Customer Reviews

Cinematography (Screencraft Series)

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I checked this book out because I'm currently an art student unsure of which direction to pursue as far as career, but leaning towards film. This book features background and interviews with several influential cinematographers and proved extremely helpful to me. The film stills featured (from movies like The Godfather, Taxi Driver, The Piano,etc) stand alone as works of art and work exquisitely when combined with the text and other illustrations from the film making process (storyboards and angle sketches) to show how a good movie should be put together. This book would probably be enjoyed by most interested in film or storytelling.

I managed to get it for 150$, which is a bit of money for the book. It's clearly way too much for today price, but I guess the reason for such a price was color print at that time (1998) and the quality of paper and perhaps the limited edition (as the audience is pretty small). I would say, its real price now should be 50$ tops. Still...
...The content is a collection of interviews with 20 best cameramen of the past century, divided into 2 parts: firstly some biography, how the person got into cinema, and secondly describing working on movies. It's a chronological list, so it starts with the most early movies and trends and moves to quite modern ones.
The text is supplied with good illustrations, which are admirable: some of them cover the whole page, which are pretty big.. I got a feeling of having something unique and being an insider into the world of cinematography. Also it opened my eyes to many movies I've not seen, as it has lists of the most striking movies made by each person. Masterpieces. Only for this the book was worth of buying.
It is both inspirational book and contains a number of good advices from seasoned experts. A quaint thing, not for everybody. Only for those who are crazy enough to pay the price.

I picked this book up in manila, i found it very well written and informative. It is made up of interviews with some of todays most talented and succesful DOPs, they talk about their experiences in film, their own innovative techniques and styles and also what launched them into this career. The book also includes production notes, storyboards and other interesting technical camera issues. Well worth reading, once youve read it youll find your self picking it up all the time to have another read.