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On Film-Making: An Introduction to the Craft of the Director - Paperback | Diverse Reads

On Film-Making: An Introduction to the Craft of the Director

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A priceless examination of the filmmaker's craft, from the renowned director of Sweet Smell of Success

After more than twenty years in the film industry as a screenwriter, storyboard editor, and director of memorable films such as The Ladykillers, Alexander Mackendrick turned his back on Hollywood and began a new career as the Dean of one of the country's most demanding and influential film schools. His absolute devotion to the craft of filmmaking served as a powerful impetus to students at the California Institute for the Arts for almost twenty five years, with a teaching style that included prodigious notes, neatly crafted storyboards, and handouts containing excerpts of works by Kierkegaard, Aristotle, and others. At the core of Mackendrick's lessons lay a deceptively simple goal: to teach aspiring filmmakers how to structure and write the stories they want to tell, while using the devices particular to the medium of film to tell their stories effectively.

In this impressive volume, edited by Paul Cronin, the myriad materials that made Mackendrick's reputation as an instructor are collected for the first time, offering a chance for professionals as well as students to discover a methodology of filmmaking that is challenging yet refreshing in its clarity. Meticulously illustrated and drawing on examples from such classic films as North by Northwest, Citizen Kane, and Touch of Evil, Mackendrick's elegant lessons are sure to provide inspiration for a new generation of filmmakers.

ISBN-13: 9780571211258

Media Type: Paperback

Publisher: Farrar - Straus and Giroux

Publication Date: 08-31-2005

Pages: 336

Product Dimensions: 6.09(w) x 9.04(h) x 0.98(d)

Alexander Mackendrick directed several films, including The Man in the White Suit, which earned him an Oscar Nomination for Screenwriting. He died in 1993. Paul Cronin is the editor of Herzog on Herzog.

Table of Contents

Foreword ix
Introduction xiii
Prologue xxxv
Part 1 Dramatic Construction
The Pre-Verbal Language of Cinema 3
What is a Story? 9
Exposition 22
Modernist Trends 27
A Technique for Having Ideas 36
Slogans for the Screenwriter's Wall 40
Exercises for the Student of Dramatic Construction 44
When Not to Write a Shooting Script 66
Once Upon a Time... 76
Activity versus Action 86
Dramatic Irony 92
William Archer Revisited 97
Plausibility and Willing Suspension of Disbelief 111
Density and Subplots in Sweet Smell of Success 116
Cutting Dialogue 160
The Solomon Exercise 165
The Director and the Actor 179
Part 2 Film Grammar
The Invisible Imaginary Ubiquitous Winged Witness 197
How to be Meaningless 200
Mental Geography 204
Condensing Screen Time 209
Drawing Lesson 218
Point of View 222
The Axis 235
Shot-to-Shot Relationships 251
Camera Coverage 258
Camera Movement 272
Citizen Kane 280
Epilogue 289
Note on the editor 293