Customer Reviews

Film Directing Fundamentals: From Script to Screen

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
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For an aspiring film or video director interested in analyzing scripts for dramatic elements and then planning the staging for the camera, this book is an outstanding introduction. It gives both a general overview of the process and then analyzes several scenes from famous films. its emphasis is on the dramatic content first, then the visual. It is not strong in the area of shot planning, storyboarding, or complex shot design sometimes seen in modern films. And it does not deal with subtle editing effects. But it is a good introduction to classic film direction and presented in a classroom style. Someone with a strong interest in film drama, from a viewer's point of view, might also find this book interesting.

You will find many books telling you what to do and what not to do when facing the making of a film. Proferes goes far beyond that, showing us the way to find our own way: questioning our selves and questioning our work. After reading Profere's advices, your insight into your own work and motivatons should broaden and you will find how much potential lies behind the most simple idea if you look upon it with inquisitive eyes. Whenever writting or directing, you should keep this book handy. It's a "must-read" for any film maker.

Finally there's a book on directing that goes further than just telling you how much headspace to include in your framing. This book, as well as Stefan Sharff's "The Elements of Cinema", is one of those rare ones that is refreshingly to the point. It told me how to block my actors in relation to each other, the camera and the story. Proferes shows ways to make your short or feature as powerful as possible by singling out the most important moments in the story, sequence or scene. With that particular moment in mind, he hands you the tools to arrange these moments within the scenes to make them stand out visually and make them palpable to the audience.

This book is filled with valuable and helpful information for budding directors. I'm currently in the process of putting everything in this book to good use. The thing I like about this book is that it's not just one of those books that says you need to storyboard everything, because unless you have good drawing skills that really isn't feasible. The book gives an in depth look on how to pre-plan your film shot by shot and the use of floor plans to illustrate camera set-up's. It's so simple, but this is the type of thing that will make you prepared when you come to shoot, instead of just winging it.

....the first book to make sense of it all...where to put the camera...how to stage the scene...how to help actors find the performance...it teaches these things as much as any book can, and will save you the cost of one third of film school

This book pulls no punches on the minute technical details that go unnoticed but not unexperienced in the director's craft. It's like taking a great class in the technical structure of directing. I haven't had this much fun reading a film book in a long time.

Learn from the big picture to the nuances. I have a horrible memory and I find having the 'big picture' helps keep everything organized.

#1 - The first big plus;
I have been learning to write screenplays for several years. This book helped me understand what was wrong (and right) in my last two writings.
It turned them into a movie and showed 'where and why' they failed.

#2 - Secondly;
It demonstrated that writing and directing are much more integrated, than one would imagine. Learn them both and become better at each.

Start with the big picture, this book accomplishes that.

This book taught me that making a film is an alive and organic process rather than a lab experiment in search of the perfect formula. Proferes' concepts of "spine" and "fulcrum" for example, are essential to not get lost in the midst of any film industry development process, in which so many voices tend to give an opinion. The author insists in the need of finding both the mechanisms of the text and the director's "whys" when tackling a story and being truthful to them until the very last decision of the process. His method of "detective work" on the screenplay is a very tough "bootcamp" with yourself in which no production excuses are possible: just director and story. If completed throughoutly, one will get to really know the story in hand, its nature and soul, like one gets to know a person only through intense sharing. That detective work will make pristine clear to the director what is his personal take of the material and will help detecting vital needs, including those painful rewrites. This intimate and utter intense work between director and story is the most direct translation of what it has been named so many times as "the director as an author". Proferes's approach to filmmaking is beyond trends. Timeless. His method could serve anyone that is serious about making films that talks to us directly, way beyond the actual "cool" syndrome. It just talks about drama, about what makes cry or not. And why.

IF YOU ARE TRYING TO BECOME A FILM DIRECTOR THIS IS ONE OF MANY BOOKS YOU SHOULD READ AND STUDY!!!

This puts the duties of a director into perspective. It emcompasses a lot of the tasks that amateaur directors neglect. It was an easy read and hit a lot of bases that film books miss.