Customer Reviews

Persistence of Vision: An Impractical Guide to Producing a Feature Film for Under $30,000

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I've read this book and have found it quite useful - I'm using it as the starting point for my own forays in this area - and the best thing I can say about it is the spirit it engenders. There are probley a million ways to make a film but you'll never make one unless you believe you can - and this book by showing you very effecive means goes along way into making you believe you can. It's quite comprehensive and goes into good detail though I wouldn't say it was the last word on film-making but then nor does it - and that's not the point because it gives you enough to not just get started with but to make an actual film with - and whatever more you want or need you're natural learning and further exploration will take you to. I reccomend it.

I own about 20 books on filmaking, and this book is very good, probably the best out of the 20. The writers of the book have made a couple of film features (not digital), and they detail everything that they did in the process. Robert Rodriguez's book "rebel without a crew" is a very, very inspirational book. But this book explains every step in the process from starting out writing, to making a camera dolly for $80, to using the canadian exchange rates to your advantage. I got the book used here on amazon for $15. Buy the book, then write a review here, and then go out and make your film!

While this is still a good book and certainly has reafirmed my desire to see what I have created on screen the Impractical guide is showing its age a little.

My main problem with the text is the way they dismissed video out of hand, and thus little of what they have written pertains to digital film creation. The modern indy film maker will be well versed in the film vs digital dilemma, when this was written that didn't even seen to be an issue.

However it also details with finding actors, crew and resources and all the other fundimentals of pulling together whatever you can find to make your picture.

There's enough practical information here that you could probably go out and do it - the only meaningful test for a how-to book. But the pages are small, the type is large, the filler is plentiful, and the cover price is exorbitant. Your call.