Filmmaking in Action: Your Guide to the Skills and Craft

by Adam Leipzig, Barry S. Weiss, Michael Goldman

Whether they're aiming for YouTube, the Clios, Sundance, or the Academy Awards, Filmmaking in Action helps students learn about all aspects of filmmaking through every step of the production process. It's all here: script, camera, lighting, sound, blocking, shooting, editing, marketing, and more, explained by industry experts. Throughout the book and at each stage of the filmmaking process, Filmmaking in Action maintains a focus on story as a guiding principle. The advice and conversations go beyond the page—Filmmaking in Action is a fully integrated print/media textbook that gives students access to top filmmakers, including award winners like cinematographer Russell Carpenter (Titanic), editor William Goldenberg (Argo), and effects expert Ken Ralston (Star Wars), as they offer the tips and tricks of their area of expertise. Filmmaking in Action puts your students in a conversation with Hollywood professionals.

407 pages, Kindle Edition

First published July 1, 2015

Reviews

[Hogfather · Rating 2 out of 5]

Filmmaking in Action is the Platonic ideal of what you would read if you knew absolutely nothing about filmmaking. If you have picked up so much as a mote of technical knowledge beforehand, it will not be very useful to you. But the real challenge is how unbearably dull and tedious this is. Even the process of reading one chapter a day feels nearly unbearable because the book is so dull and so full of cliche. Though it is true that it's difficult to make a comprehensive book about the craft of filmmaking because the experience of it is always going to be incredibly personalized, Filmmaking in Action tends to lean so heavily towards broadness and repetition that much of the value that might be gleaned from this book is lost. The comparison that immediately comes to my mind is Sidney Lumet's Making Movies. Lumet's book describes his own specific experience of filmmaking, and he's very straightforward about this. However, his book was written to teach young filmmakers how to be intuitive. Most technical filmmaking can be taught very quickly, so Lumet describes what qualities he picked up over the years that made him a successful filmmaker, qualities that cannot be taught, but which can be acquired by aspiring young artists. Filmmaking in Action is too general to give any insights like that, and the final book could largely be swapped for the instructions that should come with most filmmaking equipment.

[Mike Milton · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book assembles the collected wisdom of leading filmmakers from all disciplines. If you want to be (or simple understand) a filmmaker - this is the place to start.

I was given this book by Adam with a nice inscription at the Raindance TIFF industry party with many of the contributors on hand - a great night!