Items15The creator’s order
  1. 1Cinematic Overtures (2017)Cinematic Overtures (2017)Published Jan 1, 2017Watch the beginnings of Touch of Evil and Hiroshima, mon amour side by side. Insdorf gives you a way to describe how a long take builds anticipation and how a series of cuts makes you piece together what you’re seeing. The book is easy to dip into by film, and some chapters trace those first…0
  2. 2Making movies (1995)Making movies (1995)Published Jan 1, 1995In 12 Angry Men, the jury room starts to feel smaller even though the walls stay put. Lumet describes gradually lowering the camera and using longer lenses as the argument wears on. See how late into the film you first notice the ceiling. It’s an accessible way into a director’s account of the many…0
  3. 3Audio-Vision (1994)Audio-Vision (1994) 10.0/10 on Open LibraryPublished Jan 1, 1994Try replaying a scene with your eyes shut and sketching the space the soundtrack suggests. Chion’s chapters on listening and the audiovisual scene explain how a sound can extend the action past the edges of the picture. The second edition, edited and translated by Claudia Gorbman, has a glossary…0
  4. 4In the blink of an eye (2001)In the blink of an eye (2001)Published Jan 1, 2001Murch puts emotion, story, and rhythm ahead of an exact match in where people are standing when he chooses a cut. Watch a conversation you remember well and see what happens just before the camera leaves a face. This short editor’s book is a good place to start if you’ve felt a cut work and wanted…0
  5. 5Figures Traced in Light: On Cinematic Staging (2005)Figures Traced in Light: On Cinematic Staging (2005)Published Jan 1, 2005In Hou Hsiao-hsien’s Cute Girl, a man in red helps draw your eye back and forth as Fei-Fei confronts a surveying team. Bordwell shows how a glance or a slight change in position can redirect attention without cutting. Start with Hou if you want to understand why a shot can feel busy even when the…0
  6. 6Acting in the cinema (1988)Acting in the cinema (1988)Published Jan 1, 1988Compare Cary Grant in North by Northwest with the people James Stewart watches in Rear Window. Naremore treats Grant as a case in star performance and reads Rear Window as a whole film built around performance. The early chapters on props, clothing, and makeup offer another way in when you’re…0
  7. 7Directing Actors (1996)Directing Actors (1996)Published Jan 1, 1996The Matrix is Weston’s example for breaking down a script in this anniversary edition. Her practical advice about giving actors something they can work with in rehearsal offers a way to watch the finished scene too. Look at what each character is trying to get from the other person and when that…0
  8. 8The Visual Story (2007)The Visual Story (2007)Published Jan 1, 2007If you’ve noticed a film grow more intense without knowing where to look, try Block’s vocabulary of contrast and similarity. It applies to color, brightness, shape, and movement, among other features. Freeze two frames from different parts of the same story and compare where the strongest contrast…0
  9. 9Cutting rhythms (2009)Cutting rhythms (2009)Published Jan 1, 2009Pearlman’s editing book gives separate attention to the rhythms of movement, emotion, and events. Pick a scene where someone’s feelings shift and watch how long the camera stays on the body or face after that shift begins. Then try the same exercise with a chase. The difference helps explain why…0
  10. 10Mise-en-scene - Film Style and Interpretation (Short Cuts) (2002)Mise-en-scene - Film Style and Interpretation (Short Cuts) (2002)Published Jan 1, 2002Gibbs makes a useful practice of watching how the elements within a shot work together. The readings of Imitation of Life and Lone Star let you try it with a melodrama and a mystery. Notice who can move easily through a room and who has to stop, turn, or look past someone. Read the full case…0