On Film-making: An Introduction to the Craft of the Director [Hardcover]

Alexander Mackendrick (Author), Paul Cronin (Editor)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 11, 2005

A priceless examination of the filmmaker's craft, from the renowned director of Sweet Smell of Success

After more than twenty years in the film industry as a screenwriter, storyboard editor, and director of memorable films such as The Ladykillers, Alexander Mackendrick turned his back on Hollywood and began a new career as the Dean of one of the country's most demanding and influential film schools. His absolute devotion to the craft of filmmaking served as a powerful impetus to students at the California Institute for the Arts for almost twenty five years, with a teaching style that included prodigious notes, neatly crafted storyboards, and handouts containing excerpts of works by Kierkegaard, Aristotle, and others. At the core of Mackendrick's lessons lay a deceptively simple goal: to teach aspiring filmmakers how to structure and write the stories they want to tell, while using the devices particular to the medium of film to tell their stories effectively.

In this impressive volume, edited by Paul Cronin, the myriad materials that made Mackendrick's reputation as an instructor are collected for the first time, offering a chance for professionals as well as students to discover a methodology of filmmaking that is challenging yet refreshing in its clarity. Meticulously illustrated and drawing on examples from such classic films as North by Northwest, Citizen Kane, and Touch of Evil, Mackendrick's elegant lessons are sure to provide inspiration for a new generation of filmmakers.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Alexander Mackendrick directed several films, including The Man in the White Suit, which earned him an Oscar Nomination for Screenwriting. He died in 1993.

Paul Cronin is the editor of Herzog on Herzog.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 336 pages
• Publisher: Faber & Faber; 1st edition (August 11, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0571215610
• ISBN-13: 978-0571215614
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.1 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #534,117 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

30 of 32 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars How To Make Movies, Good Movies, August 18, 2005

By 

R. Hardy "Rob Hardy" (Columbus, Mississippi USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: On Film-making: An Introduction to the Craft of the Director (Hardcover)

Shaw said, "Those who can, do; those who can't, teach." In a strange way, Alexander Mackendrick fits both sides of that dictum. "Sandy" Mackendrick was an accomplished film director. After having worked in advertising, he started making films for the British Government during World War II. After the war he wrote scripts and he began directing. For the Ealing Studios, he made _Whiskey Galore!_, _The Man in the White Suit_, and _The Ladykillers_. Then he came to Hollywood, where he made the wonderfully biting _Sweet Smell of Success_. He could direct fine movies, and he did; but then he slipped into the "can't do" category, not for any lack of talent, but because he was not much of a deal-maker, and resented having to negotiate details with the studios. He started teaching, becoming dean of the film school at the California Institute of the Arts in 1969. He continued teaching until his death in 1993, but now filmmakers and audiences can get a glimpse of what he taught, in _On Film-making: An Introduction to the Craft of the Director_ (Faber and Faber). It is a sampling of his lecture handouts, some illustrated by his own sketches, that he delivered to students over the years, and shows the richness of his thinking on the surprising complexities of artistic decisions regarding even simple shoots on tiny films. Those who enjoy movies, but don't know much about how they are made, will be astonished at how many details of technique the director has to consider before anyone yells "Action!" Those who make movies, or want to, could not do better than to study what Mackendrick has to say.

Mackendrick emphatically agrees with Truffaut, who in his interview book with Hitchcock wrote, "Whatever is _said_ instead of being _shown_ is lost on the viewer." (One of Mackendrick's many slogans: "Movies SHOW... and then TELL.") Always, regard to the audience is paramount: "Try to tell the story while always remembering that the audience has somewhere better to go and something better to do." Like a good storyteller, use curiosity, expectation, and suspense to keep them buttonholed. The reader of this book will want to be familiar with certain films to which Mackendrick returns again and again, like _The Third Man_ or _On the Waterfront_, but not all the cinema is fine cinema. In a chapter titled "Plausibility and Willing Suspension of Disbelief," he discusses the sci-fi film _Them!_ which he says is a "piece of nonsense" but shows solid, simple plot mechanisms, and follows the rule that "we are allowed only one major Incredible Thing" (Giant ants are invading!) while "everything else in the story should actually be logical, even over-logical." There is rich advice about dealing with actors. A student who asked, "How does a director get an actor to do what he wants?" took Mackendrick off guard, as he had never asked the question in those terms. It's the wrong question. "You don't," came the eventual answer, "You try to get the actor to want what you need."

Mackendrick knows you can't teach the art and inspiration that directors have to have intuitively, though there is a useful chapter titled "A Technique for Having Ideas." The craft involved in direction, though, has a possibility of being taught, and he has here covered the craft from scriptwriting through editing. I only sit in audiences for films (and the intimidating muster of factors Mackendrick brings up that the director must consider tells me I am in the right spot in front of the screen, not behind the camera), but I have a much better appreciation for what a director does after reading these fine instructions. I also wish that every director now working would simply follow these rules. The principles here, if followed universally, would benefit directors, audiences, and the quality of Hollywood's output, not to mention its bottom line.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One of the very best books on filmmaking, April 11, 2008

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Nathan Jongewaard (Alameda, CA, USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: On Film-making: An Introduction to the Craft of the Director (Paperback)

I have read many books on filmmaking and I have a film school degree (from CalArts, as it happens, where Mackendrick once taught). You can't learn filmmaking from a book or from school, only by making films. Nevertheless, "On Film-making" comes as close as any book I've ever found to explaining precisely and beautifully the work of a film director. Whether you want to make films or are simply a film fan, this book will be an immensely rewarding and illuminating experience.

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Very, very good, June 28, 2006

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Joseph Dempsey (New York, NY USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: On Film-making: An Introduction to the Craft of the Director (Paperback)

Unlike most how-to directing and writing books, Mackendrick was an accomplished director with decades of professional experience. He speaks from hard-won experience, not dubious armchair notions of what makes a successful film or director. He is wise enough to know there are no "secrets" or immutable laws of storytelling, only rules of thumb. Every time I go back to it, I learn something new, and with every film I make, I am struck by points in the book which ring ever more true. This book will not make you a great director by reading it, but Mackendrick has the good sense and candor to know that a book or a course never will, only lots and lots of hard work and dedication.