The Director's Idea: The Path to Great Directing

by Ken Dancyger

As a director, you must have a concept, a "director's idea", to shape your approach to the actors, the camera, and the script. With this clear idea your film will be deeper and more effective, and you will be able to differentiate--and therefore make the choice--between competent directing and great directing. Using case studies of famous directors as real-world examples of "director's ideas", the author has provided the theory and the practice to help directors immediately improve their work.

370 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2006

About the author

Ken Dancyger is the author or co-author of seven books on screenwriting, directing, film editing and production. They are The Technique of Film and Video Editing (5th edition), Focal Press, 2010; The Director's Idea, Focal Press, 2006; Alternative Scriptwriting (4th edition), Focal Press, 2006 (with Jeff Rush); Writing the Short Film (3rd edition), Focal Press, 2005 (with Pat Cooper); Global Scriptwriting, Focal Press, 2001; The World of Film and Video Production, Harcourt Brace, 1999; Broadcast Writing, Focal Press, 1991. Each is a theory/practice book rather than a how-to book. There have been fourteen translations of his books, including Chinese, Portuguese, Italian, Spanish, Korean and Arabic. Two of his books, Alternative Scriptwriting and The Technique of Film and Video Editing are considered definitive in their respective areas and are core texts at top film programs worldwide.

Ken conducts screenwriting and post-production workshops internationally for the past eighteen years, including South Africa, The Netherlands, Germany, Switzerland, Portugal, Belgium, the United Kingdom, Columbia, Singapore, Australia and Canada. He is active as a script consultant in the United States and throughout Europe and Asia.

Ken is past Chair of Undergraduate Film and Television, TISCH School of the Arts, New York University, where he is a Full Professor.

Current writing projects include a book about Genre Scriptwriting, a book entitled The Greatest: Hollywood in 1939, a personal memoir, The War That Never Ended and Murder Not Permitted, his first novel.
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EDUCATION:
B. Comm., M.A., Toronto; M.S., Boston
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Reviews

[Amrita Sarkar · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have been searching forever on good books related to film making. The Director's Idea is more philosophical and conceptual than technical, which is a good place to start from. After all, film making is an art, albeit a collaborative one, but there has to be someone who holds it together. So, I liked how this book is essentially about a director finding his or her own voice, choosing his work through an individualistic theme and then selecting his tools to realize that voice. I have to admit, I did pick up this book to gain a more technical knowledge, but as long as I can relate the terminology I gather to name the parts in a film I see as well as the creative, cinematic ideas and frames in my mind, I am covered. This book is not written to satisfy pretentious intellectuals of cinema. This is for those who wish to understand the core of the art form they love so much.

[Mike Degen · Rating 3 out of 5]

There are some good insights into a lot of directors here but it was a big academic even though it wasn’t an academic book

[Javier Badillo]

so far I love it! explores in depth what makes a story (and the storyteller) great. Differentiates between competent, good and great directors, illustrates examples and goes deep into the aesthetics of film and text interpretation. Great read for long bus rides. :)