Customer Reviews

How Movies Work

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The title says it all: not only does this book tell you what a movie technically is made of (differences between film stocks, sound recording techniques, etc), it also tells you how the movie is shot (lighting, lenses, special effects, etc) but finally it also tells the deeper meaning of certain shots or sequences. Especially that last part is very interesting: with examples from Citizen Kane, Close Encounters Of The Third Kind and many others, the author explains how the composition of the picture, movements and sound can communicate concepts like mood, emotion and relationships.

You must buy this book if you want to find out how movies work, i.e., how they enrich our cultural experience and how they are made. Kawin's textbook is pleasantly readable by anyone interested in the cinema. It contains a wealth of information from film appreciation to film production (including explanations of various special effects!) to film studies. Every aspect of the cinema is clearly explained and illustrated with examples, and the book contains many still photographs, 96 of which are in color.

I think this is exactly how a "how-to" book should be written. I only wish it had been updated to reflect advances in the 1990s -- this book was first published in 1987 and reprinted in 1992.

The author of this book, Bruce F. Kawin, taught my film history class at the University of Colorado at Boulder. One of my favorite professors in college, he used his own textbook in the class. I recommend pairing Mr. Kawin's excellent book with Short History of the Movies, A (11th Edition), written by Gerald Mast and edited by Mr. Kawin]]. When he needed to illustrate a technical innovation of film, he used his own book. When he needed to make a historical point, he used "A Short History". We met twice a week for fifteen weeks, three hours per class, where he talked for up to 30 minutes and let the films do the rest. It would be difficult to duplicate the screenings for the class. The first semester featured silent films exclusively. The first film we saw was the first film anyone paid to see in a theatre, "Workers Leaving the Factory", by the Lumiere Brothers(See Landmarks of Early Film, Vol. 1 for more). I saw Abel Gance's La Roue in 1992, years before the official DVD release. Mr. Kawin had carte blanche to borrow the only existing print in the world, at that time, from the Modern Museum of Art in New York City. We ended the first semester with F. W. Murnau's masterpiece Sunrise [Blu-ray]. The second semester covered sound film from Don Juan (Silent) [VHS], the first film with a recorded sound track, to John Carpenter's They Live, the film I wrote about on my final exam; comparing Roddy Piper's character Nada to Chaplin's Little Tramp. I have read many Film theory and technical books since my college days and, even though I may sound biased, I believe Mr. Kawin and Mr. Mast combined provide the best film history education money can buy.

How Movies Work is an excellent introduction to the process and techniques of filmmaking. For any aspiring filmmaker or movie buff, it will introduce all of the intricacies from pre-production to post-production. Usually, the author's style is clear and comprehensible for the layman; however, there are moments when the text is burdened by the minutiae of the trade: trying to comprehend the definitions of film developing and editing practices is nearly impossible. Nevertheless, these moments are few and far between, and any dutiful reader will leave the book with a valuable wealth of knowledge regarding filmmaking.

What is disappointing, however, is that the book deliberately sidelines even a cursory overview of what the author terms "film theory." Admittedly, Kawin does not disguise the fact that he presents a bare-bones overview of the specific, concrete details regarding filmmaking, but a few pages on the psychological and abstract components of film theory would surely have supplemented the book nicely. Kawin argues that the most in depth analysis of film construction cannot be accomplished without a thorough knowledge of the production process, which is certainly true. While his book elaborately details the production process, it may not satisfy those who are interested in the theoretical constructs that deconstruct cinema.

As a final note, the illustrations are almost always beneficial. The text is, however, considerably dated. Films before 1986 are not included. The text discusses nothing about digital photography and very little about computer-generated imagery. Personally, however, in the age of DVD extra features, there is already a superfluity of this information easily located in the world of cinema, and the text does not suffer considerably from its absence.

I had to buy this book for a filmmaking class. It was okay but I felt that the book was a little dated and that it could have been better if more diagrams were used. Also, some of the principles behind film, such as continuity editing and filming, wasn't explained that well. My teacher had to assign us additional material explaining the principle better. This was the case with several important principles on filmmaking. It would also be nice if a CD was included with short clips on films explaining different aspects of filmmaking.

Kawin is by far one of the brightest minds in film literature and theory today. His text brings the background of film to light and stresses the importance of all aspects of the cinema. This text is an excellent resource for any student of the cinema.