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On film-making : an introduction to the craft of the director / Alexander Mackendrick ; edited by Paul Cronin ; foreword by Martin Scorsese.
Van Pelt Library PN1995.9.P7 M23 2004
Available
- Format:
- Book
- Author/Creator:
- Mackendrick, Alexander, 1912-1993
- Language:
- English
- Subjects (All):
- Motion pictures--Production and direction.
- Motion pictures.
- Physical Description:
- xxxix, 293 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm
- Place of Publication:
- London : Faber and Faber, 2004.
- Summary:
- Alexander 'Sandy' Mackendrick directed such classic Ealing comedies as The Man in the White Suit and The Ladykillers, plus a Hollywood masterpiece, Sweet Smell of Success. But after retiring from film-making in 1969, he then spent nearly twenty-five years teaching his craft at the California Institute of the Arts in Los Angeles.
- Mackendrick produced hundreds of pages of masterly handouts and sketches, designed to guide his students to a finer understanding of how to write a story, and then use those devices peculiar to cinema in order to tell that story as effectively as possible. Gathered and edited in this collection, Mackendrick's teachings reveal that he had the talent not only to make great films, but also to articulate the process with a clarity and insight that will still inspire any aspirant film-maker. On Film-making is an invaluable analysis of the director's art and craft, from one of the most revered of all film school instructors.
- Contents:
- 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.
- ISBN:
- 0571215610
- OCLC:
- 56957025
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