Video Books

This book really is useful and should be read by all high school students! We need to make sure that children learn creative thinking and this book is well suited to help teach this.

This insightful journey into the world of Imagineering is one sparkling with all of the mystery, surprise, magic and the element of believing to make it wonderful for boys or girls of any age, who want to reach beyond todays limits... you will have no limits on what you can accomplish, Disney is a great place to get a boost.

Casey Jacobson

Disney tends to target its Imagineering messages and publications to a junior high/high school audience, but these exercises can benefit all age groups. Unlike most Disney products, this book doesn't pound you over the head with Disney cross-promotions/cross-marketing. There are obviously plenty of references to Disneyland and Disney World (since those are the two primary venues for Imagineering projects), but it's not heavy-handed, and the exercises are each geared toward "real-world" application.

This little volume was a great first read and will no doubt get pulled down from its slot amongst my writing and other creativity books and thumbed through on a regular basis.

This book, like its title says, really will help you shape your creative muscles. The exercises that are provided are good and often can help you see things in a way you would have otherwise never imagined.

You don't need to be in the entertainment industry to find value in this book, there are practical stories of creativity; such as creating a more engaging party by giving it a themed story, thus giving every decision you make a direction.

You can begin to apply the concepts immediately and begin to consciously think about creative solutions to problems you might be facing at home or at work.

This was a captivating read. The opening by Terri Windling also features a section where Theodora Goss talks of her lifestyle of living and moving around. I related a lot to the multiple sense of identities, yet sometimes the lost sense of identity she talked about.

Most of these stories are disparate, though there are three stories with a witch, Miss Emily Gray, in them, and two stories (one with Miss Gray) that are set in the same town. Others are scattered across time and space. The stories with Miss Ellen Gray are particularly eye-opening regarding careful wishes and harming others who haven't harmed you.

Goss opens with a split perspective of Sleeping Beauty from the king, witch/mistress, wife, daughter and prince. It is very intriguing how it is split among petals.

There are other stories set in a Communist regime (such as the story "Letters from Budapest" which demonstrates how passion for art can go awry) or center around people who have fled the Communist Regime, such as "A Statement in the Case."

Death seems to be a common theme, as two stories appear to end with a character's acceptance of death after travels either trying to find/remember her name while encountering people in a natural landscape (such as "Wife" or "Daughter") or traveling through a ballet dancer's memories while lying in a bed.

One story that particularly touched me with "The Belt" which had such a wonderful moral at its end, I decided to quote it here in my review.

"I will tell you, too, that every fairy tale has a moral. The moral of my story may be that love is a constraint, as strong as any belt. And this is certainly true, which makes it a good moral. Or it may be that we are all constrained in some way, either in our bodies, or in our hearts or minds, an Empress as well as the woman who does her laundry. [...] Perhaps it is that a shoemaker's daughter can bear restraint less easily than an aristocrat, that what he can bear for three years she can endure only for three days. [...] Or perhaps my moral is that our desire for freedom is stronger than love or pity. That is a wicked moral, or so the Church has taught us. But I do not know which moral is the correct one. And that is also the way of a fairy tale.

(pp. 195-96 "The Belt")

Overall this was a provoking read.

An excellent collection of stories, all of them little masterpieces of fantastic fiction in the tradition of European storytellers. Most stories belong to a deep tradition of which Kafka was a potent precursor. Atmosphere is certainly Goss's strong point, and utterly well-drawn characters. I'm looking for more of her fiction.

This is one of the most delightful short-story collections I've ever read. Goss's prose is immaculate; there are hints of Angela Carter here, but also of Virgina Woolf. She handles very old themes (Gothic, yes, but also older) with a very rare combination of control and freshness. It's an astonishing collection, and I can't wait to see more from her. Novels are my true love, but I'm happy to make an exception -- and a permanent place on my bookshelf -- for this book.

These delicately crafted, literary fantasies draw from Victorian morality stories and fairytales. The language is spare and considered, the tone dry spiked with mordant humor. Goss discreetly and elegantly updates the gothic tale for postmodern times. Her "Emily Gray" stories concern a governess who grants children's deepest wishes, at a terrible price. Three of the Emily Gray tales are here. The title story turns a breast cancer patient's life into a magical fable. Other stories take place in Budapest, and have a flavor of Central European magical realism ("The Rapid Advance of Sorrow"), while "A Rose in Twelve Petals" fractures Sleeping Beauty into twelve different view points, including that of the spinning wheel that pricks the princess. Goss's stories have dark themes, but she is too graceful a writer to be considered gothic in the classic sense. Her painterly, humorous characters come alive, and her fantastical ideas are grounded in her character's pysches.

