When you want to find filmmaking books, you may need to consider between many choices. Finding the best filmmaking books is not an easy task. In this post, we create a very short list about top 10 the best filmmaking books for you. You can check detail product features, product specifications and also our voting for each product. Let’s start with following top 10 filmmaking books:
Best filmmaking books
1. The Filmmaker's Handbook, 2013 Edition
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Plume BooksDescription
The fourth edition of the authoritative guide to producing, directing, shooting, editing, and distributing your video or film.Widely acknowledged as the bible of video and film production, and used in courses around the world, The Filmmakers Handbook is now updated with the latest advances in HD and new digital formats. For students and teachers, professionals and novices, this indispensable handbook covers all aspects of movie making.
Techniques for making dramatic features, documentaries, corporate, broadcast, and experimental videos and films
Shooting with DSLRs, video, film, and digital cinema cameras
Digital editing with the latest video editing systems
In-depth coverage of lenses, lighting, sound recording, and mixing
The business aspects of funding and producing your project
Getting your movie shown in theaters, on TV, and on the Web
2. Filmmaking: Direct Your Movie from Script to Screen Using Proven Hollywood Techniques
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Focal PressDescription
Filmmaking, the definitive resource for filmmakers, blows the doors off the secretive film industry and shows you how to adapt the Hollywood system for your production. Full of thousands of tips, tricks, and techniques from Emmy-winning director Jason Tomaric, Filmmaking systematically takes you through every step of how to produce a successful movie - from developing a marketable idea through selling your completed movie. Whether you're on a budget of $500 or $50 million, Filmmaking reveals some of Hollywood's best-kept secrets. Make your movie and do it right.
The companion site includes:
- Over30 minutes of high-quality video tutorials featuring over a dozen working Hollywood professionals
- Industry-standard forms and contracts you can use for your production
- Sample scripts, storyboards, schedules, call sheets, contracts, letters from the producer, camera logs, and press kits
- 45-minute video that takes you inside the movie that launched Jason's career. 3,000 extras, 48 locations, 650 visual effects-all made from his parent's basement for $25,000.
3. My First Movie: Twenty Celebrated Directors Talk about Their First Film
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In these vivid and revealing interviews, a diverse collection of filmmakers talk in extraordinary detail and with amazing candor about making their first films. Each chapter focuses on a director's celebrated debut and tells the inside story of the film's creation. Along the way, every aspect of the movie industry is explored-from writing the script and raising the money to casting the actors and assembling the crew, from shooting and editing to selling the movie and screening it. These interviews are not only memoirs of particular movies; each one is also an emotional journey in which the director relives the pain and elation, the comedy and tragedy, of making a first feature film.4. The Director's Six Senses: An Innovative Approach to Developing Your Filmmaking Skills
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The Directors Six Senses is an innovative, unique, and engaging approach to the development of the skills that every visual storyteller must have. Its based on the premise that a director is a storyteller 24/7 and must be aware of the truth that he or she experiences in life in order to be able to reproduce it on the big screen. Through a series of hands-on exercises and practical experiences, the reader develops the directorial senses in order to be able to tell a story in the most effective way.5. Film Directing Shot by Shot: Visualizing from Concept to Screen (Michael Wiese Productions)
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Michael Wiese ProductionsDescription
A complete catalogue of motion picture techniques for filmmakers. It concentrates on the 'storytelling' school of filmmaking, utilizing the work of the great stylists who established the versatile vocabulary of technique that has dominated the moviessince 1915. This graphic approach includes comparisons of style by interpreting a 'model script', created for the book, in storyboard form.
6. How to Shoot Video That Doesn't Suck: Advice to Make Any Amateur Look Like a Pro
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Workman Publishing CompanyDescription
Newly updated and revised, How to Shoot Video That Doesnt Suck is a quick and easy guide that will make your video better instantlywhether you read it cover to cover or just skim a few chapters. Its about the language of video and how to think like a director, regardless of equipment (amateurs think about the camera, pros think about communication). Its about the rules developed over a century of movie-makingwhich work just as well when shooting a two-year-olds birthday party on your phone. Written by Steve Stockman, the director of the award-winning feature Two Weeks, plus TV shows, music videos, and hundreds of commercials, How to Shoot Video That Doesnt Suck explains in 74 short, pithy, insightful chapters how to tell a story and entertain your audience. In other words, how to shoot video people will want to watch.
Heres how to think in shotshow to move-point-shoot-stop-repeat, instead of planting yourself in one spot and pressing Record for five minutes. Why never to shoot until you see the whites of your subjects eyes. Why to zoom with your feet and not the lens. How to create intrigue on camera. The book covers the basics of video production: framing, lighting, sound (use an external mic), editing, special effects (turn them off!), and gives advice on shooting a variety of specific situations: sporting events, parties and family gatherings, graduations and performances. Plus, how to make instructional and promotional videos, how to make a music video, how to capture stunts, and much more. At the end of every chapter is a suggestion of how to immediately put what youve learned into practice, so the next time youre shooting youll have begun to master the skill. Steves website (stevestockman.com) provides video examples to illustrate different production ideas, techniques, and situations, and his latest thoughts on all things video.
