Art History for Filmmakers: The Art of Visual Storytelling

by Gillian McIver

Since cinema's earliest days, literary adaptation has provided the movies with stories; and so we use literary terms like metaphor, metonymy and synedoche to describe visual things. But there is another way of looking at film, and that is through its relationship with the visual arts – mainly painting, the oldest of the art forms. Art History for Filmmakers is an inspiring guide to how images from art can be used by filmmakers to establish period detail, and to teach composition, color theory and lighting. The book looks at the key moments in the development of the Western painting, and how these became part of the Western visual culture from which cinema emerges, before exploring how paintings can be representative of different genres, such as horror, sex, violence, realism and fantasy, and how the images in these paintings connect with cinema. Insightful case studies explore the links between art and cinema through the work of seven high-profile filmmakers, including Peter Greenaway, Peter Webber, Jack Cardiff, Martin Scorsese, Guillermo del Toro, Quentin Tarantino and Stan Douglas. A range of practical exercises are included in the text, which can be carried out singly or in small teams. Featuring stunning full-color images, Art History for Filmmakers provides budding filmmakers with a practical guide to how images from art can help to develop their understanding of the visual language of film.

Genres: Film, Art

256 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2016

About the author

I'm a filmmaker, writer and art historian. I'm interested in how the environment and history of a place affect how we see art. My work includes documentary film-making, short films and artists' video, often exploring historical events or places. My interest in art history and film led me, in 2016 to write "Art History for Filmmakers" published by Bloomsbury Press, a book exploring how filmmakers can and do use paintings from the past to inspire and create visual story telling. My second book published 2022 is Art and the Historical Film: Between Realism and the Sublime. I'm currently researching a new work on art and magic and planning others.
I am also a curator; my most recent project was 'Alchemy!' in London 2022.

Reviews

[Arpit Srivastava · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love the way she talks about the history and its aspects. This book has tonnes of referencing about great painters, cinematographers, directors, etc. And some of their best works have been shown respectively. I love how this book is very straight and directly to the point in every of its topics it touches and the way it is so shameless in representing with the context of the matter - The pictures it shows and the writing of the author itself.
You learn about the evolution of everything in painting and filming specifically. And that's what you should expect while you get the idea of the thought processes of the artists at their best.

Don't expect that you will learn some basics or technical aspect of anything from this book though.
It is an interesting read which holds your attention by shifting through topics and artists pretty quickly while making a point clearly. Delighted!

[Norman · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm always interested in books that classify art history into movements, artists, geographical areas etc. This book focuses on what filmmakers need to appreciate in their predecessors' works. The description of the Roman friezes fading from glorious colour to grey washed-out colour, on exposure to modern Rome air, in Fellini's Roma [1972] sent me to the DVD. I loved how cinematographers and photographers describe their choices in lighting and subjects showing their art appreciation and how they attempt to replicate subjects.
Any film studies student will love this book for its extra resources but so will art history students