"Indispensible for a novice producer of independent movies. This book helps one to understand the way distributors think, which is absolutely essential for getting your movie to audiences. The discussions on business plans and presentations to investors alone is worth the price of the book." --RMS

"This could be the most important single book I ever read. Over the past few years I have spent several hundred thousand dollars putting together a series of digital videos on all seven continents (including one video with my daughter and I biking on all seven continents in one trip).

This book is the absolute perfect guide on not only helping me evaluate the marketability of these tapes, but also helping me determine HOW to, and to whom to market. Mark Steven Bosko is a brilliant writer whose insightfulness will be invaluable to those trying to get their film to the market.

Bill Kizorek - producer, filmmaker, Two Parrot Exotic Travel Videos

The Independent Film and Videomaker's Guide

If you are interested in independent film making, this is the BEST starting point in your research. It could very well be your last. This book not only answered every question I had, it raised and answered some I had not even thought of! Mr. Wiese's writing style, while professional, is very personable as well. He is very focused on discovering your creative side while balancing the necessary business practices to get your project done. Well worth the money.

This is a fantastic book! It covers everything, and I mean EVERYTHING from Pre-production, to Distribution, in great DETAIL! Is this the only book you should ever buy...of course not, but it's one you have to own.

Good guide for MHP and OCAP standards. It helps understand basic things of these standards

The authors give a well-written introduction as well as many insights into the design of interactive tv systems. This is a must-have for anyone new in this field. The book presents much more information than those on the interactive-mhp.org website.

We started our OCAP project prior to the arrival of this book and had to rely on digging through all of the different, confusingly referenced, standards. Every chapter of this book caused a light bulb to click on with a big "ah ha!" Don't get started without reading a copy of this book. It's a 10 to 1 reduction in pain.

This an excellent book! A must have! I strongly recommend it to anyone willing to have a broad and at the same time in-depth view into the numerous concepts and APIs necessary for designing IDTV applications. Several code snippets are provided to illustrate how each API can be used: this can help save a lot of time as the DVB MHP and OCAP specs are a little bit large.

This volume of articles and tidbits about the great Jackie Chan is definitely worth a read if not great. There are many fine insights into the man and the legend Jackie Chan, and indeed a lot of interesting photographs, which makes it so much the more enjoyable.

The format of the book, however, does not really agree with me. I don't like the article form, it seems cheap and mean. In my opinion it would have been better to write a uniform, coherent text based on the interviews and articles instead. The information is still there, it just seems a bit disorganized (which it really is not, it just seems that way).

It is still highly recommendable for all the information in there. Sure to please any fan.

This book is awesome! John Little's interview with Jackie Chan is worth the price alone. The photographs are the best, particularly the one of Jackie climbing a flag pole that looks like it has to be 50 feet off the ground! I learned so much about Jackie Chan, his martial arts training, his fitness methods and his personal philosophy. Having read all the other books on Jackie, I can easily say that this is - by far - the best! A must for everyone who loves his stunts or have been awed by his physical talent in martial art.

I loved this book. Anyone into the arts will love this book to. Its great and i personally like Jackie Chan.

This book is a fabulous read. I couldn't put it down until I finished it. It is not a narrative, but rather a compiled series of interviews between the author(s) and Jackie Chan that have taken place over the past ten years or so. The chapters are split up into sections on his childhood, martial arts training, philosophy, health and fitness, career and film making, stunt coordinating etc. Each chapter has an introduction and then goes straight into an indepth interview with Jackie Chan himself! There is a small overview at the beginning of the book on his life (a mini "My Life in Action"!) and at the end a filmography and a chapter containing what the author considers are Jackie's ten best stunts in a short paragraph format. There is a treasure trove of pictures from Jackie's films (all black and white unfortunately), many not before seen. I consider this book belongs on the shelf with Jackie's autobiography as it is contains personal insights and comments from "The Man" himself. My respect for Jackie Chan, already high after reading "My Life in Action", has risen even higher. The man is phenomenal and makes the so-called "Hollywood Stars" shine rather pale in comparison. If the many who dismiss Jackie as "just an action actor" could only read this book, how their eyes would be opened! Highly recommended - a must read!

