Book description
Film Directing Fundamentals gives the novice director an organic methodology for realizing on the screen the full dramatic possibility of a screenplay. Unique among directing books, this book provides clear-cut ways to translate a script to the screen. Using the script as a blueprint, the reader is led through specific techniques to analyze and translate its components into a visual story. A sample screenplay is included that explicates the techniques. The book assumes no knowledge and thus introduces basic concepts and terminology.Appropriate for screenwriters, aspiring directors and filmmakers, Film Directing Fundamentals helps filmmakers bring their story to life on screen.
Table of contents
- Cover
- Halftitle
- Title
- Copyright
- Contents
- Foreword
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction
-
PART 1. Film Language and a Directing Methodology
- 1. Introduction to Film Language and Grammar
- 2. Introduction to the Dramatic Elements Embedded in the Screenplay
- 3. Organizing Action in a Dramatic Scene
- 4. Staging
-
5. Camera
- The Camera as Narrator
- Reveal
- Entrances
- Objective Camera
- Subjective Camera
- Where Do I Put It?
- Visual Design
- Style
- Coverage
- Camera Height
- Lenses
- Composition
- Where to Begin?
- Working Toward Specificity in Visualization
- Looking for Order
- Dramatic Blocks and Camera
- Shot Lists, Storyboards, and Setups
- The Prose Storyboard
- 6. Camera in Notorious Patio Scene
-
PART 2. Making Your Film
-
7. Detective Work on Scripts
- Reading Your Screenplay
- A Piece of Apple Pie Screenplay
- Whose Film Is It?
- Character
- Circumstance
- Spines For A Piece of Apple Pie
- Dynamic Relationships
- Wants
- Actions
- Acting Beats
- Activity
- Tone for A Piece of Apple Pie
- Breaking A Piece of Apple Pie into Actions
- Designing a Scene
- Visualization
- Identifying the Fulcrum and Dramatic Blocks
- Supplying Narrative Beats to A Piece of Apple Pie
- Director’s Notebook
- 8. Staging and Camera for A Piece of Apple Pie
- 9. Marking Shooting Script with Camera Setups
- 10. Working with Actors
- 11. Managerial Responsibilities of the Director
- 12. Postproduction
-
7. Detective Work on Scripts
- PART 3. Organizing Action in an Action Scene
- PART 4. Organizing Action in a Narrative Scene
-
PART 5. Learning the Craft Through Film Analysis
- 15. Alfred Hitchcock’s Notorious
- 16. Peter Weir’s The Truman Show
- 17. Federico Fellini’s 8½
-
18. Styles and Dramatic Structures
- Style
- Narrative, Dramatic, and Poetic Visual Styles
- The Variety of Dramatic Structures
- Tokyo Story, Yasujiro Ozu (1953, Japan)
- Some Like it Hot, Billy Wilder (1959)
- The Battle of Algiers, Gillo Pontecorvo (1965, France)
- Red, Krzysztof Kieslowski (1994, Poland, France, Switzerland)
- Sex, Lies, and Videotape, Steven Soderbergh (1989)
- Shall We Dance?, Masayuki Suo (1996, Japan)
- The Celebration, Thomas Vinterberg (1998, Denmark)
- The Insider, Michael Mann (1999)
- The Thin Red Line, Terrence Malick (1998)
- In the Mood for Love, Kar Wai Wong (2001, China)
- Little Children, Todd Field (2006)
-
19. What Next?
- Building Directorial Muscles
- Writing for the Director
- Begin Thinking about your Story
- Concocting your Feature Screenplay
- “Writing” Scenes with Actors
- Shooting your Film Before you Finish Writing it
- The Final Script
- Shooting without a Screenplay?
- Questions Directors should ask about their Screenplays
- Conclusion
- Bibliography
- Index
Product information
- Title: Film Directing Fundamentals, 3rd Edition
- Author(s):
- Release date: August 2012
- Publisher(s): Focal Press
- ISBN: 9781136069413
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