Customer Reviews

Creative Filmmaking from the Inside Out: Five Keys to the Art of Making Inspired Movies and Television

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This book is a hybrid of interview collections and workbook exercises, designed to help filmmakers with their creative processes, not using the dumbed-down how-to-manual approach that so many filmmaking books employ, but in an intelligent and subtle way that engages and challenges the reader. These authors have assembled a formidable list of filmmakers -- the brains and souls behind The English Patient, Toy Story, E.R., Boys Don't Cry, many more -- and asked them more than the usual-suspect kind of questions, and by doing so have managed to go deeply into the creative process. The book interweaves the interviews with anecdotes, proverbs, and a group of creativity exercises which are several levels above the kind of artists' self-help books that have sometimes insulted our intelligence in the past. Ever wonder how Anthony Minghella thought of the opening shot for The English Patient? Or how Merchant Ivory get those stellar casts? This book actually tells you things you want to know, and then challenges you to go out and make a movie.

I teach a seminar for teenagers in digital video. When I started designing the curriculum, it was mostly a "how-to" kind of thing. After reading this book, I changed the whole focus of the seminar. I asked the kids to look inside themselves and think about what they, personally, had to say. I said, "You are like kids who have been given a big box of crayons. Do you want to scribble on the wall, or do you want draw something special from your heart?" When they turned in their treatments for their video projects, they had taken the ideas of this book to heart.
This book should be required reading for anyone who teaches filmmaking or is starting out as a filmmker. It will get them on the right track!

"Creative Filmmaking From The Inside Out," is a brilliant book! This book utilizes industry experts, who through their own experiences and examples, explain the creative process of filmmaking from concept though completion.

At the end of each chapter, the authors outline suggestions and exercises to evoke the reader's own creativity and abilities.

I highly recommend this book to anyone that is either interested in filmmaking or is already involved in a film career, as it is always fascinating to see how successful people approach their own creative problems. Creativity is the one commodity which Hollywood is always looking for, but for which there are no formulas.

Inspiring! This book reminds you that the most important thing you have to contribute as an artist is already within you. Essential reading for anyone in any creative endeavor. Buy this book and fly!

Had to get this for a class I was taking (one of the authors being my teacher) and it just seems so basic. Now, they were trying to elaborate on how instinct works in film and maybe what they say works for others, but to me a lot of it is simply not how I work.
Just my perspective, if others find it useful then that's good.