The Film Book

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A wonderfully-researched tale of Hollywood horror, that, of course, is also true. The Battle Of Brazilis the story of how Terry Gilliam and Universal Pictures came to butt heads over the director’s richly acclaimed 1985 movie, Brazil. The astonishing era at Paramount Pictures in the 1970s has been richly covered in film books, but there’s room in producer and eventual Sony studio head Peter Guber for a few more tales. Producing is an all-encompassing term. This is one of my favorite books on the list because it takes you through what a producer actually does on each sized film. It also gives a clear structure of how someone moved up in the ranks to become a creator that works with other creators. How far would you go to get your first feature funded? In the case of Robert Rodriguez – now best known, of course, for the likes of Spy Kids and the Sin City films – he’d sell his body to medical science.

Books Made into Movies (859 books) - Goodreads Books Made into Movies (859 books) - Goodreads

Don’t feel confined to the department that you are a part of. One of the biggest advantages of attending film school are the many people who work and study there. Reach out to the head of each department and introduce yourself and your role. Penned by Robert Hofler, this biography charts the rise of producer Allan Carr, whose name adorns most infamously both Grease and the Village People movie musical, Can’t Stop The Music. Oh, and Grease 2. I get caught so much in the writer's chair that I forget there's a world outside of screenplays. If you're new to Hollywood or aspiring to visit and work here, this book gives you all the details on the how and why of every job in town. It walks you through the titles and why they matter. Grant turns his witty, critical eye to the likes of Hudson Hawk (his account of this one being a particular delight), Bram Stoker’s Dracula(a movie you can feel him aching to like slightly more than he ultimately did) and L.A. Story. As a snapshot of ’90s movie-making, it’s pretty much unparalleled, all the better for us not having to wait 20 years until these stories spilled out.

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Shaking The Money Tree, 2nd Edition: How to Get Grants and Donations for Film and Video by Morrie Warshawski Cinematography: Theory and Practice, Second Edition: Image Making for Cinematographers and Directors by Blain Brown An insightful read this, and (relatively) rare in that it gives a producer’s-eye view of some very big and important movies. Michael Deeley’s stories are happy to poke at a few old wounds, and he’s a man who doesn’t pull his metaphorical punches.

Books About Movies Every Film Lover Should Own - Flavorwire 20 Books About Movies Every Film Lover Should Own - Flavorwire

A lot of directors have written about directing, but I love Mamet's point of view because he comes at it as a writer. Also, his theater days give him an uncanny ability to communicate how to deal with actors. Again, I'm not the best with this stuff, so I love reading and getting better. This book has the nuts and bolts of what goes into creating the looks of your favorite films but also stories of how challenges were overcome on set. It's a problem solver's dream. About half way through movie stunt legend Vic Armstrong’s memoir, I found myself wondering if it’d been a better book were it a biography rather than an autobiography. Yet I still enjoyed it, and Armstrong offers an angle on the movies that’s not often discussed.When I started my program, I was sure that I wanted to be a producer and nothing else. Nine months later and now I’m writing and directing a web series! Be open to trying roles in different departments and learning about what every person on the crew does. The late Dawn Steel was one of the first women to ever run a Hollywood movie studio, heading up Columbia Pictures in the late 1980s, before setting up Steel Pictures and making films such as Cool Runnings.

Film Books That Are Well Worth Your Time | Den of Geek 63 Film Books That Are Well Worth Your Time | Den of Geek

Editors are often the unsung heroes of the film. Walter Murch is one of the greatest editors of all time, so it's nice to hear Hollywood from his point of view. He details every step he's taken plus strategies he uses to control the edit. It's helped me learn to speak with editors and to trust them. Turns out, there are lots of legal forms that go into making a movie. Here's a lawyer's handbook so you know just what you can and cannot do on set. It's really useful if you're shooting without permits and if you need to save money. You don’t have to spend long with Google to find articles from people on why movies of a particular era mattered to them so much. What makes Hadley Freeman’s terrific Life Moves Pretty Fast stand out is that not only does she come up with interesting reasons as to why her films of choice worked so well, but that she’s woven that in alongside chats with some of the people behind them. I’ve a real soft spot for books that go into forensic detail about the making of just one film. But even without that, David Itzkoff’s superb dissection about the making of Sidney Lumet’s classic Networkwould be a must-read. The best way to learn about filmmaking is to do it. There is nothing else that can teach you as much. But in between projects, it's okay to read too.Everyone knows that filmmaking is a collaborative industry and you can’t make a film alone so finding your crew is so important. You can have hundreds of great ideas, but if you don’t know any DPs or art directors or gaffersーit is extremely hard to get anything made.