scenes from films as Imitation of Life and Lone Star, John Gibbs makes the case for the importance of a sensitive understanding of film style, and provides an introduction to the skills of close reading. This book thus celebrates film-making as well as film criticism that is alive to the creative possibilities of visual style.

Buy on Amazon:
USA UK Germany France Canada Italy India
Synopsis: Film Directing Fundamentals gives the novice director an organic methodology for realizing on the screen the full dramatic possibility of a screenplay. Unique among directing books, this book provides clear-cut ways to translate a script to the screen. Using the script as a blueprint, the reader is led through specific techniques to analyze and translate its components into a visual story. A sample screenplay is included that explicates the techniques. The book assumes no knowledge and thus introduces basic concepts and terminology.

Appropriate for screenwriters, aspiring directors and filmmakers, Film Directing Fundamentals helps filmmakers bring their story to life on screen.

Buy on Amazon:
USA UK Germany France Canada Italy India
Synopsis: This comprehensive manual has inspired tens of thousands of readers worldwide to realize their artistic vision and produce well-constructed films. Filled with practical advice on every stage of production, this is the book you will return to throughout your career.

Directing covers the methods, technologies, thought processes, and judgments that a director must use throughout the fascinating process of making a film. The core of the book is the human, psychological, and technical knowledge that every director needs, the enduring elements of the craft that remain vital.

Directing also provides an unusually clear view of the artistic process, particularly in working with actors and principle crew to achieve personally expressive storytelling and professionalism on any budget.

Directing explores in detailed and applicable terms how to engage with the conceptual and authorial sides of filmmaking. Its eminently practical tools and exercises show how to: discover your artistic identity; develop credible and compelling stories with your cast and crew; and become a storyteller with a distinctive voice and style.

The companion website includes teaching notes, dozens of practical hands-on projects and film study activities to help you master technical and conceptual skills, film analysis questionnaires, and all the essential production forms and logs.

New to the fifth edition

* Virtually every chapter has been revised, updated, and re-organized for a streamlined and integrated approach.

* Expanded sections on the basics of drama, including thorough analyses of recent films

* Discussions of the director’s approach to script analysis and development

* New discussion exploring the elements of naturalistic and stylistic aesthetic approaches.

* New discussion on the narrative power of lighting and the lens - including many recent film examples for shot size, perspective, focus and exposure

* Greater emphasis on the implications of composition, mise-en-scène, continuity shooting and editing, long take shooting, point-of-view sequences, and camera handling

* Expanded discussion of collaboration between the director and principle creative crew

* Updated coverage of workflow and comparative advantages to digital or film acquisition

* New section on film production safety, set protocol and etiquette

Buy on Amazon:
USA UK Germany France Canada Italy India
Synopsis: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.

Buy on Amazon:
USA UK Germany France Canada Italy India
Synopsis: The Technique of Film and Video Editing provides a detailed, precise look at the artistic and aesthetic principles and practices of editing for both picture and sound. Because editing is about more than learning a specific software program, this book focuses on the fundamentals of editing as art. Analysis of photographs from dozens of classic and contemporary films and videos provide a sound basis for the professional filmmaker and student editor.

This book puts into context the storytelling choices an editor will have to make against a background of theory, history, and practice. This edition includes brand new chapters covering the goals of editing, including editing for narrative clarity, subtext, aesthetics, and dramatic emphasis, all showing how to evoke specific audience responses. Some of the new films to be discussed include A History of Violence, Atonement, The Departed, Forgetting Sarah Marshall, MIchael Clayton, and more.

Buy on Amazon:
USA UK Germany France Canada Italy India
Synopsis: In the Blink of an Eye is celebrated film editor Walter Murch's vivid, multifaceted, thought -- provoking essay on film editing. Starting with what might be the most basic editing question -- Why do cuts work? -- Murch treats the reader to a wonderful ride through the aesthetics and practical concerns of cutting film. Along the way, he offers his unique insights on such subjects as continuity and discontinuity in editing, dreaming, and reality; criteria for a good cut; the blink of the eye as an emotional cue; digital editing; and much more. In this second edition, Murch reconsiders and completely revises his popular first edition's lengthy meditation on digital editing (which accounts for a third of the book's pages) in light of the technological changes that have taken place in the six years since its publication.

