Habiba Djahnine
This volume focuses on contemporary Algerian feminist documentary filmmaker Habiba Djahnine as a "memory-bearer" who gives voice to her compatriots to tell their own stories in her films. It introduces the reader to key issues in contemporary Algerian culture and history (colonial, the Algerian War, the Black Decade of the 1990s), memory and human rights. The book gives a brief overview of Algerian cinema, Algerian women filmmakers and situates Djahnine's oeuvre and its significance within this context. It examines her work as a feminist, teacher and poet and how she transmits this locally and transnationally. The book also explores how Djahnine uses documentary film form for personal and autobiographical explorations of Algerian history, culture, memory and trauma.
Global Mountain Cinema
This book is dedicated to the particular challenges and opportunities mountains raise for histories and theories of cinema. In German-speaking countries, the relationship between mountains and cinema has been largely reduced to a small canon of Alpine filmmakers whose work has been categorized as the Classical Bergfilm. However, from a transnational and transgeneric perspective, the field of mountain cinema is not only much richer and more diverse, but also addresses questions that are vital to film and media studies and inform postcolonial and environmental discourses in the Anthropocene. In this vein, our volume goes beyond national contexts to provide a timely and much-needed investigation into the generic innovations and intersectional negotiations of national, ethnic, and gender norms that take place in mountain cinema and its related media forms.
Women and Documentary Film in Contemporary Iran
By merging three (inter)disciplinary areas of documentary film studies, women's and gender studies, and Iranian studies, this book looks at how Iranian women documentarians have engaged with gender politics and sociocultural and technological changes since the late 1990s to produce a dynamic new range of documentary modes in regard to production, financing, distribution and exhibition, as well as forms and themes. In mapping out the politics and aesthetics of women's independent documentary film practices in contemporary Iran, Women and Documentary Film in Contemporary Iran: Reframing Reality delineates how women documentarians have incorporated the unique possibilities offered by the documentary medium to perform their agency, subjectivity and creativity, and how the medium of documentary itself has served as a much-needed document of, and advocate for, Iranian women's issues.
The Cabin in the Woods
The Cabin in the Woods (2012), directed by Drew Goddard and co-authored by Goddard and Joss Whedon of Buffy-fame, was famously described by co-author Whedon as his 'loving hate letter' to horror. Interviews with Whedon reveal that his struggles with modern cinematic horror are not merely emotional, but intensely philosophical. This book is the first to read Cabin as a philosophical metatext that asks what horror offers audiences and why audiences accept. Like any good philosophy, the film offers no answers but raises questions: what 'choices' are possible in a pre-determined universe? How do we, the audience, see the victims of violence, and with what ethical consequences? And finally, the most fraught question of all: why do we keep looking?
Tcm Imports
Whether you're a longtime film buff or new to foreign movies, TCM Imports is an essential, accessible guide to an absorbing selection of cinema from around the world, curated by Turner Classic Movies host Alicia Malone. International cinema offers a one-of-a-kind window to the world, allowing viewers to experience foreign cultures and unique expressions of cinematic art, but it can feel daunting to approach for newcomers or to expand upon even for seasoned movie buffs. Let TCM Imports be your guide to a wide-ranging and engrossing collection of movies from around the world. Featuring films from every continent, touching on international waves--including, but by no means limited to, those renowned from Europe--and spanning a century of moviemaking, this resource is comprehensive but accessible. TCM Imports includes an eclectic list of films, including those that have been called high art, low art, or cult classics. There are obvious choices and some weird ones, but all are a good time, and all will inspire you to explore a different side of cinema. Each movie is covered with just enough description to get you excited (no spoilers!); behind-the-scenes stories; background on the filmmakers, stars, genres, and movements the films were a part of; and illustrated by full-color and black-and-white photos. With a thematic organization by seasons and moods inspired by time of year, this guide will set you up to enjoy a movie each week for a full year of foreign treasures, or allow you to dive into a binge-watch. Viewer's choice! ​ Among the films included: Amelie (2001), Ikiru (1952), Lady Snowblood (1973), The Girls (1968), In the Mood For Love (2000), Ali: Fear Eats the Soul (1974), Bicycle Thieves (1948), Daisies (1966), Spring in a Small Town (1948), Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge (1995), Late Spring (1949), Went the Day Well? (1942), The Passion of Joan of Arc (1928), Black Girl (1966), The Young Girls of Rochefort (1967), Purple Noon (1960), Cl矇o From 5 to 7 (1962), Parasite (2019), L'Avventura (1960), Metropolis (1926), The Rules of the Game (1939), Devi (1960), Death of a Cyclist (1955), Pale Flower (1964), Fanny and Alexander (1982), Black Christmas (1974), My Night at Maud's (1969)