Or maybe a Sharon Stone (she is not spared in these pages). Quite simply, this book is impossible to put down. James Ulmer's clever rating system is interesting enough in itself -- but the best part of the book is his personal stamp. He makes no bones about being star-struck, yet his mission is the demystification of the gods, and he does it with gimlet-eyed clarity and intelligence. A dirt-filled riff will turn on a phrase into a sharp insight into the celebrity cult and our fascination with it. Some of his observations of actors are priceless. My image of Marlon Brando struggling up the Brooklyn waterfront ramp will now forever be juxtaposed with him struggling up the aisle of an L.A. supermarket, dressed in a muumuu and eating from an as-yet-unbought gallon of Breyers ice cream. This is a great summer (or winter) read, but don't take it to anyplace where you're self-conscious about laughing out loud. Because you will.

For anyone who enjoys following the cult of celebrity -- go backstage with James Ulmer and find all of the behind-the-scenes gossip (ok really thruths) about today's biggest stars. Ulmer has been compiling this list for industry insiders for years and this is the first time he's published his info for the general public -- can't wait for the next installment!

The title only tells half the story. The lists are fun to browse (the 200 top stars), especially the inside dirt on each star. But the essays are really hilarious: weird twisted perks, gossip and insecurity, naughty inside references - a pretty amazing picture of business and culture in Hollywood, where Ulmer says nothing binds people together like money, tribal membership "and the desire to see your best friend fail." Yikes. This book definitely goes on my holiday gift list.

It's fun and funny to see how the industry perceives itself, this book is a hoot. The information they based the ratings on is already outdated, (Russell Crowe's career trajectory arrow is going sideways? Hello?) but it's still worth the $$ for the essays, especially the one on star perks, (you will not believe the story about a certain actress and a baby opposum) and the "inside dirt" remarks.

This book really helped me explain Jane Austen to my husband. Now he watches the movies with me quite contentedly.

I'm a big fan of Jane Austen in all forms. I've always thought that a mediocre Austen film is better than none at all. This book takes a fascinating scholarly look at Austen's film treatment. The authors say everything all true Austen fans have muttered about the films ("where's THAT in the book?!") and explains why it was done in such a way (for example, modern filmgoers won't appreciate an ugly, boring Edward Ferrers). Contains amusing critique of Thompsons S&S--that Austen's originial may have been more "feminist" than Thompson! If you enjoy the original written Austen and/or the recent film versions, you'll love this book.

Easy and accessible reading on a great writer. One of the best things about this book is the lack of critical consensus on so many important Austen issues (especially concerning her ostensible feminism and her indisputable irony)--it's always amusing (and enlightening) to listen in on a civilised, academic brawl! Do make sure to get the 2nd edition with 14 essays including the new one, "The Mouse that Roared."

The second edition (available only in paperback) contains a new essay, "The Mouse that Roared," about Patricial Rozema's film of Mansfield Park.

Carl Gottlieb has done a great job of giving the reader a true inside feel for the jaws filming process. The accounts of Dinner meetings with editor Verna Fields, Spielberg, Dreyfuss and Scheider were very interesting. If you are a jaws fanatic, pick this book up just for the story of Robert Shaw rewriting Gottlieb, rewriting Howard Sackler's account of the USS indianapolis scene.
ps... the entire book was updated from it's original version with footnotes and where are they now's in 2003.

I bought this out of curiosity, as a fan of JAWS for many years I decided I wanted to find out about the 'behind the scenes' part of this classic movie.
The Log book is filled with humour, great pics and interesting facts about the making of a shark film in the 70's that would become one of the highest grossing films of all time.

Wonderfully written by screenwriter Carl Gottlieb, a great companion to the DVD.

Fans of Jaws,this is the book about the making of the movie,
and is great !!
..many stories and pictures on the set...
A must Have !!

What a great way to celebrate Jaws 30th Anniversary. Reading this book is almost as good as watching the film itself. If you ever wondered how Spielberg turned Peter Benchly's book into one of the scariest movies of all time, you need to read this book. It's kind of like being there while the filming was going on. Tons of insider stuff here.

Frankly, I never liked the water much but Jaws just pushed me over the edge. I'm content to view the ocean from a safe distance. No need to get my feet wet. At this point I'm not too sure of the bathtub either. Don't miss this one.

