On Directing Film

Editorial Review:

From a Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright comes invaluable insights and practical instructions on the art of film directing. Mamet looks at every aspect of directing--from script to cutting room--and draws from a wide variety of sources to make his points.

According to David Mamet, a film director must, above all things, think visually. Most of this instructive and funny book is written in dialogue form and based on film classes Mamet taught at Columbia University. He encourages his students to tell their stories not with words, but through the juxtaposition of uninflected images. The best films, Mamet argues, are composed of simple shots. The great filmmaker understands that the burden of cinematic storytelling lies less in the individual shot than in the collective meaning that shots convey when they are edited together. Mamet borrows many of his ideas about directing, writing, and acting from Russian masters such as Konstantin Stanislavsky, Sergei M. Eisenstein, and Vsevelod Pudovkin, but he presents his material in so delightful and lively a fashion that he revitalizes it for the contemporary reader.

Customer Reviews:

Avg. Customer Rating: 4.0 / 5.0

A small mega book!:

Over all I was surprised to see the size and no. of pages of the book. But Really in this case, Size doesn't matter. Its full of gr8 info in a very interactive and excellent style.
A must hav for all who are realted to film.

great great book:

Probably one of the best books I've ever read about making movies.
While Mamet is a bit overly rigid in his approach to classical montage here, it is a good contrast to the 'films' with people sitting around a table talking to each other. It will make you reevaluate your approach to placing the camera, directing the performance, structuring your story, visually interpreting a screenplay, etc... It is a quick read and you will surely revisit it through out your career as a filmmaker.

Excellent Concise Guide:

Excellent supplement to McKee's STORY, to be used to break a scene into the shots that will show the story. As he says, in the end, all you have is your shot list. Also very useful for animation planning, comics, and graphic fiction writing. Mamet has been criticized because he has not actually directed many movies -- but sometimes a beginner's mind can document insights into a craft better than the old pros, for whom everything has become second-nature.

Makes it's point succintly:

I'll keep it short. For one, this book is really short. I read it on the way to and from work in the same day. Secondly, Mamet says more in these hundred or so pages than most textbooks on the same subject. All that matters is that every scene serves a purpose and drives the story forward. True, there are exceptions to this rule but hearing Mamet tell it like it is with very little fat around his words is a refreshing alternative to long winded suggestions. Definitely worth a read if you are interested in... more info

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