Video Production Books

Down-to-earth, real-life practical advice and expertise in an area that has always seemed out of my league. This book will be helping a lot of indie filmmakers like myself, I highly recommend it!

I highly recommend this book. I come from a video editing background. This book helped me execute what I always wanted to do with audio but didn't have the knowledge. Now I do.

Mr. Scetta's knowledge of audio technology and ability to teach it in an interesting, non-patronizing way is to be respected. I look forward to using this book as a how-to guide to many projects, as well as his future publications.

This book is a great resourse book! It has a list of agencies and contests you can enter. Reading this book is like talking to Andrea Leigh Wolf. She tells you her journey as a screenwriting. It's really great!

This book is greatly needed. It's the first book that tells it
like it is. It lights a path to a first sale, by an author who
has walked the walk. This author knows what she's talking about.
There is another way to market a screenplay...and it doesn't
require that you have the almost impossible to find, agent. You
can do it yourself. This books shows you how to find a market
for your first script. Then the author wants to hear from you...
to see how you're doing. She's given her contact information...
she really cares.

Sell Your Screenplay: Your Guide To The Independent Film And Television Producer is a professional, down-to-earth guide to effectively pitching Your screenplay. Author Andrea Leigh Wolf draws upon her experience and expertise to delineate every step of the process, with examples of her own successes and failures. Her advice and insights will enable the reader to avoid wasted time, energy, and resources in the writing and selling of their professional quality screenplays. Honest, unambiguous, and extremely practical, Sell Your Screenplay is a "must" for every aspiring screenwriter.

This book was fantastically entertaining! The man is as chaotic, eccentric, and strange as you would probably guess but did you know he was funny as well! Of course it is a bizarre sense of humor and some of it very nonsensical but it is interesting nonetheless. I couldn't put it down and since it is not written as an autobiography but snippets of interviews on a variety of topics--you can pick it up and begin reading on any page. I loved this book. A huge book for a huge personality and the pictures are amazing! Black and white rare photos of actors and scenes from his most memorable movies. Many of these are worthy of framing.

This deluxe edition of what renowned Fellini specialist Tullio Kezich describes as the Maestro's "spiritual testament" (in his superb foreword to the book) is bona fide Fellini-esque. Hilarious anecdotes are squeezed in beside a number of very moving meditations on old age, sex, LSD, unemployment, Trivial Pursuit, God, Dante, death and the Hereafter. The newly restored black-and-white photos capturing the Italian director's surreal world are well-served by an excellent English translation. The final entry in the lexicon is a fairy tale titled "Zio Lupo" or "Uncle Wolf" and it pretty much defines Fellini's insatiability. Highly recommended.

I read this book, and it totaly helped me! I started my film, and learned so much from this book.

The author must be some sort of g-d! He anwered nearly everyone of my questions. It actually changed the way i've been shooting.

Thanks! If only you'll write some more books!

I found Mr Garon's book to be direct, informative and easy to read without losing any of the details. This had all the information of a definitive text while being an easy read. I was eagerly awaiting his book, it did not disappoint.

Filmmaking is a leap of faith. A lot of people assume someone else will solve all the paperwork problems when distributions is locked. Unfortunately, if your paperwork is not in order and you can't furnish deliverables, you run the risk of losing the distro deal. Deliverables- what you provide to a distributor so they can do their job of marketing your movie- begin at the screenwriting stage.

If you are totally do it yourself and willing to make investments on yourself, why would you leave legalities to the VERY end when you have no choice (at least at the start you have the option of NOT hiring someone if they won't sign an actors release, avoiding a location if the owner won't sign. There's no "getting away" with anything.) This is stuff you hear about in film school, but it doesn't sink in until you experience the limitations caused by putting off the paperwork.

Author Jon Garon provides a legal book that is inclusive of all filmmakers, including no budget guerilla filmmakers. Even books that deal with guerilla filmmaking tend to gloss over the pertinent details that relate to Do-it-yourself-ers. He has some beautiful words of respect for guerilla filmmakers, too. That this is a law and business guide makes it a must have for anyone thinking about making a movie, be it for no money or millions.

This is the first book I've read that goes indepth as to the protections of a sole-proprietor vs. sole-Proprietor LLC (if your state allows it). I set up the LLC today, following his instructions. Took 10 minutes, online. Even went to the irs.gov for the employer id Number. He explains the risks of partnerships, and how you can unwittingly enter a partnership if you and your pals don't set forth an agreement at the start.

Financing is everyone's biggest complaint. This book explores the conventional and alternative financing models (investors vs. disposable income vs. debt financing/credit cards), and goes one better as to compare the risks and rewards of each. The golden quote is "I have never heard of anyone who has gambled her house on a film and won."