Buy on Amazon:
USA UK Germany France Canada Italy India
Synopsis:During the filming of his celebrated novel THE ENGLISH PATIENT, Michael Ondaatje became increasingly fascinated as he watched the veteran editor Walter Murch at work. THE CONVERSATIONS, which grew out of discussions between the two men, is about the craft of filmmaking and deals with every aspect of film, from the first stage of script writing to the final stage of the sound mix. Walter Murch emerged during the 1960s at the centre of a renaissance of American filmmakers which included the directors Francis Coppola, George Lucas and Fred Zinneman. He worked on a whole raft of great films including the three GODFATHER films, JULIA, AMERICAN GRAFFITI, APOCALYPSE NOW, THE UNBEARABLE LIGHTNESS OF BEING and many others. Articulate, intellectual, humorous and passionate about his craft and its devices, Murch brings his vast experience and penetrating insights to bear as he explains how films are made, how they work, how they go wrong and how they can be saved. His experience on APOCALYPSE NOW - both originally and more recently when the film was completely re-cut - and his work with Anthony Minghella on THE ENGLISH PATIENT provide illuminating highlights.

Buy on Amazon:
USA UK Germany France Canada Italy India
Synopsis:Since its release in 1949, The Hero with a Thousand Faces has influenced millions of readers by combining the insights of modern psychology with Joseph Campbell’s revolutionary understanding of comparative mythology. In these pages, Campbell outlines the Hero’s Journey, a universal motif of adventure and transformation that runs through virtually all of the world’s mythic traditions. He also explores the Cosmogonic Cycle, the mythic pattern of world creation and destruction.

As part of the Joseph Campbell Foundation’s Collected Works of Joseph Campbell, this third edition features expanded illustrations, a comprehensive bibliography, and more accessible sidebars.

As relevant today as when it was first published, The Hero with a Thousand Faces continues to find new audiences in fields ranging from religion and anthropology to literature and film studies. The book has also profoundly influenced creative artists—including authors, songwriters, game designers, and filmmakers—and continues to inspire all those interested in the inherent human need to tell stories.

Buy on Amazon:
USA UK Germany France Canada Italy India
Synopsis:No one knows the writer's Hollywood more intimately than William Goldman. 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.

Buy on Amazon:
USA UK Germany France Canada Italy India
Synopsis: An invaluable analysis of the director's art and craft, from one of the most revered of all film school directors. Alexander 'Sandy' Mackendrick directed classic Ealing comedies plus a Hollywood masterpiece, Sweet Smell of Success. But after retiring from film-making in 1969, he then spent nearly 25 years teaching his craft at the California Institute of the Arts in Los Angeles.

Mackendrick produced hundreds of pages of masterly handouts and sketches, designed to guide his students to a finer understanding of how to write a story, and then use those devices peculiar to cinema in order to tell that story as effectively as possible. Gathered and edited in this collection, Mackendrick's teachings reveal that he had the talent not only to make great films, but also to articulate the process with a clarity and insight that will still inspire any aspirant film-maker.

Buy on Amazon:
USA UK Germany France Canada Italy India
Synopsis:Structure is Character. Characters are what they do. Story events impact the characters and the characters impact events. Actions and reactions create revelation and insight, opening the door to a meaningful emotional experience for the audience. Story is what elevates a film, a novel, a play, or teleplay, transforming a good work into a great one. Movie-making in particular is a collaborative endeavour - requiring great skill and talent by the entire cast, crew and creative team - but the screenwriter is the only original artist on a film. Everyone else - the actors, directors, cameramen, production designers, editors, special effects wizards and so on - are interpretive artists, trying to bring alive the world, the events and the characters that the writer has invented and created. Robert McKee's STORY is a comprehensive and superbly organized exploration of all elements, from the basics to advanced concepts. It is a practical course, presenting new perspectives on the craft of storytelling, not just for the screenwriter but for the novelist, playwright, journalist and non-fiction writers of all types.

