Friday, April 17, 2009

How to make movies? Read

While watching movies is certainly an important part of your film education it can also be a burden if that’s all you do. You’ll find yourself copying the movies you’ve seen rather than coming up with your own stories, techniques, dialogue, etc.

I’ve learned more reading than I have watching, so I’ve compiled a list of books on that I think are must-reads for any writer or director.

On Writing:
Story by Robert McKee
Screenplay by Syd Field
The Screenwriter’s Problem Solver by Syd Field
The Writer’s Journey by Christopher Vogler
The Idiot’s Guide to Screenwriting by Skip Press

On Directing:
Directing Actors by Judith Weston
The Film Director’s Intuition by Judith Weston
First Time Director by Gil Bettman
On Directing Film by David Mamet
Making Movies by Sidney Lumet
Film Directing: Shot by Shot by Steven D. Katz
Film Directing: Cinematic Motion by Steven D. Katz

If you’re a screenwriter you should also be reading as many scripts as you can get your hands on. Good ones, bad ones. Doesn’t matter. See what works and what doesn’t. A great resource for scripts is Simply Scripts and Daily Script.

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