Directors Tell the Story
The freshest storytelling today is on television, where the multi-episodic format is used for rich character development and innovative story arcs. This exciting new edition of Directors Tell the Story continues to offer rare insight and advice straight from two A-list television directors whose credits include Elsbeth, Tracker, Criminal Minds: Evolution, The Ms. Pat Show, Chicago Med, and many more.Here, in one volume, learn everything you need to know to become an excellent director. Covering everything through prep, shoot, and post, the authors offer practical instruction on how to craft a creative vision, translate a script into a visual story, establish and maintain the look and feel of a television show or film, lead the cast and crew, keep a complex operation running on time and on budget, and effectively oversee editing and postproduction. Directors Tell the Story provides behind-the-scenes access to the secrets of successful directors, as well as exercises that use original scripted material. This newly updated edition features: - More roles on set, including on-set writers, producing directors, intimacy coordinators, virtual production supervisors, and virtual production designers - New material covering updates to cameras, lighting, and new innovations in sound - Updated "Insider Info" sections with advice and tips known only to working professionals- Profiles of top film and TV luminaries - Additional "How I Got My First Directing Job" stories from a diverse range of directors currently in the trenches. Suited to students in both beginning and intermediate level directing and production courses, as well as aspiring professionals, this book provides valuable insight. The work is supported by a fresh instructor and student online resource featuring directing tutorials and video interviews with the authors.
Producing and Directing the Short Film and Video
Producing and Directing the Short Film and Video, Sixth Edition is the definitive book on producing and directing short films for the serious film student or beginning filmmaker. Its unique two-fold approach looks at filmmaking from the perspectives of both the producer and director, and clearly explains how their separate roles must work together to create a successful short film or video. Through extensive examples from award-winning shorts and insightful interviews, you will learn about common challenges these filmmakers encountered during each step of filmmaking process--from preproduction to production, postproduction, and distribution--and the techniques they used to overcome them.The Sixth Edition has been carefully updated to include: - New, in-depth cases studies of esteemed short films- Fresh interviews with the filmmakers integrated alongside the text, as well as new images and behind-the-scenes coverage of production processes- Completely revamped sections on cameras, distribution and exhibition- A new section on technologies related to VR and AR- Expanded coverage on health and safety when filmingPacked full of advice and tips on the role of both director and producer throughout the entire process, this is an essential resource for anyone wanting success on their short film.Electronic support material containing useful forms and information on distributors, grants and financing sources, film and video festivals, film schools, internet sources for short works, and professional associations is available for download.
Eco-Theory and Annihilation
Eco-theory and Annihilation is part of theFilm Theory in Practice series, which blends the explanation of a film theory with the interpretation of a film and provides discrete examples of how film theory can serve as the basis for textual analysis.This book offers a concise introduction to eco-theory in jargon-free language and shows how this theory can be deployed to interpret Alex Garland's controversial film adaptation of Jeff VanderMeer's hit novel Annihilation.Eco-theory is one of the most exciting and timely offshoots of contemporary critical theory, but it is too frequently treated as only a recent development. Covering historical developments in nature philosophy, geology, and organic chemistry, as well as contemporary critical methodologies like systems theory and new materialism, Eco-Theory and Annihilation introduces readers to the full extent of eco-theory's lively variations, as well as investigates the complications that arise when those variations are mediated by the generic expectations of filmic science fiction.This book illuminates the deep history of eco-theory, maps its contemporary coordinates, and demonstrates how it can shed light on Garland's provocative eco-sci-fi thriller.
The Art of Directing
This accessible book is an exploration of the condition of the director from an insider's perspective, discussing how directors survive and thrive in the immensely challenging environment of the film and television industry.