Buy on Amazon:
USA UK Germany France Canada Italy India
Synopsis:"If you're ready to graduate from the boy-meets-girl league of screenwriting, meet John Truby . . . [his lessons inspire] epiphanies that make you see the contours of your psyche as sharply as your script."
—LA Weekly

John Truby is one of the most respected and sought-after story consultants in the film industry, and his students have gone on to pen some of Hollywood’s most successful films, including Sleepless in Seattle, Scream, and Shrek. The Anatomy of Story is his long-awaited first book, and it shares all his secrets for writing a compelling script. Based on the lessons in his award-winning class, Great Screenwriting, The Anatomy of Story draws on a broad range of philosophy and mythology, offering fresh techniques and insightful anecdotes alongside Truby’s own unique approach to building an effective, multifaceted narrative.

Buy on Amazon:
USA UK Germany France Canada Italy India
Synopsis:Make your story the best it can be on two levels. Hear each superstar teacher present his unique approach to story telling.
The "Outer Journey" is the essential structural principles driving every successful plot. Each brings years of practical experience and extensive research to story structure, character arc, and how to give your story greater commercial appeal. Full of specific examples.

The "Inner Journey" is the deeper storyline that makes a story truly great. Hauge's view: The Hero moves from hiding within a protective identity to experiencing his or her true essence. Vogler's view: The Hero's inner need is invisible at first, but is revealed to the Hero by the end of the story. Full of specific examples.

This is ideal listening for all writers (including screenwriters, novelists, and playwrights), actors, filmmakers, studio executives, game designers and developers, storytellers, and anyone with a passion for movies and stories.

Buy on Amazon:
USA UK Germany France Canada Italy India
Synopsis:An insightful, anecdote-filled history of the film industry, and an examination of the role of the men or women whose job it is to deliver a dramatic and commercial success.

Tim Adler introduces us to the mavericks and adventurers of modern-day cinema, in candid interviews with Michael Douglas (a producer who became an actor by mistake), Dino De Laurentiis (last of the great moguls), Duncan Kenworthy and Andrew McDonald (Notting Hill, 28 Days Later), Jeremy Thomas, Marin Karmitz and Christine Vachon. Through them Adler explains the history of some of the most successful films of the last three decades, and looks at the skill and experience, the showmanship and the money necessary to survive in the world's toughest business.

Buy on Amazon:
USA UK Germany France Canada Italy India
Synopsis:Heaven's Gate is probably the most discussed, least seen film in modern movie history. Its notoriety is so great that its title has become a generic term for disaster, for ego run rampant, for epic mismanagement, for wanton extravagance. It was also the film that brought down one of Hollywood's major studios--United Artists, the company founded in 1919 by Douglas Fairbanks, Mary Pickford, D. W. Griffith, and Charlie Chaplin. Steven Bach was senior vice president and head of worldwide production for United Artists at the time of the filming of Heaven's Gate, and apart from the director and producer, the only person to witness the film's evolution from beginning to end. Combining wit, extraordinary anecdotes, and historical perspective, he has produced a landmark book on Hollywood and its people, and in so doing, tells a story of human absurdity that would have made Chaplin proud.

Buy on Amazon:
USA UK Germany France Canada Italy India
Synopsis:Based on hundreds of interviews with directors such as Coppola, Scorsese, Hopper and Spielberg, as well as producers, stars, studio executives, writers, spouses, ex-spouses, and girlfriends, this is the story of the crazy world that the directors ruled.

Buy on Amazon:
USA UK Germany France Canada Italy India
Synopsis:Down and Dirty Pictures chronicles the rise of independent filmmakers and of the twin engines -- the Sundance Film Festival and Miramax Films -- that have powered them. As he did in his acclaimed Easy Riders, Raging Bulls, Peter Biskind profiles the people who took the independent movement from obscurity to the Oscars, most notably Sundance founder Robert Redford and Harvey Weinstein, who with his brother, Bob, made Miramax an indie powerhouse.
Today Sundance is the most important film festival this side of Cannes, and Miramax has become an industry giant. Likewise, the directors who emerged from the independent movement, such as Quentin Tarantino, Steven Soderbergh, and David O. Russell, are now among the best-known directors in Hollywood. Not to mention the actors who emerged with them, like Matt Damon, Ben Affleck, Ethan Hawke, and Uma Thurman.
Candid, penetrating, and controversial, Down and Dirty Pictures is a must-read for anyone interested in the film world and where it's headed.

