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A few key books that will tell you how films are really made.
How a Few Eccentric Outsiders Gave Us Nightmares, Conquered Hollywood, and Invented Modern Horror. Jason Zinoman‘s Shock Value is a seminal book on modern horror films if ever there was one. In the same way that I would recommend you…
Continue reading Shock Value, the Essential Book about 70s Horror Films in the U.S.
Nestor Almendros, John Alcott, and Roger Deakins. Of this great triad of Gods of Cinematography, only Deakins is still with us, working at full throttle. Nestor Almendros Spanish by birth (Catalan to be exact), Cuban by adoption, French by most…
The Star Wars canon is inhabited by zillions of books. This is a selection of a few books which, in my opinion, comprehend very well the soul of the main Star Wars films. This is not about those fiction books…
Frederic Raphael: There’s a lot of talk. You want a lot of talk? Stanley Kubrick: I can’t say what I want. I want to do Arthur’s story (Schnitzler’s “Traumnovelle”), but in New York, now. That’s all I can tell you.…
Continue reading For Screenwriters: How Stanley Kubrick’s Eyes Wide Shut Was Written
How the Sex-Drugs-and-Rock ‘n’ Roll Generation Saved Hollywood. This must be THE book about American movies from the 60s to the 80s. We are not technically dealing with a “Making Of” book here, but this marvellous piece of work tells…
Continue reading Best “Making Of” Books Ever: EASY RIDERS, RAGING BULLS
Joseph Cotten was one of those players who shaped movies the way they are now. You don’t know who Joseph Cotten is? Let’s fix that straight away. Joseph Cheshire Cotten (1905–1994) was an actor who started his film career with…
Imagine that you are a film producer whose credits include The Italian Job (1969), The Man who Fell to Earth (1976), The Deer Hunter (1978, for which you win an Oscar) and Blade Runner (1982). Then your name would be…
The creation of Dino De Laurentiis’ King Kong is a great account of how this super-production came to be in the mid-70s. “Making Of” books tend to be either about big successes (The Jaws Log, which we reviewed here; Alfred…
Continue reading Best “Making Of” Books Ever: The Creation of Dino de Laurentiis’ KING KONG (1976)
Editing as the Key to narrative success. In our post, On Film Editing According to Edward Dmytryk, we stressed the importance of the editing process in Filmmaking. There’s always been the story around that Star Wars was saved in the…
Continue reading The Editing of Star Wars: How Cutting Created a Classic
During the filming process, the First AD is the guy in charge. Or the woman. He/she organises the shooting, what will be filmed and when. His/her mission, to harmonise the production requirements with the director wishes, which is never easy,…
