Showing titles in Direction & Production

Despite increasing corporate mergers and bottom-line thinking, the entertainment business will never function like a bank or an insurance company because it is an industry rooted in imagination. Rules are meant to be broken. The best work is often produced in an environment where plans change by the minute and nothing seems to make sense. To wit, those who choose this profession must alter preconceived notions of work itself, sometimes discovering that fantasy and horror describe both movie genres and life on the job.

Herman J. (1897–1953) and Joseph L. Mankiewicz (1909–1993) wrote, produced, and directed over 150 pictures. With Orson Welles, Herman wrote the screenplay for Citizen Kane and shared the picture’s only Academy Award. Joe earned the second pair of his four Oscars for writing and...

When F. W. Murnau brought Nosferatu to the screen in 1922, he ushered in the bloody reign of cinema’s most venerable villain - the vampire. Nocturnal, fanged and insatiable for human blood, the vampire has infected the public consciousness like no other movie monster. In this illustrated pocket guide, Charles Bramesco goes vampire hunting across a century of cinema, stalking around lonely Transylvanian castles, dusty New York apartments and rain-soaked Washington woods to discover why the vampire has become cinema’s most enduring villain.

Robert Altman—visionary director, hard-partying hedonist, eccentric family man, Hollywood legend—comes roaring to life in this rollicking cinematic biography, told in a chorus of voices that can only be called Altmanesque. His outsized life and unique career are revealed as never before...

The Camera Lies unpacks Hitchcock's legacy both as a director who continuously taught audiences to distrust appearance and as a man with an uncanny insight into the human capacity for deceit and misinterpretation.

Short Film Ideas: Compelling and Scalable Short Film Ideas are exactly that! It contains ideas for short films for all filmmakers and screenwriters who are experiencing writer's block, who are looking for ideas to get their juices flowing, or who need a storyline as soon as possible (i.e., for a film course). Your short screenplay should make the production of your film easy.

Since the 1920s, fashion has played a central role in Hollywood. As the movie-going population consisted largely of women, studios made a concerted effort to attract a female audience by foregrounding fashion. Designers from a variety of backgrounds, including haute couture and art design, were offered long-term contracts to work on multiple movies. Though their work typically went uncredited, they were charged with creating an image for each star that would help define an actor both on- and off-screen.

El impacto visual de Titanic no solo radica en su escala monumental, sino en la maestría cinematográfica con la que James Cameron dio vida a esta historia épica. Este libro explora en profundidad cada aspecto técnico y artístico que convirtió a Titanic en una de las películas más influyentes de la historia del cine.

Jane Leeves—who starred as Frasier’s beloved and eccentric Daphne Moon—tells her unique and intimate story of coming into her own on one of the most successful sitcoms ever made. Over the course of more than a decade, Jane Leeves, a former ballerina from humble beginnings in England...

In this Oxford Guide to Film Musicals, author Hannah Lewis gives listeners fascinating new insights into the development, style, and reception of the 2016 film musical La La Land. Directed by Damien Chazelle with music by Justin Hurwitz, the film tells the story of a romance between an aspiring actress and jazz pianist as the two pursue their dreams in Los Angeles. It uses a vintage form to tell a modern story and its blend of nostalgia and realism made it an instant classic even as it prompted a range of critical and audience responses.

The second edition of Inside Section One: Creating and Producing TV's La Femme Nikita is an expanded and updated version designed to provide listeners—and in particular, TV and film students—with a thorough understanding of the TV production experience, using the critically-acclaimed and award-winning TV series La Femme Nikita as a case study.

Quels sont les éléments du langage cinématographique (mouvements de caméra, plans, montage, etc.) ? Comment les cinéastes les ont-ils utilisés et comment ont-ils évolués depuis le début du XXe siècle ? En répondant à ces questions, Jean-Claude Carrière, scénariste de Luis Bunuel et de Louis Malle, nous permet de décrypter les images et le son, d'en prendre une conscience nouvelle et de changer à jamais notre regard sur le cinéma.

David Wark Griffith, best known for directing the 1915 film "The Birth of a Nation," is considered one of the most influential figures in the history of the motion picture, pioneering many aspects of film editing and expanding the art of the narrative film. In 1919, together with Charlie Chaplin, Mary Pickford, and Douglas Fairbanks, Griffith founded the movie studio United Artists, with the goal of enabling actors and directors to make films on their own terms. In this 1930 recording, actor Walter Huston and director DW Griffith discuss Griffith's film "The Birth of a Nation."

Still Laughing features never-before-told stories from the creation of one of the most groundbreaking shows in television history.

With the success of the Wonder Woman movies and the results following the outcry of the #MeToo movement, now is the time to highlight the female influences in film history previously left unheard!

A carefree memoir of growing up during the golden age of VHS and video rental stores in the 1980s. This humorous nostalgia trip rewinds to an era of chunky plastic tapes, horror movie sleepovers, and rewinding woes. Relive the magic of discovering cinema through the blurry analogue footage, cheesy effects, and garish cover art of the VHS generation.

Contrary to popular belief, the YouTube platform is not dead. In this audiobook, author Austen Porter shares insider tips and expertise and guides you through everything you need to start a successful YouTube channel from scratch. From all topics from making your first video to dealing with burnout and creative ruts, Austen Porter provides a new perspective and advice to grow on social media.

Over the course of her sixty-five-year career, the longest of any female filmmaker, Agnes Varda (1928-2019) wrote and directed some of the most acclaimed films of her era. She helped to define the French New Wave, inspired an entire generation of filmmakers, and was recognized with major awards at the Cannes, Berlin, and Venice Film Festivals, as well as an honorary Oscar at the Academy Awards. In this lively biography, Carrie Rickey explores the "complicated passions" that informed Varda's charmed life and indelible work.

In today's busy world, preventing audience boredom is more important than ever. Now screenwriters and directors have an easy guidebook for making their films more captivating, spine tingling, and suspenseful. "Hitchcock Whisperer" Jeffrey Michael Bays brings the secrets of suspense out of the shadows.

Here, for the first time, is the complete history of Saturday Night Fever. From the New York magazine article that inspired the film—"Tribal Rites of the New Saturday Night" by Nik Cohn—to the on-and-off-set dramas of Travolta, director John Badham, and producer Robert Stigwood, this deep dive into the making of a movie classic also includes special interviews with actors Donna Pescow and Joseph Cali, among others. It explores the huge impact of the film on the industry—including a "Death to Disco" backlash—as well as on American culture itself.