Buy on Amazon:
USA UK Germany France Canada Italy India
Synopsis:One man links The Deer Hunter, Blade Runner, The Italian Job, Don't Look Now, The Wicker Man and The Man Who Fell to Earth. Producer Michael Deeley, an urbane Englishman in Hollywood, had to fight wars to get these movies made, from defending the legendary sex scene of Don't Look Now from a disapproving Warren Beatty to seizing control of Convoy from a cocaine-ridden Sam Peckinpah. This is a no-holds-barred look at the true stories behind some of the greatest cult movies ever made.

Blade Runners, Deer Hunters & Blowing the Bloody Doors Off is essential for any fan of cult film, British cinema, or simply of a fascinating story told well.

Buy on Amazon:
USA UK Germany France Canada Italy India
Synopsis:In 1983, Goldcrest Films was hailed as the "saviour of the British film industry" but within two years the company was virtually bankrupt. This book tells the story of Goldcrest Films and was one of "The Financial Times" Business Books of the Year.

Buy on Amazon:
USA UK Germany France Canada Italy India
Synopsis:In the mid-1960s, westerns, war movies, and blockbuster musicals like Mary Poppins swept the box office. The Hollywood studio system was astonishingly lucrative for the few who dominated the business. That is, until the tastes of American moviegoers radically- and unexpectedly-changed. By the Oscar ceremonies of 1968, a cultural revolution had hit Hollywood with the force of a tsunami, and films like Bonnie and Clyde, The Graduate, Guess Who's Coming to Dinner, In the Heat of the Night, and box-office bomb Doctor Doolittle signaled a change in Hollywood-and America. And as an entire industry changed and struggled, careers were suddenly made and ruined, studios grew and crumbled, and the landscape of filmmaking was altered beyond all recognition.

Buy on Amazon:
USA UK Germany France Canada Italy India
Synopsis:Few jobs in Hollywood are as shrouded in mystery as the role of the producer. What does it take to be a producer, how does one get started, and what on earth does one actually do? In So You Want to Be a Producer Lawrence Turman, the producer of more than forty films, including The Graduate, The River Wild, Short Circuit, and American History X, and Endowed Chair of the famed Peter Stark Producing Program at the University of Southern California, answers these questions and many more.
Examining all the nuts and bolts of production, such as raising money and securing permissions, finding a story and developing a script, choosing a director, hiring actors, and marketing your project, So You Want to Be a Producer is a must-have resource packed with insider information and first-hand advice from top Hollywood producers, writers, and directors, offering invaluable help for beginners and professionals alike.
Including a comprehensive case study of Turman s film The Graduate, this complete guide to the movie industry s most influential movers and shakers brims with useful tips and contains all the information you need to take your project from idea to the big screen."

Buy on Amazon:
USA UK Germany France Canada Italy India
Synopsis:What does a movie producer actually do for a living? Is 'producing' any more than writing cheques and smoking fat cigars? Helen de Winter, herself an intrepid young producer, discovers a job that requires the combined skills of a wheeler-dealer, a diplomat, a stern but doting parent, and a clinical psychiatrist.

The producers of everything from The Lord of the Rings, Bridget Jones's Diary to The Constant Gardener and My Big Fat Greek Wedding talk to her about:
* How do you smell a hit?
* How do you raise adequate sums of other peoples' money to get a film made?
* How do you handle feuds, fights, or even fatalities on set?
* And what can you do to drag the general public off the street and into cinemas to study the fruits of your labour?

The results make enlightening reading, whether your interest lies in movies or money, or whether indeed what you really want to do is produce...

Buy on Amazon:
USA UK Germany France Canada Italy India
Synopsis:The third edition of Bill Nichols’s best-selling text provides an up-to-date introduction to the most important issues in documentary history and criticism. A new chapter, "I Want to Make a Documentary: Where Do I Start?" guides readers through the steps of planning and preproduction and includes an example of a project proposal for a film that went on to win awards at major festivals. Designed for students in any field that makes use of visual evidence and persuasive strategies, Introduction to Documentary identifies the genre’s distinguishing qualities and teaches the viewer how to read documentary film. Each chapter takes up a discrete question, from "How did documentary filmmaking get started?" to "Why are ethical issues central to documentary filmmaking?" Here Nichols has fully rewritten each chapter for greater clarity and ease of use, including revised discussions of earlier films and new commentary on dozens of recent films from The Cove to The Act of Killing and from Gasland to Restrepo.