Books on Film
Star Trek FAQ: Everything Left to Know About the First Voyages of the Starship Enterprise
Mark Clark’s Star Trek FAQ is no episode guide. It does not provide you with blueprints and schematics of the Starship Enterprise or the equipment therein, and it certainly will not teach you to speak Klingon. It does, however, offer you something far more useful and culturally-relevant. Clark’s FAQ provides a chronicle of the original [...]
Music on Film Series: The Rocky Horror Picture Show
If you thought you knew everything about the phenomenon that is The Rocky Horror Picture Show, you’re probably wrong, and even if you’ve been performing with the film for the last thirty-seven years, there are probably at least a few new tidbits of information in Dave Thompson’s well-researched, breezily written book on the subject, part [...]
Screenwriter’s Compass: Character as True North
Reading Guy Gallo’s guide to screenplays, Screenwriter’s Compass: Character as True North, I felt I needed a map around the literary fat. Gallo goes on overlong tangents where he tries to debunk the theories of Aristotle, dramaturgy teachers, and books before him. A lot of what he says in these passages—although sound and somewhat tied [...]
Make Your Movie: What You Need to Know About the Business and Politics of Filmmaking
Barbara Freedman Doyle’s Make Your Movie: What You Need to Know About the Business and Politics of Filmmaking is essential reading for a film student or anyone that wishes to make films for a living. No matter what concentration you had in school or what particular field you wish to enter in the film business, [...]
The Cabin In The Woods – The Official Movie Novelization and The Official Visual Companion
The Cabin In The Woods, the “official movie novelization,” is available now from Titan Books. I admit I have little interest in the film, even though I am a big Joss Whedon fan and a fan of horror. But something about this film did not pique my interest. I thought I would look inside the [...]
Film Noir: The Directors
While every film genre strikes a chord, Film Noir is one that can strike very distinct images in one’s mind. To those familiar with it, it calls upon images of dark alleys, shadows, sexy femme fatales that give the Film Noir genre its flair. Film Noir: The Directors is a compilation of essays, biographies and [...]
Raised Eyebrows: My Years Inside Groucho’s House (Expanded Edition)
I first came across Steve Stoliar’s Raised Eyebrows: My Years Inside Groucho’s House on a lonely day nearly six years ago. It had been gifted to me by a family member aware of my admiration for the bespectacled comic legend, and that familiar craving for a non-fiction book found its fix within these pages. Reading [...]
If You Like Monty Python…
One of the wonderful things about Limelight’s If You Like… series is that they’re exactly what they should be: they’re written with the enthusiasm of a friend recommendation, with the research instincts of a journalist. A.V. Club writer Zack Handlen is your friendly guide through the influences on and of Monty Python in the latest [...]
CINEMATOGRAPHY
“A cinematographer has to design and write a story, starting at the beginning, through the evolution to the end. That’s why I consider my profession is as a writer of light,” shares Italian cinematographer and three-time Academy Award Winner, Vittorio Storaro, one of 16 voices lending their individual sage about their craft to Cinematography, a [...]
Editing
Anyone who thought editing was purely a technical or practical sort of job should be required to read Justin Chang’s new book, Editing. Never have I been so convinced of the detrimental role an editor plays in shaping a story. Emotion, intuition, perception, reaction – these are the key words used most often by the [...]
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