Showing titles in Direction & Production

Is it your dream to make feature films? Get advice on how to do that by some of the best in the business! It’s like going to film school without ever leaving home!

Finally, a book that tells the truth about the pitching process in Hollywood. This highly detailed guide is intended for writers, producers and directors, or anyone who wants to work in the intensely competitive, creative side of the entertainment industry. Written is simple, direct language, it is intended for beginners or established Hollywood pros.

Animation is a multibillion-dollar industry. Here’s an insider’s guide to getting into that industry, staying there, and getting ahead. Author David B. Levy has interviewed the top pros in animation, including Steven Hillenburg, creator of SpongeBob SquarePants; Al Brodax, producer of Yellow Submarine; Teddy Newton, character designer on The Incredibles; Linda Simensky, senior director of PBS Kids; John R. Dilworth, creator of Courage the Cowardly Dog; and dozens of others to get their insights....

Robert Altman—visionary director, hard-partying hedonist, eccentric family man, Hollywood legend—comes roaring to life in this rollicking cinematic biography, told in a chorus of voices that can only be called Altmanesque. His outsized life and unique career are revealed as never before...

The official behind-the-scenes companion audio guide to the first two seasons of Stranger Things and beyond. Stranger things have happened. . . . When the first season of Stranger Things debuted on Netflix in the summer of 2016, the show struck a nerve with millions of viewers worldwide and...

Driven is a candid and entertaining personal story taking the listener through the little known world of the stuntman. Forty-five years of memories offer a fascinating look that chronicles the rise of a stuntman turned director. With behind-the-scenes tales from such films as Predator, The Warriors, Rollerball, and James Bond, listeners will experience the sheer determination it takes to maintain a career as a stuntman and climb the ranks of the film industry to become a director.

Learning how to write a movie script is more than just figuring out the margins and hitting a few plot points along the way....

 The Camera Lies unpacks Hitchcock's legacy both as a director who continuously taught audiences to distrust appearance and as a man with an uncanny insight into the human capacity for deceit and misinterpretation. 

New York City, 1977. Cool and crime-ridden, cheap and wild. Bruce Van Dusen shows up in town with a film degree and $150 to his name. He wants to make movies. So he does. The only ones anyone will pay him to make? Little ones. Thirty seconds long. Commercials. He has no idea what he's doing, and the money sucks. But he's a director. He quickly learns he has the two things he needs to succeed in the fickle world of commercial-making: a talent for telling short, emotional stories, and the hustle to fight for every job no matter how small.

"Mani Ratnam’s Nayakan is among Time’s ‘100 Best Movies Ever’; and his Roja launched A.R. Rahman. For the first time ever, Mani Ratnam opens up here, to Baradwaj Rangan, in a series of freewheeling conversations— candid, witty, pensive, and sometimes combative—and looks back at these...

David O. Selznick (1902–1965) was one of the most prominent film producers of the Hollywood studio era. However, film production was not his only domain. Starting in the late 1930s, he built an impressive stable of stars within his own independent company. In Starmaker: David O. Selznick and the Production of Stars in the Hollywood Studio System, author Milan Hain reveals the mechanisms by which Selznick and his collaborators discovered and promoted new stars and describes how these personalities were marketed, whether for financial gain or symbolic recognition and prestige.

Whether it is a director insisting on a final cut, a star demanding a bigger motor home, a producer holding the line on a budget, or a grip with a gripe, it seems that the world of moviemaking is nothing but Sturm und Drang. Shoot Out presents a raucous look at how movies get made and the players involved, from writers, producers, directors, and stars to agents and marketers. For film buffs, aspiring filmmakers, students, and anyone else intrigued by the inner workings of Hollywood, this is the quintessential take on the how, who, what, and why of the film business.

India’s greatest film-maker on the art and craft of films. Exactly fifty years ago, in 1955, the release of Pather Panchali heralded the arrival of a master in the world of cinema. Over the next forty years, Satyajit Ray came to be regarded as one of the world’s finest film-makers ever...

10 Legal Basics for Producing a Feature Film or Documentary describes the major legal documentaries you need to produce a feature-length film or documentary. It covers the basics of getting a fictitious name, filing for a copyright, obtaining E&O and other types of insurance, creating release forms for actors, interviewees, crew members, and other film participants, and much more.

Finally, a book that confronts the challenges filmmakers of all types of films face when bringing their vision to the screen. Emmy-nominated director and multi-hyphenate filmmaker Christopher Folkens (www.mysticfilms.com) provides an in-depth look at the personal journey necessary for any filmmaker to take on their debut film (or really any creative project for that matter).

In a world where movie marketers are the stars of the story, Opening Weekend: An Insider's Look at Marketing Hollywood's Hits and Flops recounts Jim Fredrick's journey through the realm of movie marketing. Fredrick offers readers exclusive access to behind-the-scenes anecdotes and firsthand accounts of working with studio executives and navigating relationships with famous movie stars and directors.

Packed with interviews from director John Carpenter, screenwriter Bill Phillips, producer Richard Kobritz, stars Keith Gordon and Alexandra Paul, plus various members of the cast and crew including co-composer Alan Howarth and SFX artist Roy Arbogast, Hell Hath No Fury: The Making of Christine is a definitive look at the 1983 cinematic adaptation of Stephen King’s terrifying novel about the eponymous demonic Plymouth Fury and the obsessive teenage boy who loves her.

In How to Start and Run Your Own Video Production Company, you will learn every aspect of the trade, from the initial setup to seeing the orders roll in and keeping customers happy. The book covers every aspect of the business, including: selecting your company structure, finding your first customers, pricing services, tips for setting up, following your financial plan, working with investors, forming a marketing strategy, and much more.

Want to break into the film industry without film school, connections, or a trust fund? Punk To Prestige is a raw, no-bullshit guide for outsiders who want a real career in film on their own terms. British-born screenwriter, filmmaker, and cult novelist Trevor Miller went from post-punk clubs and acid house basements to writing and directing award-winning films in Los Angeles—and here he shows you how an outsider can actually get in. In Punk To Prestige, you’ll learn how to: Turn a punk/outsider background into a distinctive filmmaking voice that gets remembered.

Finding Happy is for young adults starting their adult journey, and for those well into theirs who have not yet sighted land. It is written by a master storyteller who learned to scale walls and blew them up rather than be stopped, and who learned in the process that our happiness flows from leaving the world a better place than we found it. Ultimately, it's about how best to channel this glorious life we are each privileged to enjoy and to make it truly happy.