Michael Morrison is THE Barrymore biographer who has done his homework: he spent nine years writing his book, compiled a host of new material and achieves a revival, nay, a resurrection! John Barrymore's RICHARDIII and HAMLET live! Not on celluloid, but they are among the most fully documented stage performances of the twentieth century. There are countless photos, reviews, promptbooks, letters, interviews. Morrison's reconstruction of RICHARDIII is based on Barrymore's recording, a film scene and a radio broadcast of the play. Barrymore made private recordings for nearly every scene of HAMLET. When he made his "streamlined Shakespeare" broadcasts in 1937 his technique had eroded, but he retained the patterns he had established while studying for the role. Even in 1933 when he made his HAMLET screen test his voice had a youthful timbre and his readings are subtle and powerful. Morrison put the puzzle together and is able to determine which syllables Barrymore stressed, when he spoke harsher, quicker, higher, colder, sarcastic or ironic, when he pauses, whispers, jumps up, fondles or slaps his leading lady - virtually every word and inflection is documented!

John Barrymore was the greatest American stage-actor of the twentieth century, His Shakespeare performances two of the most significant events in the history of the modern stage. They made formidable impact on the post-WWI generation, like Picasso's paintings and Strawinsky's music. He was the first to reinterpret time-honored roles in the light of Freud's psychological theory.

Before 1915 he was a clever comedian, a matinee-idol and a colorful figure in New York's high life. He tended to bohemianism and nocturnal adventures and lacked discipline. But he was ingratiating and his sparkling wit and physical attractiveness mollified even indignant producers. The failure of his first marriage and his friendship to playwright Edward Sheldon made him "reinvent" himself. His harrowing portrayal of a clerk who forges a check to rescue a woman from her abusive husband in Galsworthy's JUSTICE was hailed as epochal Broadway event. The audience found him "electrifying" in the jail-scene, where he was subjected to dehumanizing conditions. His "refined, sensitive, dreamy" PETER IBBETSON was a WWI hit, with its theme of love transcending separation and death. In Tolstoi's REDEMPTION Barrymore proved a "treasure mine" for producer Arthur Hopkins and THE JEST was a sensation: his character's sensuality was an irresistible lure to sexually liberated post-war audiences.

The idea to play RICHARDIII came when he observed a "sinister" red tarantula at the Bronx zoo. Barrymore, who admired the macabre & bizarre portrayed the wretched king with ironic humor and malevolent intensity. Margaret Carrington, his vocal coach, was impressed by his dedication and critics praised the ardent love-scene with Richard as "misunderstood saint" who sits on the throne "like an obscene condor meditating the death of the princes". They concluded that Barrymore had "jazzed up" Shakespeare to the point of real popularity, but Robert Edmond Jones commented: "It's abnormal. It isn't human to drive yourself like that". Sometimes his armor grew so hot that he was "grilled" and his affair with poetess "Michael Strange" was tempestous overwork. After less than 4 weeks the actor suffered a nervous breakdown and entered a sanitarium.

He survived the flop of CLAIR DE LUNE, a pretentious play that his wife wrote especially for him and worked again with Carrington - who hired her fourteen years old niece as chaperone (he behaved well). The description of his epoch-making HAMLET is is the core of Morrison's book.

John Barrymore was the first Hamlet with an Oedipus complex. His biographers agree that his stepmother's sexual abuse may have been the source of his conception of Hamlet as incestuous prince. His Hamlet is "manly, more sexual and menacing than the "sweet prince" of Victorian tradition. His Hamlet's "frank sexuality" shocked his partners. When he took the production to London he demanded a "lecherous court", "drunken orgies" and "half-bare bosoms" (His language was always colorful). He broke Edwin Booth's record of 100 consecutive performances. Most critics were enthusiastic, few superlatives were spared. Shaw criticized his cuts, but Laurence Olivier found: "When he was on stage the sun came out".

Soon Barrymore relapsed into his old humdrum way: drinking champagne, playing pranks - and then he threw his role away because he wanted to join his wife in Paris...Morrison dedicates the last chapter to Barrymore's Hollywood career: His mythic intemperance, disregard for his own well-being, his efforts to honor his monumental debts with the play MY DEAR CHILDREN ("A peep-show! a spiritual striptease with Gypsy Rose John!") and his self-parody on the Rudy-Vallee-show. A title-card in THE BELOVED ROGUE (1927) says: "One must sorrow that a man of such genius should be a drunken clown".

This is one of the best books ever written on the performing arts. By focusing in on Barrymore's Shakespearean acting only, Morrison manages to show how a second-rate light comedian turned himself into a great artist by sheer hard work -- and then, horrifyingly, how an artist transformed himself into a clown through laziness and dissipation. Through the use of the actor's playbooks and impressive research, Morrison does the impossible and brings Barrymore's stage performances as Richard III and Hamlet so vividly alive you'll swear you're in the theater watching them (I was holding my breath at the end of "Hamlet"). Along the way there are vivid portraits of the idealistic, progressive theater in the 1920's and, a decade later, the ancestry of today's poisonous and envious celebrity culture. Once you read this book you'll never look at Barrymore the same way again.