He even breaks down setting up your company and chain of command, running your company, working out deferrals and how those are paid back, and all sorts of issues you need to know but otherwise wouldn't think of. This book also includes info on contracts, actor and location releases, and music permissions.

Granted, this doesn't include a lot of boiler plate. But Mark Litwak has books for that. However, this book bests Litwak in the realm of detail and why certain provisions really matter. This book empowers the filmmaker to understand business and contracts, what to ask for, what to avoid, and so much more. This is a critical book to own. Particularly if you're broke. So get it!

Breskin plainly admires the filmmakers at their best, at work and as people. He wins them into describing, with greater articulation than most, what they were thinking when they made their films and how they see art in general.

But what makes the book so worthwhile is that Breskin makes his subjects pay the piper, when they would almost certainly rather dismiss at least some of his questions with a one-liner. He is not inclined, as more "fannish" journalists would be and have been, to let them off the hook for mistakes or evasive answers.

(Revealing as well to note which of those interviewed arguably still had their best work ahead of them and which did not. The two Davids, Cronenberg and Lynch, are especially useful for this)

It's so very rare to be able to predict that a book, were it a publicly traded stock, is an investment certain to become more valuable over time, the antithesis of a kitten. Breskin has honed his ability to ingratiate ephemerally, and in this process, you will get a rare glimpse of these great directors actually moving outside of soundbite to let you in on some part of process. Very worth...worth.

Probably the best book of director interviews since HITCHCOCK/TRUFFAUT and Andrew Sarris' INTERVIEWS WITH FILM DIRECTORS. After reading it, you want David Breskin to go around interviewing every director, immersing himself in their work beforehand, leading them into intimate and challenging conversations in which they sometimes get mad at him (even the laid-back David Cronenberg gets a little prickly at one point) but develop a grudging respect for him at the same time. INNER VIEWS collects eight interviews Breskin conducted for ROLLING STONE -- yes, children, there was a time when that magazine was worth reading -- though the pieces were significantly shortened for publication in RS, and thankfully restored to full sprawl here. I have no idea why we haven't seen more from Breskin; is he dead or retired? An interviewer this penetrating and eloquent shouldn't be allowed to ride off into the sunset.

I would be duty-bound to cherish this book simply because Breskin sits down with two of my gods, David Cronenberg and David Lynch; between their interviews here and the respective books about them edited by Chris Rodley, you will discover all you could ever want to know about these fascinating directors. But Breskin also interviews six other greats: Robert Altman, Oliver Stone, Francis Ford Coppola, Spike Lee, Tim Burton, and (in the expanded 1997 edition) Clint Eastwood. He parries amusingly with a few of them, as when Oliver Stone -- intellectual macho man that he is -- smugly breaks out a quote from Aeschylus, only to be informed by the unimpressed Breskin that Coppola had already related that same quote to him. (Stone is described as "surprised, his thunder stolen.") Breskin also gets yelled at a few times by accomplished shouter Spike Lee (this was before he became a father and mellowed) but admirably, calmly stands his ground -- yet Lee comes off not as a hothead throwing a diva tantrum but as an impassioned man who isn't used to being challenged by an interviewer from ROLLING STONE. Lee, and everyone else in the hot seat here, would discover that Breskin was much more than that.

As a sci-fi buff growing up and watching those sci-fi movies I always wondered where those awesome special electrical effects came from. In those days special effects (FX) were not computer generated but in fact done live. This book answers the question of where these electrical FX came from. A compelling as well as fascinating read, making you want to revisit those films again and head to the rental store just to see those FX once again.

Harry Goldman did an excellent job on reporting on Ken Strickfadens life and achievements. He also proved that nothing comes close to real sparks for a movie. Reccomend this book for movie buffs, Nikola Tesla fans, and historians!

This is a great story about the little-known genius behind the creation of the mad-scientist labs in so many of the old horror films we all love, Dr. Frankenstein's lab being the most famous and familiar. You get a feel for what was happening in the world that reflected in Strickfaden's life at various stages and it's fun to read some of the Hollywood set stories.This book is obviously written by someone who has a great respect for the person and the talent embodied in Kenneth Srtickfaden.
The photos are facinating as are the several pages of the original sketches for the equipment he made.
(By the way, you can see a glimpse of Strickfaden in the trailer with Mel Brooks on the DVD of Young Frankenstein, also highly recommended.)

Y digo simpleza por la sencillez y llaneza de su mensaje. Aunque ya con cierta edad soy estudiante de cine, y es increíble lo difícil que parece todo para comenzar un rodaje. Sin embargo la lectura de este libro me ha hecho plantearme el comienzo de mi cortometraje de forma muy distinta, sobre todo me ha ayudado a creer que perfectamente puedo ser capaz de llevarlo a cabo. Un director de fotografía amigo mío y que conoce personalmente al autor del libro me recomendó su lectura y le estoy muy agradecido. Este libro me hace ver las cosas mas sencillas, liberarme de prejuicios y sobre todo confiar en mi mismo para comenzar mi proyecto.

