Moviemakers' Master Class
I just got this book from the library yesterday. It is a fantastic read, very insightful, with some surprisingly important directors: Woody Allen, Coen Brothers, Jean-Pierre Jeunet, Godard, Scorsese... It's basically what it would be like to have them visit your directing class for a half hour and share their insights on filmmaking.
From Woody Allen: "Comedy is a particular genre in that it is very demanding and very strict in terms of directing. The problem here is that nothing can ever distract the audience from what is suposed to make them laugh. If you move the camera too much, if you edit too quicly, there's always the ristk that you'll kill th laugh. So it's hard to make a fantasy-looking comedy. You hardly ever get a chance to shoot anything very dramaticaly. What you want, really, is a nice, clean open frame, like you have in the Chaplin or Keaton movies."
From Scorsese: "The biggest problem of young filmmkaers is that they have nothing to say. And invariably their films will be either very unlcear or very conventional and geared toward a arather commercial marketplace. So I think the first think you need to ask yourself if you want to make a film is "Do I have anything to say?" And it doesn't necessarily have to be something literal that can be expressed through words. Sometimes you just want to communicate a feeling, an emotion. That's sufficient. And belive me, it's hard enough."
From Tim Burton: "I origianlly wanted to get into animation, and after a few internships here and there, I entered the Disney animation team. but it quickly became pretty obvious that I didn't quite fit into the Disney style... I was pretty much left to myself for a whole year, and I started working on a lot of personal ideas. One of those proejcts was s tory called Vincent. Oriignally, I saw it as a book for children, but since I was at Disney, I figured, why not use the equipment and turn it into a short animated film? I did that, and the success of it encouraged me to make a live-action short, Frankenweenie, that some people liked so much that they offered to let me direct Pee-Wee's Big Adventure."
From Woody Allen: "Comedy is a particular genre in that it is very demanding and very strict in terms of directing. The problem here is that nothing can ever distract the audience from what is suposed to make them laugh. If you move the camera too much, if you edit too quicly, there's always the ristk that you'll kill th laugh. So it's hard to make a fantasy-looking comedy. You hardly ever get a chance to shoot anything very dramaticaly. What you want, really, is a nice, clean open frame, like you have in the Chaplin or Keaton movies."
From Scorsese: "The biggest problem of young filmmkaers is that they have nothing to say. And invariably their films will be either very unlcear or very conventional and geared toward a arather commercial marketplace. So I think the first think you need to ask yourself if you want to make a film is "Do I have anything to say?" And it doesn't necessarily have to be something literal that can be expressed through words. Sometimes you just want to communicate a feeling, an emotion. That's sufficient. And belive me, it's hard enough."
From Tim Burton: "I origianlly wanted to get into animation, and after a few internships here and there, I entered the Disney animation team. but it quickly became pretty obvious that I didn't quite fit into the Disney style... I was pretty much left to myself for a whole year, and I started working on a lot of personal ideas. One of those proejcts was s tory called Vincent. Oriignally, I saw it as a book for children, but since I was at Disney, I figured, why not use the equipment and turn it into a short animated film? I did that, and the success of it encouraged me to make a live-action short, Frankenweenie, that some people liked so much that they offered to let me direct Pee-Wee's Big Adventure."
posted by Brandon at 10:59 PM
1 Comments:
I just ordered this book. It is sweet except there is no Francis.
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