Hi, looking for some movie making books with illustrations, and how to's. Any ideas

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Deer Film

Well-known member
Hi, I always enjoy good movie making books.
I am looking at these on amazon. Any ideas about these books, or others you recommend.


Master Shots: 100 Advanced Camera Techniques to Get an Expensive Look on Your Low-Budget Movie
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1932907513/ref=ox_sc_act_title_2?ie=UTF8&smid=A33AYO0FZG6YH


What They Don't Teach You at Film School: 161 Strategies For Making Your Own Movies No Matter What
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0786884770/ref=ox_sc_act_title_1?ie=UTF8&smid=A3WB3DZEN0C1R

Master Shots Volume 2: Shooting Great Dialogue Scenes

I would like to find some movie making books with good illustrations, photos, how to's, on just about anything to do with movie making. Sometimes for the indy shooter, some of the old books have great ideas.
Let me know if you have any favorites or sources.
Thanks
 
Love the master shots book. Great ideas for shots, but only in theory.

Are you looking for more technical, technique or theory books?

My favorite is Cinematography: Theory and Practice by Blain Brown
 
you know, Im convinced most books on movie making SUCK and are total FLUFF, total NONSENSE. The same BASIC information parroted out from people with no experience making movies.

Did you know when you shoot an explosion, fall, or other big action, that the action is, more often than not, split up over multiple camera angles to extend and amplify the event, since it would likely look anticlimactic taken in one shot? Almost NO BOOK talks about this.

Did you know when you cut back and forth between heads in a dialog scene that its often good to get TIGHTER CLOSE UPS for high point/climaxes in the dialog? or just for variety? NO BOOK TALKS ABOUT THIS.

how about carrying a moving actor forward in space with match cuts?

ALMOST NO BOOK explains how much coverage/crosscutting/alternate angles/match cuts go into the average movie.

"Grammar Of The Film language" touches up on this stuff, but most of the book is a waste of space.

heres what I'm doing:

read "Pudovkins "Film Technique" and get an idea idea of what "constructive editing" means. Or listen to RoberRodriguez when he talk s about building your movie from shots.

I watch movies on my PC, pause them, and WRITE DOWN THE SEQUENCES. yes, SHOT by SHOT.

heres my analysis of the opening of Mario Bava's "Rabid Dogs". I write POP IN and POP OUT since im convinced you need to learn to think in SEQUENCES not individual shots.

1. cu woman crying- pull back to wide (credits over)
2. cu hand on steering wheel
3. cu driver
4. pop out OTS he looks back
5. cu wrist checking time
6. cu other guy hand gloved wrist checking time
7. It's glasses dude looks around
8. cut back to two shot- two dudes in car one has a suitcase
9. cut back to shaded dude- popped out, wider now- he closes suitcase
10. reversal, wider as he shuts it, he goes to pasenger side door
11. cross cut back to suitcase guys for a split (shorter shot)
12.pop in alternate angle on shades dude as he enters car
13. alternate angle, in car, close OTS on shades dude and gloves guy they drive off- we stick with them for a while.
14. Pop out to wide, reversal, follow their car as they stop.
15. pop in tight close up as they exit (short)
16. reversal other side of car cu exiting (breaks 180 rule)
17. pop out XLS overhead
18. CU/MS low angle as guy fires
19. cut to reaction shades dude
20. cut to cop car arriving, shock zoom in to CU cop
21. cut to OTS in car on other cops ariving
22. pop out reversal WS cops drive by
23. whiet car backs up, guy gets out
24. cut to security guard pushes button
25. CU gate closing
26. bad guy aiming
27. reaction suitcase dude as they try to enter car
28. cut back to security guard reacting
29. bad guy calls to other guy
30. firing dude moves out of frame
31. back to suitcase reaction
32. POV as mask guy smashes window- slow mo
33. Reversal suitcase guy showered in glass
34. back to bad guy as he opens car door
35. new angle in car as bad guy fights for suitcase.
36. driver reacts as gun is held to head
37. pop in to knife
38. alternate angle as he pulls knife back thrusts it int0 frame.
39. pop in mask guy as he digs in knife
40. cu knife in suitcase guys chest
41. back to mask guy enjoying it
42. reaction driver
43. back to knife, being pulled out guy taking suitcase
44. pop out taking suitcase
45. pop in, slow mo, guy dying
46. back to suitcase being taken, follow as they all run away, into car
47. cut to security guard runing in, firing.
48. pop in, new angle on car as it speeds off.
49. back to security guard, he chases.
50. cut to bank personell running
51. POV/OTS gun firing at car
52. in car, driver is hit, passenger takes over
53. pop out, car as it swerves
54. reversal as car stops, hits garbage can
55. back to scene of crime, dead guy , wide and above, now. move up to take in car arriving.
56. new angle back to bad guy car as they take dead guy out
57. bad guy takes driver seat, zoom in to hole on car, leaking gas.

you thought i was kidding?

I shoot a short next week Im pumped to apply this stuff, though Im struggling with how to write my shot list and make sure I get the shots I need.

yeaahh books hardly tell you anything. Even "5 C's", for all its brilliance and usefulness, barely goes into how to cover a scene (never mind an action scene!).

you can find pudovkins "film techniqe" online if you're so inclined.
 
Hi again.
nycineaste, you sound like you have some great ideas. So if you write a book, I would love to check it out.
But, in the meantime, I would like to read up on different techniques, tutorials, shot angles, how to's and such.
I have a book called "The Book of Movie Photography"
http://www.amazon.com/Book-Movie-Ph...sr=8-1&keywords=The+Book+of+Movie+Photography

It is an older book, but has a lot of ideas and over 850 illustrations. It shows how they set up a shot with illustrations, and then the final video still of what it looks like on camera. Other examples of like a car scene, in the illustration, they show a half of a car (no wheel, hood, or back seat, just front seat), with the camera in the front, and then in back of the car is a image of the road that is projected onto a translucent screen from behind. the camera that is filming shoots the two images. You might have seen this in old James Bond movies.
To me, this is great stuff to learn.
Of course I can do the same stuff with a green screen, but for a indy type of film guy, this makes your head full of creative ideas.
So I am looking for books that are about old methods like this or new stuff, but will walk your through how to set up a shot.

To me, if I watch Mission Impossible movie with expensive chase scenes, or an old classic James Bond movie, I am equally excited in the movie watching experience. It comes down to the flow of the story.

Thanks for any ideas.
 
Not a book, but the "Being Cinematic" post here on DVXUser, in the Cinematography section, is pretty good to get some tips on, well, being cinematic...

It is sad that it is unfinished though.
 
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