Un libro práctico, basado en experiencias reales, sin engaños, tapujos y complejos de superioridad que tanto acompañan a los cineastas curtidos. Con un análisis coherente de las ventajas e inconvenientes que el mundo digital aporta a la cinematografía actual y como aprovecharse de ello.

Imprescindible!

Los trabajos del Director es un libro que se lee de forma intensa, rápida. Quizás porque, además de ser eminentemente práctico, aporta ese cierto "morbo" que tienen las narraciones de experiencias personales. En este caso, se trata de experiencias de Carlos Atanes (pre-producción, de rodaje, de post-producción) así como diversas anécdotas acaecidas durante la realización de sus cortos y de sus largometrajes. Y, ciertamente, rompe algunos mitos y muchos esquemas. En mi opinión, aparte de su amena lectura, el libro aporta elementos útiles para todos aquellos que llevamos soñando con empezar nuestra película y nos quedamos atrapados en los problemas antes de dar cualquier paso. Leyendo Los trabajos del director me he dado cuenta de que, para hacer cine, no se necesita nada más que empezar, con voluntad. Una vez has tirado del hilo ya no puedes volver atrás. Para los más miedosos puede ser interesante tener en cuenta alguno de los trucos que se explican en "Los trabajos del director". Me ha recordado un poco a esos libros americanos de "how to..." (de hecho, hace poco leí uno sobre cine underground). En este caso se trataría de "cómo hacer una película independiente" con la ventaja de que, si bien la mayoría de las reflexiones que se contienen en el libro resultarían de aplicación universal, por llamarlo así, también lo es que la forma de hacer cine americano, incluso el independiente, presenta particularidades respecto a un contexto europeo o español. En resumen, un buen libro que hay que leer.

No sé si éste es el libro de Carlos Atanes con el que mejor me lo he pasado (¡creo que sí!), pero seguro que es el más útil en el sentido práctico. En él explica desde un punto de vista muy personal y sincero sus experiencias y su manera de organizar y llevar a cabo los rodajes de sus películas. Lo cuenta además de una forma muy divertida y sorprendente. Cuenta cosas que no he encontrado hasta ahora en ningún otro manual de cine que pueden parecer, a veces, estrafalarias o excéntricas, pero que son de una sensatez y de un sentido común incontestables. Ojalá alguien me las hubiera explicado antes en alguna clase de cine o en algún libro porque me hubiera ahorrado muchos quebraderos de cabeza.

En este libro Atanes destruye de verdad prejuicios y puntos de vista anquilosados sobre lo que se supone que debe ser el trabajo de un director de cine, ya sea en la preparación o durante el rodaje. Y aporta soluciones prácticas que, aunque sean aplicables sobre todo a las producciones de bajo presupuesto, son en definitiva aplicables a cualquier tipo de producción.

Cuando lo leí sentía que se abría una ventana por la que entraba aire fresco, y creo que "Los trabajos del director" debería ser un texto de referencia para cualquiera que pretenda rodar algo, ya sea un largo o incluso un corto. No pocas personas que conozco que se dedican profesionalmente a esto deberían leerlo también. Sería muy útil en las escuelas de cine. Yo, por lo menos, lo pondría de lectura obligada a los alumnos.

Carlos Atanes tiene una larga trayectoria a sus espaldas en el cine independiente (CODEX ATANICUS - Three wild stories / tres historias salvajes (PAL) y FAQ: Frequently Asked Questions están editadas en DVD) y, aunque no he visto todas sus películas, siempre me ha llamado la atención (además de por su valor artístico) la habilidad con la que ha podido hacer todo eso, incluso cine de ciencia-ficción, con tan pocos recursos, consiguiendo que en la pantalla no se note la precariedad. Buena parte del secreto de cómo conseguirlo está en este libro. Si el cine es magia, en buena medida éste es un libro de "magia" práctica.

This is a great book! For a fantastic guide on to how to make videos to bring about change in your community check out Video Activist Handbook, also available on Amazon. Here are a couple of reviews:'This book is about media that doesn't just cover activism, it is activism, a crucial part of the process of reclaiming public space and communities.' -Naomi Klein, author "No Logo", 'The Video Activist Handbook' does exactly what it says on the label. Buy it. Read it. Act on it. Your world will never be the same again." - Charles Secrett, Director, Friends of the Earth. For a full copy of this review click here "Cover-to-cover with the kind of advice that budding video vigilantes should heed: everything from basic kit to broadcast....Thomas Harding has laid out his information in such an accessible, linear way that his book could almost function as a blueprint for any form of activism." -Extract from foreword by Anita Roddick (Body Shop). For a full copy of extract click here "You must read this book if you are in any way involved in campaigning" Robby Kellman Greenpeace "A masterpiece of empowerment. Accessible, friendly, and well-informed. No environmental or social justice campaign group should be without this book... Buy this book. It's inspiring" - Peace News.

