Customer Reviews

The Complete Idiot's Guide to Filmmaking

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1 star:		(2)

 

 

This book was an enormous help for me. As an (former) amateur in the 'biz', there were techniques contained within that helped me put my script into shape for presentation. The top ten reasons why scripts get rejected inspired me to rethink my structure before I submitted it for representation. I made quick changes, and actually obtained representation by an agent who was impressed with my work. Had I not consulted this manual, I probably would have been rejected....again.

By keeping things simple and readable for a low level audience, the author keeps the pespective on the basic fundamentals of writing and shooting for beginners. This book will not provide you with equipment, motivation, or experience, you have to provide your own.

The chapter on directing, and in particular the areas of creating movement and the rules of three, were valuable tools for me when I shot my first short. Since I did not go to USC film school, nor is my family in the 'biz', these tips really helped me out and were crucial in my completing a competent product that I was able to submit to Slamdance.

Now I can save the $20,000.00 I would have spent at film school and shoot another short, and gain more hands-on experience.

I was puzzled by a previous bitter review of this book. This text is only a guide for beginners, and clearly not meant for the seasoned, well established professional. If you have knowledge of, and access to, complex and sophisticated equipment, along with the skills to operate it, you obviously don't need this manual. I did.

One of the best books around if you want to get your foot in the movie business door. Give you indepth facts from financing your move to actually making it. Don't pass this book up it could make your dreams of being a filmmaker come to life.

As an aspiring filmmaker, I have found the opening sections, describing the history of the film industry, the basics of film theory, and production basics, the most helpful. Joanne Parrent provides an ideal springboard. Even a budding film critic will find these chapters informative and necessary.
The latter sections of the book describe scriptwriting, production schedules, budgeting, editing, post-production, and distribution. Clearly, Parrent intends this book to be kept at the filmmaker's side during each stage of production of her first film-and subsequent films. It will be at my side.

Joanne Parrent plagiarized an article I wrote in 2000 called "Film Festival Strategy: Guerilla Marketing" and published it in this book under her own name. I contacted Mike Saunders, the editor of the book, and he admitted that she had used my work without permission. I sued them but lost, they had much better attorneys than I did. Anyway, you can enjoy my writing in this book if you decide to purchase it. I agree with the other reviewer that said the book was a "wanna be's dream and a professional's nightmare". Except the part I wrote, can't remember which pages they were but just look for the word for word copy of my article. You can Google my version and compare and contrast.

Another book for the wannabee in the film biz by an academic with little or no experience in the feature film industry that has massive potential to mislead students into thinking that they can crack into perhaps the hardest business in the world through knowing everything but technical matter.
The index of the book says it all: no reference to Arriflex or Panavision cameras, nothing on the actual making of a film, and nothing on the equipment involved.
Quite remarkable that something like this seems to circulate - who is the audience? How is it possible to reject the mention of the very equipment that makes films as somehow unsanitary to the process of being a "creative filmmaker".
So many creative people end up being misled by books typically like this - and having years of their lives destroyed by the naive belief that anyone can thrive in Hollywood. They can't. You don't learn by books, you learn by crewing. Handling equipment and apprenticing.
Save your money, and avoid this book: get a cheap camera, borrow a digital camera, and film. Learn how to frame a shot, learn how to do setups, and learn how to work with real people actors, and real situations - not fake scripts full of fake events you got by watching movies - go out and do it.
Amazon.com has fantastic digital cameras. Get one. Train with people who know their equipment and dust off the idiot amateurs.