Making Movies Work: Thinking Like a Filmmaker

by Jon Boorstin

MAKING MOVIES WORK is a fascinating and accessible guide for both filmmakers and serious film fans. It is about how filmmakers think about film. "Through thoughtful examination of the filmmaker's art, Jon Boorstin enhances our sense of enjoyment and appreciation of the results.--Robert Redford.

Genres: Film, Nonfiction

224 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 1995

About the author

JON BOORSTIN is a writer and filmmaker who works in a broad range of media. His novel The Newsboys’ Lodging-House won the New York Society Library Book Award for Historical Fiction, and Publishers Weekly called his novel Pay or Play “the definitive send-up of Hollywood” in a starred review. He made the Oscar®-nominated documentary Exploratorium; created Time Mobile, a pioneer prototype video game, for Charles Eames and IBM; wrote the IMAX film To the Limit, winner of the Geode Award for best IMAX film; was Associate Producer on All The President’s Men; and wrote and, with director Alan J. Pakula, produced the thriller Dream Lover, winner of the Grand Prix at the Festival du Cinéma Fantastique in Avoriaz, France. He is also the co-creator (and show-runner) of the television series Three Moons over Milford, a People Magazine “Must See” hour comedy about the end of the world. Boorstin has written a book on practical film theory, The Hollywood Eye, re-issued as Making Movies Work and widely used in film schools for the past twenty years. He has taught film at USC, the American Film Institute, and around the world, including as Fulbright professor at the National Film Institute in Pune, India. He is a member of the Writers Guild of America, the Los Angeles Institute for the Humanities at USC, and the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences. His current novel, Mabel and Me, published in April, concerns the tumultuous life of Queen of Comedy Mabel Normand, and the invention of the movies.
Find him at jonboorstin.com

Reviews

[Karen · Rating 4 out of 5]

A really good book if you love films and are interested in acquiring more theoretical knowledge about filmmaking in order to be a better and more informed viewer. One of the more interesting things I learned in this book is the importance of the editor in filmmaking. The author divides teh book into three parts: the voyeuristic, the vicarious, and the visceral experience of viewing. Each of these parts, asks an important question. The voyeuristic: is it credible, realistic? ; the vicarious: are the emotions expressed by the characters true? ; and the vicarious: can the viewer feel the film for himself/herself?. Note that this is not a book about making films but just about the viewing experience.

[Jon Boorstin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Well, I wrote it, during a WGA writer's strike, to sort out how movie-makers thought about movies. About point of view, and why the viewer feels what he feels, and when she feels it. Illustrated by one of the directors of The Lion King. I tried to make the pictures work with the words like a movie does. Glad to see it's still in print these many years later. What makes a good movie doesn't date.

[Karl · Rating 3 out of 5]

a fascinating intro to what a good film can do to an audience and a primer on how to do it. I'd recommend it to anyone interested in making or just appreciating film. unfortunately the ideas stop around page 150 but the book carries on alone for 50 more

[Bernie4444 · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thinking like a Filmmaker.

For those people that just stumbled on this book and are not aspiring filmmakers, the insight and even the abundance of photographs from major scenes are worth the purchase price.

For the rest of us, everyone knows what makes a professional in any field is that little extra effort to be one step ahead of the next person. This book may be the next step.

A paragraph from the introduction says it all:
"How does a surgeon attack a tumor, a lawyer a murder case, or an architect a concert hall? When you learn a craft, a profession, or an art (and film is all of these), you have to master a way of thinking as well as a set of skills. A way of approaching the problem that makes techniques your tool."

[Serena · Rating 4 out of 5]

I fell this book is very informative and very well written. Unlike other book I’ve read on movies it talks about both the making of movies and why they’re made that way. My favorite section was the one on Hitchcock’s movie “Psycho”.