Directors Close Up

The edited selections in this book are taken from in-depth discussions exploring the complex process of directing. Discussions focus on creative and pragmatic issues in the making of award-winning films. 52 photos.

From script development through pre-production to production and post-production, famed directors offer personal insights into every step of the creative process. They also reveal their candid takes on the best and worst aspects of their profession. This second edition features personal materials from many of the directors, including storyboards, script notes, sketches, and on-set photos. Directors Close Up will be of interest to both professional and aspiring directors; as well as to film fans that will enjoy this inside look into making movies.

Since 1992, the Directors Guild of America has hosted an annual symposium featuring its nominees for outstanding feature film directing. From the first, film and television director Jeremy Kagan has moderated these sessions in which the finest contemporary directors weigh in on every aspect of the filmmaking process. In Directors Close Up, Second Edition, Kagan culled the most insightful and entertaining responses from sessions conducted between 1992 and 2005. In Directors Close Up 2, an all-new sequel, Kagan shines his spotlight on nominees from the 2006-2012 seminars as they discuss their work on some of the most brilliant films of the last several years. From script development through pre-production to production and post-production, the directors offer personal insights into every step of the creative process. They also reveal their candid takes on the best and worst aspects of their profession. Featuring materials from their productions--including storyboards, script notes, sketches, and on-set photos--Directors Close Up 2 will be of interest to both professional and aspiring directors, as well as film fans who will enjoy this inside look into making movies. The interviewed nominees featured in this volume: Paul Thomas Anderson, There Will Be Blood Darren Aronofsky, Black Swan Kathryn Bigelow, The Hurt Locker Danny Boyle, Slumdog Millionaire James Cameron, Avatar George Clooney, Good Night, and Good Luck. Ethan Coen and Joel Coen, No Country for Old Men Bill Condon, Dreamgirls Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris, Little Miss Sunshine Lee Daniels, Precious David Fincher, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, The Social Network, and The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo Stephen Frears, The Queen Tony Gilroy, Michael Clayton Paul Haggis, Crash Michel Hazanavicius, The Artist Tom Hooper, The King's Speech Ron Howard, Frost/Nixon Alejandro Gonz lez I rritu, Babel Ang Lee, Brokeback Mountain Bennett Miller, Capote Christopher Nolan, The Dark Knight and Inception Alexander Payne, The Descendants Jason Reitman, Up in the Air David O. Russell, The Fighter Julian Schnabel, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly Martin Scorsese, The Departed and Hugo Steven Spielberg, Munich Quentin Tarantino, Inglourious Basterds Gus Van Sant, Milk

In Rose Eichenbaum’s latest book on the confluence of art making and human expression, she sits down with thirty-five modern day storytellers—the directors of theater, film, and television. Eichenbaum’s subjects speak with revealing clarity about the entertainment industry, the role and life of the director, and how theatrical and cinematic storytelling impacts our culture and our lives. The Director Within includes interviews with Peter Bogdanovich (The Last Picture Show), Julie Taymor (The Lion King), Mel Brooks (Blazing Saddles), Tim Van Patten (The Sopranos, Boardwalk Empire), Hal Prince (The Phantom of the Opera), Barry Levinson (Rain Man), and many others. The interviews are skillfully crafted, sensitively executed, and brimming with honesty and insight. The accompanying portraits demonstrate Eichenbaum’s mastery of photography and convey the truth, depth, and intimacy of their subjects. The Director Within is an inspirational, informative, and entertaining resource for anyone interested in creativity, art making, and artistic collaboration. The book includes a listing of works from each of the directors.

Through extensive, exclusive interviews with Eastwood (and the friends and colleagues of a lifetime), Time magazine film critic Richard Schickel has penetrated a complex character who has always been understood too quickly, too superficially. Schickel pierces Eastwood's monumental reserve to reveal the anger and the shyness, the shrewdness and frankness, the humor and powerful will that have helped make him what he is today. of photos.

Designed for libraries of all kinds and all sizes, Sherman's techniques and principles are practical, accessible, tested, and effective.

Is Michael Mann an auteur? Mann is a formidable filmmaking personality, no doubt, but the notion that today's celebrity cult of director immediately correlates with the mysterious sect of 'auteur' is questionable and deserves to be investigated. In doing so this book strives to emulate the methodology of the man himself, by ranging over not only the films he has made, from 1979’s The Jericho Mile to 2015's Blackhat, but also the scope of intellectual interests that they exemplify in an attempt to mine the commonalities, themes and traits that may suggest the presence of an auteur. Through his investigation of Mann's filmography and the personality that flows through it, author Deryck Swan provides the reader with accessible and new ways of thinking about his films to date, including, amongst myriad other things, references to painter Morris Louis, desert modernism, West Coast prison culture, Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley, Strain Theory, journalist Mike Royko, Chicago's Auditorium building and a largely forgotten Charles Bronson film.