Books, books, what kind of books?

[boffo01]

Howdy folks,

I was just wondering what film making books people owned. What ones do you swear by? What ones do you swear about?

All I own personally are:
Film Production by Steven Bernstein - nice overview of production process, but a little beyond what I'm doing now, and also feels a little dated.
The Guerilla Film Makers Handbook by Chris Jones and Genevieve Joliffe - By turns inspirational and frustrating. Still...great overview book, with some good advice. And it's very clearly laid out.

So what do you have?

Andrew.

[eddie]

On Directing Film - David Mamet

Clear and concise, not bullshit. NOT all its cracked up to be, everyone raves about this book, but I thought it isnt that helpful, other than being a breath of fresh air. Its a good no bullshit transcripttion of some of his classes.

How a Hack movie critic made his own film for 20,000 dollars and put it on his credit card

Cant remember who this is by, its wonderful! Motivational, enthusiastic and cynical (and unknown!) a well written account of how a critic made his own film (12 steps to freedom) how much it honestly cost, how much stress and fun he had, again cuts through the bullshit - but leaves you breathless and excited.

Sydney Lumet book
Cant remember the name of this, movie anecdotes from a no nonsense director. Things I got from this book are simple things such as 'since camera set ups take so long then shoot with the angles in mind, rather than actors.' This means you need good, forgiving actors, but on a low bugdet this makes sense.

Rebel without a crew - rodriguez
Good fun, not especially useful (to me) and the last half (his adventures with the big studios) I found really boring

Film Directing, Shot by Shot - Steven Katz

Chance1234 keeps raving about this book on this forum, so I bought it. Havent read it yet, but having skimmed through it it looks very good.

- some other forgettable ones

[darthshawn]

I have a few that I consider must-reads:

1. the beginning filmmaker's guide to directing by renee Harmon

2. Making movies by John Russo

3. the beginning film makers guide to a successful first film by Renee Harmon

4. Story: Structure style... (I can't remember the whole title) by ? McKee

5. The Hero with a thousand face by James Campbell

these cover a broad range of topics, and energized me quite a lot.

[Chance1234]

yeap film directing shot by shot, absouletely brilliant

i know in the series they also do a cinematography one, im trying to find out if they ddo a production one as well. but from the directing one even though pricey well worth every penny


Chance




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