Thinking In Pictures: The Making Of The Movie Matewan [Paperback]

John Sayles (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 1, 2003

What choices--creative, practical, and technical--make a movie what it is? Here a gifted writer and filmmaker takes us behind the camera and provides a full description of the movie-making process.When John Sayles turned from writing fiction to making movies, he did so with little help from Hollywood: Return of the Secaucus Seven, Sayles's first movie as director and writer, was produced with $60,000 of his own money. Many films later, he still works outside the studio system and guides every phase of his productions.Now Sayles has written an illuminating book about the complex choices that lie at the heart of every movie. Using the making of his film Matewan as an example, he offers chapters on screenwriting, directing, editing, sound, and more. Photographs, sketches, and the complete shooting script illustrate this engaging account of how Sayles's curiosity about a coal miners' strike in the town of Matewan, West Virginia, became a screenplay--and then a movie.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

A novelist, film writer and independent director explains how he conceived, wrote, casted, funded, directed, designed, shot and edited a movie about a coal miners' strike and massacre in West Virginia in the 1920s. Coinciding with the release of Matewan, Sayles's book provides the readerespecially the student and would-be filmmakerwith a step-by-step account of the thinking and planning that go into developing a story idea and transmuting it into a meaningful creation full of emotional impact. Coming from a writer of fiction, this book is not dryly technological but rather involving and exciting. It is enhanced by details of choice, pacing, and tension and by the inclusion of the full original film script. Photos.
Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

Thanks to Sayles's honesty this is a rare gem of a book that actually delivers insight after insight about the process that transforms a script about the unionization of miners in the 1920s into a film. Sayles carefully leads the reader through the writing, shooting, and editing of his new independent film based upon the historical Matewan Massacre, explaining the coherent design philosophy that welds set design, lighting, and music to the film's key themes. Moreover, Sayles explains how the film's editing inventively aims to stretch viewers beyond genre expectations. As a result, reading the film's screenplay, which forms the second half of the book, is unusually rewarding. An exceptional book. Marshall Deutelbaum, English Dept., Purdue Univ., W. Lafayette, Ind.
Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 336 pages
• Publisher: Da Capo Press; New edition edition (July 1, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0306812665
• ISBN-13: 978-0306812668
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 5.9 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #434,269 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An well-written snapshot of independent film making, November 16, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Thinking in Pictures: The Making of the Movie "Matewan" (Paperback)

"Thinking in Pictures" is a very good guide to the processes involved in making movies. Sayles writes about the germination of the movie and then the myriad decisions and compromises and joys that went into realising it on screen. If you've ever wondered about the tensions between the creative and the logistic and financial, here's a book that lays out, with wit and detail, the ups and downs of an interesting small production. It's also relatively ego free.

"Matewan" was an interesting small film, but this book is a gem.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars excellent book about making movies, March 25, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Thinking in Pictures: The Making of the Movie "Matewan" (Paperback)

I thought this book was very effective in taking me on the journey that John Sayles took while making the movie Matewan. I love movies and was fascinated with this book. Other books of this kind that I have enjoyed are Robert Rodriguez's Rebel Without a Crew.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Movies as History, April 21, 2010

By 

Henry J. Sage "graying historian" (Lorton, VA United States) - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Thinking In Pictures: The Making Of The Movie Matewan (Paperback)

I teach American History and Film, my goal being how to get students to critically evaluate American history as portrayed by Hollywood. I have used John Sayles'"Matewan" about the West Virginia coal field wars and learned much from his discussion of how he created the film. It is possible to learn about history from films, but it must be done with a critical eye, and Sayles helps explain how one does that--as a film maker and as a viewer.