Heres how to think in shotshow to move-point-shoot-stop-repeat, instead of planting yourself in one spot and pressing Record for five minutes. Why never to shoot until you see the whites of your subjects eyes. Why to zoom with your feet and not the lens. How to create intrigue on camera. The book covers the basics of video production: framing, lighting, sound (use an external mic), editing, special effects (turn them off!), and gives advice on shooting a variety of specific situations: sporting events, parties and family gatherings, graduations and performances. Plus, how to make instructional and promotional videos, how to make a music video, how to capture stunts, and much more. At the end of every chapter is a suggestion of how to immediately put what youve learned into practice, so the next time youre shooting youll have begun to master the skill. Steves website (stevestockman.com) provides video examples to illustrate different production ideas, techniques, and situations, and his latest thoughts on all things video.
7. Rebel without a Crew: Or How a 23-Year-Old Filmmaker With $7,000 Became a Hollywood Player
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Plume BooksDescription
Famed independent screenwriter and director Robert Rodriguez (Sin City, Once Upon a Time in Mexico, Spy Kids, Machete) discloses all the unique strategies and original techniques he used to make his remarkable debut filmEl Mariachion a shoestring budget.This is both one man's remarkable story and an essential guide for anyone who has a celluloid story to tell and the dreams and determination to see it through.Part production diary, part how-to manual, Rodriguez unveils how he was able to make his influential first film on only a $7,000 budget.Also included is the appendix, "The Ten Minute Film Course, a tell-all on how to save thousands of dollars on film school and teach yourself the ropes of film production, directing, and screenwriting.
A perfect gift for the aspiring filmmaker.
8. Filmmaking for Teens: Pulling Off Your Shorts
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Used Book in Good ConditionDescription
With over 20 hours of video being uploaded to YouTube every minute, how can a young filmmaker possibly stand out? By reading and applying the tools of Filmmaking for Teens
9. What You Don't Learn in Film School: A Complete Guide to (Independent) Filmmaking
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Multi Emmy Award-winning filmmaker Shane Stanley writes a book anyone and everyone should read if they want an entertainment industry insider's professional guidance on how to create a movie. This book is an especially invaluable tool to those who have, or plan to, attend a college or university film school. Your Complete Guide To (Independent) Filmmaking. An in-depth, no holds barred look at making movies from concept to delivery in todays ever-evolving climate while breaking down the dos and donts of (independent) filmmaking. Learn invaluable industry secrets from top to bottom and discover the truth about independent film distribution as the lid is torn off the many myths surrounding sales agents and todays release platforms that are certain to open readers eyes - and ruffle a few feathers! READ THE REVIEWS AND WHAT THE EXPERTS SAY "Impressively informative, exceptionally well written, organized and presented...an iconoclastic and invaluable course of 'real world practical' instruction and directly usable information that is unreservedly recommended as a film school curriculum textbook, as well as professional, community, and academic library Cinema Technology collections and supplemental studies lists. It should be noted for personal reading lists of film students and non-specialist general readers with an interest in the subject." - MIDWESTERN BOOK REVIEW "Hollywood filmmaker Shane Stanley writes a book anyone and everyone should read if they want an entertainment industry insider's professional guidance on how to create a movie. This book is an especially invaluable tool to those who have, or plan to, attend a college or university film school." - ABC NEWS, CROSSROADS TODAY "Stanley illuminates the world of movie-making in detail in his fast-paced book, speaking from his own sometimes-agonized experience in the film realm. His book gets down into the nitty-gritty, touching upon real-life topics... - STACY JENEL SMITH, BECK/SMITH THE HOLLYWOOD EXCLUSIVE "A unique and personal perspective from a well-rounded, solid vantage point. A quality reference for anyone interested in independent filmmaking. Film school curriculums would do students a services to include Stanley's book on a required reading list. A very valuable resource which needs to be in everyone's bookshelf from the beginning actor to the accomplished director/producer." - PACIFIC BOOK REVIEW A no holds barred, transparent look at making movies from concept to delivery. This book isn't just for students - it's for anyone trying to carve out a career in the film or television industry and evident that Stanley is trying to help bridge the gap between the classroom and real life by giving the next generation of filmmakers as much ammunition as possible before they venture out intoHollywood.- www.businessinsider.com Pulls no punches. It's one of the most insightful and accurate books ever written on the subject. A master class bridging the gap between school and real life experience that will save you years of heartache. A must-read for anyone interested in pursuing a career in film. - Neal H. Moritz, Producer (Fast & Furious, S.W.A.T., 21 and 22 Jump Street) Shane Stanley takes you to a Film School that only years of practical experience can teach. He covers both the business of independent filmmaking as well as the hard earned secrets of a successful production. A must-read for anyone who wants to produce. - Jeff Sagansky, Former President of Sony Entertainment and CBS Entertainment An incredibly practical guide to making indie films in the current marketplace. Film schools should be teaching this stuff in addition to everything else they teach about the art of film, because its all essential to actually getting something done and getting it seen. The advice in this book obviously comes from real experience! - Chris Hansen, Professor and Chairman, Baylor University Department of Film & Digital Media10. The Portable Film School: Everything You'd Learn in Film School (Without Ever Going to Class)
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The Portable Film School is a private tutorial from an instructor at one of the nation's most prestigious film schools. D.B. Gilles explains the fundamental skills and techniques of screenwriting and making a short film arming you with the two calling cards you'll need to break into Hollywood without having spent the tuition or a minute in a classroom.
