Directing Feature Films

The film director is the guide, the inspiration, the focus that can shepherd hundreds of artists into the creation of a single work of art. The author takes the reader step by step into the process of film-making.

Producing and Directing the Short Film and Video is the definitive book on the subject for beginning filmmakers and students. The book clearly illustrates all of the steps involved in preproduction, production, postproduction, and distribution. Its unique two-fold approach looks at filmmaking from the perspectives of both producer and director, and explains how their separate energies must combine to create a successful short film or video, from script to final product. This guide offers extensive examples from award-winning shorts and includes insightful quotes from the filmmakers themselves describing the problems they encountered and how they solved them. The companion website contains useful forms and information on grants and financing sources, distributors, film and video festivals, film schools, internet sources for short works, and professional associations.

Visualize your films before shooting!

‘Left or Right? Directing Lateral Movement in Film’ offers an in-depth analysis of film, television, and new media directing from a perspective of clearly articulated directorial concept linked to the placement and movement of performers in shot design. This book strives to demonstrate the mechanism of directional bias and how the effects of perceptual mechanisms can help film directors and image-makers to control, regulate, and modify the viewer’s perception of characters and story movement, ultimately leading to higher quality creations. This highly hands-on, practical book provides novel insights into the significance of laterality effects, equipping film directors, and image-makers who want to create aesthetically valuable and well-crafted visual products with functional tools to employ. The book also examines lateral organization in regard to biological sex, gender identity, class, races, ethnicity, religions, and age in LGBTQ+ films and porn cinema. ‘Left or Right? Directing Lateral Movement in Film’ holds broad appeal from experiences directors or cinematographers with an established body of work to students working to understand the language of cinema. It will also appeal to film and media theorists, as well as teachers of visual arts education.

This comprehensive manual has inspired tens of thousands of readers worldwide to realize their artistic vision and produce well-constructed films. Filled with practical advice on every stage of production, this is the book you will return to throughout your career. Directing covers the methods, technologies, thought processes, and judgments that a director must use throughout the fascinating process of making a film. The core of the book is the human, psychological, and technical knowledge that every director needs, the enduring elements of the craft that remain vital. Directing also provides an unusually clear view of the artistic process, particularly in working with actors and principle crew to achieve personally expressive storytelling and professionalism on any budget. Directing explores in detailed and applicable terms how to engage with the conceptual and authorial sides of filmmaking. Its eminently practical tools and exercises show how to: discover your artistic identity; develop credible and compelling stories with your cast and crew; and become a storyteller with a distinctive voice and style. The companion website includes teaching notes, dozens of practical hands-on projects and film study activities to help you master technical and conceptual skills, film analysis questionnaires, and all the essential production forms and logs. New to the fifth edition * Virtually every chapter has been revised, updated, and re-organized for a streamlined and integrated approach. * Expanded sections on the basics of drama, including thorough analyses of recent films * Discussions of the director's approach to script analysis and development * New discussion exploring the elements of naturalistic and stylistic aesthetic approaches. * New discussion on the narrative power of lighting and the lens - including many recent film examples for shot size, perspective, focus and exposure * Greater emphasis on the implications of composition, mise-en-scène, continuity shooting and editing, long take shooting, point-of-view sequences, and camera handling * Expanded discussion of collaboration between the director and principle creative crew * Updated coverage of workflow and comparative advantages to digital or film acquisition * New section on film production safety, set protocol and etiquette

A study of the art of directing and directing techniques. It addresses questions such as: how do you draw all the talented artists together to share a single vision?; how do you express the writer's intentions?; and how do you keep the actors' performances fresh?

Basics Film-Making: Directing Fiction introduces the essential aspects of the directorial process, focusing on the requirements of short films while also drawing on classic examples from the world of feature films. It looks at the tricky balancing act of art and business, offering guidelines and basic principles rather than instructions. Divided into the three key stages of the film-making process - pre-production, production and postproduction, the book provides students with a framework to begin directing their own productions. The chapters are interspersed with case studies investigating the working practices of leading professionals such as Robert Rodriguez, and Mike Leigh.