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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
A waste of time, May 8, 2010
This review is from: The Citizen Kane Crash Course in Cinematography: A Wildly Fictional Account of How Orson Welles Learned Everything about the Art of Cinematography in Half an Hour. Or, Was It a Weekend? (Paperback)
This book does not provide the depth that I expected at all! If one takes away the "wildly fictional" portions, the informative bits about cinematography is reduced to a mere 9-10 pages. Namely, 1)lens of varying focal lengths are used to different shots like, establishing shots, long shots, mid shots, close ups, 2) what is 3-pt lighting, 3) never cross-over the 180-degree line, 4) Remember to capture the various wide, mid, closeups for every scene and don't forget the cutaways,
This is really a fictitious story (presented in a script form) about Welles and Toland's 2-day spree on booze and sex in Hollywood (with Toland giving VERY short lessons to Welles on the very basics of cinematography in between). The 1st 30 pages of this 120-page book does not present anything on cinematography at all!
Quoting 2 lines from the book (so that you can have an idea of some of the "wild" contents,
"Welles rushes toward the enticing "ladies of the evening" and scooping Jean up in his arms he heads for the masterbedroom with Marlene and Greta bouncing and giggling closely behind. The massive bedroom door slams shut, leaving Toland standing there along in the middle of the suite, still holding the 75mm lens and surrounded by all the equipment."
"Before you could say 'orgy' the entire after-hours party, Toland included, was in the pool, playing and kissing and groping and thrusting and leaving Madam Gaylor and the head chef ambivalently sneaking glances at the erotic display and sipping their champagne."
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7 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Not very good, August 20, 2008
This review is from: The Citizen Kane Crash Course in Cinematography: A Wildly Fictional Account of How Orson Welles Learned Everything about the Art of Cinematography in Half an Hour. Or, Was It a Weekend? (Paperback)
The author knows a lot about cinematography but not much about Welles. The writing is at the high school level and full of jargon; in fact, the book is full of quite a bit of useless information, including charts and graphs that mean nothing. The story is, well, pointless. The drawing were done merely to avoid copyright issue; what you have is a book about photography with no photographs or stills. The background research was done via google and wikipedia. On the positive side, the author does admire Greg Toland.
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5.0 out of 5 stars
Worth a second read...and a third...and a fourth..., May 5, 2010
This review is from: The Citizen Kane Crash Course in Cinematography: A Wildly Fictional Account of How Orson Welles Learned Everything about the Art of Cinematography in Half an Hour. Or, Was It a Weekend? (Paperback)
Mr. Worth,
Earlier today I finished reading the "Citizen Kane Crash Course in Cinematography"...and, as I had hoped would be the case, I was not only entertained, but also educated.
I couldn't help but smile when I read the Foreword...you see, I just finished reading "If Chins Could Kill" last week, so I was still digesting Bruce Campbell's hilarious narrative of his adventures with Sam Raimi & Co. (and getting an education on low-budget special effects to boot) when I picked up your book, so it was almost as if I were finishing a dialogue with Bruce and having him hand the conversation off to you!
And what a conversation your book turned out to be! I can say with some conviction that the two or so hours total I spent on it taught me more useful information in an easily-retainable form than the countless hours I've spent looking through other books that claim to break down the art of filmmaking. You've taken the fundamentals of camerawork--the vast majority of which still holds true in our high-definition age--and couched it in a wide-open, freewheeling tale of the decadence of Hollywood's Golden Age. I lost count of the times I laughed out loud as my mind's ear heard the words you placed in Orson Welles' mouth booming out in his inimitable voice. But as I laughed, I also learned...and any story that can make a reader do both wields a great deal of power.
I'm currently editing footage I shot of my cousin's wedding with two miniDV cameras (after he saw the butchery of my brother's wedding video by a family friend with an expensive camera and no clue how to use it, he enlisted my help...the fact that he was also the lead in one of my earliest no-budget productions probably had a hand in it as well, but I digress...), and as I held one of those small plastic cassettes in my hand, the vision of Gregg Toland reverently holding up the can of 35mm film crossed my mind..."this is what all the fuss is about." And even though the "this" has gone from film to tape and is rapidly moving from physical media to the realm of ones and zeroes, the same rules apply...and that's what makes a book like yours an instant classic. I definitely see myself reading this book a few more times in the near future and holding onto it as a valuable reference.
Anyway, I just wanted to share my thoughts on the book, for what they're worth, and to thank you for sharing such a great story--true or not, it's definitely a tale worth passing on!
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