Hollywood In Wide Angle

This unique collection of interviews covers the broad spectrum of film directing experience--from first timers to award-winning veterans. Allowed to respond with anonymity, the directors provide candid answers to a wide variety of topics that convey the challenges and rewards of the filmmaking process.

Hollywood moviemaking is one of the constants of American life, but how much has it changed since the glory days of the big studios? David Bordwell argues that the principles of visual storytelling created in the studio era are alive and well, even in today’s bloated blockbusters. American filmmakers have created a durable tradition—one that we should not be ashamed to call artistic, and one that survives in both mainstream entertainment and niche-marketed indie cinema. Bordwell traces the continuity of this tradition in a wide array of films made since 1960, from romantic comedies like Jerry Maguire and Love Actually to more imposing efforts like A Beautiful Mind. He also draws upon testimony from writers, directors, and editors who are acutely conscious of employing proven principles of plot and visual style. Within the limits of the "classical" approach, innovation can flourish. Bordwell examines how imaginative filmmakers have pushed the premises of the system in films such as JFK, Memento, and Magnolia. He discusses generational, technological, and economic factors leading to stability and change in Hollywood cinema and includes close analyses of selected shots and sequences. As it ranges across four decades, examining classics like American Graffiti and The Godfather as well as recent success like The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, this book provides a vivid and engaging interpretation of how Hollywood moviemakers have created a vigorous, resourceful tradition of cinematic storytelling that continues to engage audiences around the world.

A quarterly journal of film history, theory, criticism, and practice.

A quarterly journal of film history, theory, criticism, and practice.

"Guerric DeBona's new book that makes a powerful case that film adaptiations are shaped as much by contextual forces as by their literary forbears. Once it is as widely read as it deserves to be, adaptation studies will never be the same."-Thomas Leitch, author of Film adaptatin and its discontents: from Gone with the Wind to the Passion of the Christ.

This handbook provides powerful ways to understand changes in the current media landscape. Media forms and genres are proliferating as never before, from movies, computer games and iPods to video games and wireless phones. This essay collection by recognized scholars, practitioners and non-academic writers opens discussion in exciting new directions.

The captivity narrative, the earliest genre of American popular literature, continues to be of cultural significance in late 20th-century Hollywood. Many popular films of the last four decades incorporate the most common elements of the captivity narrative tradition, including a politically contested frontier setting and a plot involving innocent, family-oriented white Americans held captive by hostile, culturally alien natives. At the same time, these films offer something new to the narrative tradition: they focus on the captive who resists rescue and the challenge this resistance poses to American cultural self-confidence. By focusing on the lost captive, these films, beginning with The Searchers (1956), deal with questions about American identity raised by a white American's cultural and potentially political transformation. Films as diverse as Little Big Man, Taxi Driver, and The Deer Hunter adapted the captivity narrative's conventions to criticize aspects of contemporary American society and reject outworn models of male heroism; at the same time, however, they retained the genre's traditional assumption of white superiority and its fear of female sexuality. Bibliography. Index.

Filmmakers love gadgets. We flock to any new technology that demonstrates the slightest potential to help us conceptualize, visualize, and digitize our creative efforts. So why are we neglecting those touch-screen powerhouses hiding in our pockets and backpacks? It’s time to make a change! In Hand Held Hollywood’s Filmmaking with the iPad & iPhone, director Taz Goldstein exposes how these remarkable devices can aid in nearly every aspect of film and video production. Written to empower aspiring filmmakers and reenergize working professionals, this book will help transform your iOS devices into revolutionary filmmaking tools, perfect for brainstorming, screenwriting, pitching, scheduling, storyboarding, camera blocking, shooting, editing, color correcting, mixing, distributing, and more. Time-tested techniques and film theory are woven into an entertaining and informative exploration of nearly 200 mind-blowing apps and accessories. • Get up to speed quickly with clear, thorough, and friendly descriptions. • Discover apps and accessories that can lower budgets by replacing thousands of dollars worth of traditional filmmaking equipment and software. • Start shooting today with a wide range of video camera apps, including specialty tools for variable speed effects, filtering, stabilization, collaborative shooting, and more. • Whether you’re starting a new video or finishing an existing one, this book features the most helpful apps for your iPad and iPhone—including the iPhone 5. This unique and often humorous guide will benefit any mobile media maker who wants to get the most out of the technology they already own. ABOUT THE AUTHOR Taz Goldstein has been directing and producing for well over a decade. His award-winning films, television productions, and corporate projects have been enjoyed by millions of viewers worldwide. His popular website, HandHeldHollywood.com, has inspired and empowered a new generation of storytellers, and helped to launch the mobile filmmaking revolution.