Michael Morrison has provided us with a stirring portrait of one of America's greatest actors, John Barrymore. His book is a vivid account of Barrymore's innovative approach to Shakespearean acting and subsequent rise to fame. This book is required reading for Shakespearean scholars and Barrymore enthusiasts alike.

Michael Morrison's book fills a much needed gap in the large Barrymore biographical canon: it tells the story of Barrymore the artist. Many of the other great biographies of the man and family (Margot Peter's THE HOUSE OF BARRYMORE, anything by James Kotsilibas-Davis, to name only two of many excellent others) understandably short-shrift the details found here, in favor of the fabulous "bon mots" and the large tragic arc of his life. Morrison, if it's possible to believe, makes that tragedy all the more heartbreaking by detailing the hard work that Barrymore put himself through to transform himself from a light comedian into the greatest tragic actor of his generation - and arguably the last great tragic actor of the American theatre.

The detailed recreations of Barrymore's acting in RICHARD III and HAMLET are facinating. They provide all of us who have come after some small picture of what it must have been like to actually see him on stage. It helps, I suppose, to be familiar with his film work, to have heard at least some of his Shakespearean recordings, in order to fully visualize Barrymore's "flashing, rapier" genius at work - but it's probably not necessary. A must for all Barrymore fans, actors, and theatre lovers, this book is a treasure. But beware, its story could break your heart.

If Ernest Hemingway had made movies, they would have looked something like John Huston's. The passion, intelligence, and joie de vivre of Huston's films are reflected in this set of articulate interviews. Pour yourself a good drink, and listen as one of Hollywood's best raconteurs spins yarn after yarn in this splendid volume of a valuable series.

Ably edited by independent scholar and freelance writer Robert Long, John Huston: Interviews is an informative and insightful compilation of interviews with the late John Huston (which took place from 1952 to 1985) in which he personally comments on his life and projects as an acclaimed filmmaker. Among the movies that are surveyed within this context are The Maltese Falcon, Key Largo, The Treasure of the Sierra Madre, The African Queen, The Night of the Iguana, Prizzi's Honor, and The Dead. The observations range from his approach to directing; the influence of painting upon his camera work, and his association with stellar actors, to his beginnings in Hollywood as a screenwriter, and the influences of James Joyce and Ernest Hemingway upon his movies. Replete with numerous anecdotes about writers, directors, and actors with whom he collaborated, we are presented with a body of work and a filmmaker's life that will be immensely appreciated by students of his work and a man whose personal life was as prodigious as his professional career.

This is a terrific book. It consists of interviews with John Huston from 1952-85. Not only does the reader find out about Huston's ideas on filmmaking and get some inside info on the making of classic films, but he will find out about the breadth of Huston's interests, which extended beyond filmmaking to art and philosophy. Here, truly, was an intelligent man.

The most interesting thing to me about Huston was that he started in the classic studio age and survived its downfall to make films that were fresh, interesting and important even in the Eighties. These interviews show Huston's mental flexibility. He admires "McCabe and Mrs. Miller," "Rocky," and "Taxi Driver." Huston is also quite frank about his own films. I will never be tempted to see "Roots of Heaven" or "Barbarian and the Geisha." I have to see "Moby Dick," which he considered one of his films that never got its due.

I was sorry when this book ended.

Ably edited by independent scholar and freelance writer Robert Long, John Huston: Interviews is an informative and insightful compilation of interviews with the late John Huston (which took place from 1952 to 1985) in which he personally comments on his life and projects as an acclaimed filmmaker. Among the movies that are surveyed within this context are The Maltese Falcon, Key Largo, The Treasure of the Sierra Madre, The African Queen, The Night of the Iguana, Prizzi's Honor, and The Dead. The observations range from his approach to directing; the influence of painting upon his camera work, and his association with stellar actors, to his beginnings in Hollywood as a screenwriter, and the influences of James Joyce and Ernest Hemingway upon his movies. Replete with numerous anecdotes about writers, directors, and actors with whom he collaborated, we are presented with a body of work and a filmmaker's life that will be immensely appreciated by students of his work and a man whose personal life was as prodigious as his professional career. John Huston: Interviews is also available in paperback ..., [price]