This book listed all the budget plans and how to spend your precious money. It contains stradegys on how to get grants, loans and even studio space. I wrote this review in 2001 so the book is alittle outdated but trust me It helped me alot. It goes through the basics of what you need in a camcorder, the production and all the equitment you need! I thought this book was great!!!BUY IT!!!

Roth's complete expertise in video is matched by his outstanding writing. If you want to shoot a video like Stephen Spielberg, but spend money like you were using a Kodak Brownie, this is the book for you. I recently saw a short movie directed by Roth, and I know that sometimes those who can do it also teach. Thank God he is willing to share his expertise.

James Mottram's "Making of Memento" is an interesting and intriguing look into the making of the modern day classic Memento. Offered up are excerpts from conversations with director/screen writer Christopher Nolan and actors Guy Pearce, Carrie Anne-Moss, and Joe Pantoliano, while offering a few different interpertations on the film itself. Mottram's style is crisp and clear and he never seems to go too far from his source material while offering up some interesting little known facts (the fact that Brad Pitt strongly considered and wanted to do the role of Lenny came as a shock and I have more respect for him now than I ever did before) that keep the reader interested for most of the time. Also included is the original short story by Jonathan Nolan (brother to Christopher) that inspired the film. All in all, consider this an essential companion piece if your a fan of the film or are trying to tie up some loose ends.

Mottram's book offers a fascinating account of how Memento came into being, the trials its creators went through to get it distributed, and offers several interpretations of the film's meaning. It's also filled with interesting vignettes from movie set. The book roughly parallels the movie in that its chapters work backwards toward the source material, Nolan's brother's shortstory Memento Mori. However, its primary focus is on the construction of the movie itself, and how the disparate elements (acting, direction, writing, sound, music) came together to form the first truly great film of the 21st century. Mottram's writing style is clean, focused, and never overwraught. He doesn't make the mistake of overintellectualizing or overinterpreting the the film. This is a must have for Memento fans and offers keen insight as to how independent movies are made.

Want to delve deeper into mystery that is Memento? Then look no further as James Mottram does an excellent job of steering us back through the labyrinth of the film (with it's myriad of possible meanings) and it's production. Christopher Nolan is interviewed (along with key cast members and crew) to help shed further light on this fascinating film. With 11 pages of pictures, 3 pages of drawings (concerning Leonard's tattoos), and even Jonathan Nolan's short story (Memento Mori), Mottram seems to have covered all the bases. He wrote it down so that you (and Leonard) wouldn't have to.

Recommended reading for any 2001 fan, movie critic, and especially the members of the nominating committee and members who gave an Oscar to the makeup designer of Planet of the Apes (1967) (POA).

There is an apocryphal tale that the next year, after 2001 came out, that a member of The Acadamy nominating committee was asked "How could you give an award for the "ape" costumes in POA but pass over the hominids in 2001."

The telling answer was along the lines of "Those were actors in costumes? We thought they were real apes!" Even it the story isn't true, it's not totally unbelievable.

Some tidbits in the book detail the "ape" costumes, and the question of who to get to be in the costumes. Kubrick decidely did not want them to look like a human in a costume. They tried actors, but that didn't work out. Finally, they hit upon dancers, espescially skinney ones who would still look wild and hungry with a layer of costume over them.

I always wondered who was the man in the Monkey Suit and now I know. A fascinating easy to read memoir. An insiders view of the making of one of the most influential movies of all time. A must read for all 2001 fans.

There have been several making-of-2001 books (Jerome Agel's "Making of 2001" in 1970; Piers Bizony's "2001: Filming the Future"; Arthur C. Clarke's "The Lost Worlds of 2001"; probably others). But the Dawn of Man prologue hasn't gotten a lot of coverage.

"Moonwatcher's Memoir" rectifies this oversight, and then some. Richter had a great, exhausting time during his year (!) working on apes with Kubrick, and tells all. In doing so, he throws new light on the movie's timeline; it started shooting in Dec. 65, yet the long-planned ape scenes weren't shot until very late in the game: fall of 67 (the movie came out in April 68). How Kubrick kept his poise during such a long project remains, as the film might say, "a total mystery."

To use book review jargon, this book is a must for all Kubrick completists. You know who you are.