The Screens of Virtual Production
This book is the first dedicated edited collection that explores the virtualization of screen-making processes from pre-production to post-production, while attuning to the aesthetic, ideological and performative contexts upended by these integrated technologies. This book explores what is real in virtual production, as a provocative one, implicitly drawing on the philosophies of the moving image and the recent work on new forms of post-human perceptual realism.This edited collection is divided into the following four themed sections. Section One, It's Always Been Real: Contemporising Virtual Production, addresses the histories of film realism in relationship to visual technologies, providing both a theoretical and philosophical 'anchor' point for the collection, and a necessary genealogy. Section Two, The Body Becomes You: Performing Virtual Production, examines the transformation that occurs in immersive virtual worlds, while also exploring how the body is itself virtualised. Section Three, Skin Deep: Gazing with Virtual Production, addresses the way race, ethnicity, gender and environment are supposedly equalised, and yet are still found to reproduce the colonised looking regimes of western, mainstream screen culture. Section Four, Whose Work? Labouring with Virtual Production, draws together writing that examines the way production processes have been transformed, affecting not only work patterns but the way aesthetics, form and function, operate.This book encompasses many production themes and will appeal to media students and professionals interested in the production of film.
People on Sunday (Menschen Am Sonntag)
Directed by Robert Siodmak and Edgar G. Ulmer, and with a script by Billy Wilder, People on Sunday (Menschen am Sonntag) (1930) is now widely recognised as a landmark of Weimar cinema, which influenced Italian Neorealism and the New Wave cinemas of the 1960s, and set the template for 'indie' filmmaking as we now know it. This is the first study in English of this multi-faceted film, which not only launched the careers of renowned filmmakers, but which continues to influence contemporary culture, with references to it in popular television (Babylon Berlin), a playful remake, and a new score by experimental pop group M繳m. Jon Hughes' study places the film in its historical context - Berlin in the Weimar Republic - and untangles the fascinating story of the making of People on Sunday, drawing on new archival research to challenge some of the misconceptions that surround it. Hughes provides fresh interpretations of the film's depiction of space and its play with contemporary gender and sexual politics, and situates it within both Weimar cinema and the later output of the filmmakers.
When a Woman Ascends the Stairs (Onna Ga Kaidan O Agaru Toki)
Mikio Naruse's When A Woman Ascends The Stairs (1960) combines high melodrama with modernist film language, telling the story of Keiko, a bar hostess struggling to succeed in Tokyo's Ginza district. Catherine Russell's study of the film provides an in-depth analysis of Naruse's distinctive filmmaking, from his use of two-shots in confined spaces, unique lighting techniques, and his "invisible" and "rhythmic" editing style. She analyses the recurring motif of a woman's white-stockinged feet climbing stairs, considering how this symbolizes the social dynamics of the high-class Japanese sex industry that sustains hostess bar culture. Russell goes on to argue that the film is a "late" woman's film which engages with the institutional barriers to woman's success in postwar Japan. She situates the film within the trajectory of Naruse's career and analyses how his social critique is balanced with an aestheticization of a harsh and brutally gendered world, creating an affective tension that is symptomatic of Naruse's own position as an industrial worker.
Every Frame Counts
This book, written by an industry expert, covers the duties of an assistant editor over the course of an entire feature film.Throughout the book, the author provides key insights and advice from years of experience, which will help assistant editors hit the ground running, keep up the pace, and continue thinking critically and creatively. The easy-to-navigate structure loosely follows that of the typical job by identifying and outlining four key phases: Dailies, Director's Cut, Screenings, and Finishing. Discussed therein are also passages that outline pre-production, the first day on the job, temp sound and VFX work, and turnovers as well as wrap and archiving.Special features include detailed screenshots, advanced tips for interacting with Avid Media Composer (the industry standard for Non-Linear Digital Editing), editorial-specific use cases for automation using FileMaker Pro, and best practices regarding every aspect of the job.This book is an intermediate resource for prospective and current assistant editors in the modern film and television editorial department.
Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder in Film and Media
This book expounds how post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) became so ubiquitous. The relationships between trauma, memory, and media, including the cultural, psychological, and social dimensions of PTSD are analysed. This work provides an examination of PTSD across diverse cultural contexts, shedding light on its profound impact on human experience and societal structures. This work addresses the role of social media internationally, the pornography industry, and conspiracy theories, in perpetuating trauma and shaping societal attitudes. From feature films, including Apocalypse Now, The Deer Hunter, and Jacob's Ladder, to hit television shows such as the BBC's Bodyguard, visual cultures have been instrumental in popularizing an understanding of PTSD. Often these are traditional "triumph over adversity" narratives. In others what is relevant is the wider postwar political landscape. Controversial wars have led to mental health problems for returning soldiers, depicted as part of a metaphoric wound for a nation. At its heart, America is concerned with the survival of the fittest, a Social Darwinist creed fused with manifest destiny and turbo capitalism. Any weaknesses, such as mental problems including PTSD, contradicted and challenged the essence of the pioneering American spirit. A book on PTSD at this moment is necessary, as the subject has become popularized and politicized, just as "madness" became a term to define an era. Through advocating for interdisciplinary approaches to foster healthier perspectives and support, here we come to a deeper understanding of how digital cultures have impacted the politics of time and memory.
Toward a More Perfect Rebellion
Toward a More Perfect Rebellion tells the riveting story of the socially engaged filmmakers of color who studied in the Ethno-Communications Program at the University of California, Los Angeles, between 1969 and 1973. While the program is best known for training the trailblazing group of Black directors known as the L.A. Rebellion, this book also includes the radical Asian American, Chicana/o, and Native American filmmakers who collaborated alongside their Black classmates to create one of the most expansive and groundbreaking bodies of work of any US university cohort. Through extensive interviews with the filmmakers and cross-racial analysis of their collective filmography, Josslyn Jeanine Luckett sheds light on a largely untold history of media activists working outside Hollywood yet firmly rooted in Los Angeles, aiming their cameras with urgency and tenderness to capture their communities' stories of power, struggle, and improvisational brilliance.
After Hours
Siskel and Ebert meet Joan Didion in Auteur, a unique series that combines in-depth film criticism with personal autobiography. Each book in the series examines a single movie through a critical and historical lens, filtered through the author's creative and emotional connection to the film. The result mixes literary memoir with a loving study of some of our most beloved and influential filmsAfter Hours: Scorsese, Grief and the Grammar of Cinema is a live wire examination of author Ben Tanzer's relationship to Martin Scorsese's famous 1985 film, and how it helped him to make sense of the death of his father. Tanzer also delves into the overall importance of Scorsese and his films to his family, using After Hours as a lens into his life decisions--most particularly in the form of late-night visits to downtown New York City in the 1980s when he first came of age and began to ask himself how one manages to live a life of meaning, excitement, exploration, and joy.
The Attractions of the Moving Image
An essential collection of new and selected essays by influential cinema and media studies scholar Tom Gunning. Tom Gunning is the author of multiple books and nearly two hundred essays that have defined the field of cinema and media studies. His works have transformed our understanding of early cinema and the American avant-garde and reset the terms of many central debates in film and media history and theory. His 1986 essay "The Cinema of Attractions" is among the most cited essays on film ever published. Gunning's writings articulate a distinctive and powerful model for thinking about cinema's history and likely future, addressing the full range of moving-image media, from film to still photography to digital media. His discussions draw on stage melodrama and magic lantern shows, as well as criminology, world's fairs, and Spiritualism, surveying the medium as a cultural phenomenon informed by the industrial and information ages, psychiatry, urban experience, discourses on art and aesthetics, and more. This collection brings together twenty-six essays that showcase the depth and range of Gunning's scholarship, including four that have never before been published. Together, they solidify Gunning's place as a scholar who has transformed the way generations of scholars, archivists, critics, and artists think about cinema.
Double Crossed
Despite Hollywood's recent efforts to appeal to more racially diverse audiences, mainstream movies routinely present a limited view of non-Whites generally, and Black women specifically, in stark contrast to the broadly developed spectrum of White characters. Black women characters are frequently rendered invisible, and even in films featuring their image, Black women characters too often fall prey to historically stereotypical patterns. These consistently marginalized Black female images serve to reflect and reinforce messages of racial imbalance distributed worldwide. In Double Crossed: Black Female Intersectionality in Hollywood, author Frederick W. Gooding Jr. chronicles the Black female experience through the lens of Hollywood. Gooding begins by contextualizing the origins of early Black female imagery on screen, largely restricted to the domestic mammy figure, then traces how these images have shifted over time. Through close readings of such films as Gone with the Wind, Bringing Down the House, The Princess and the Frog, and The Help, as well as case studies looking at Oprah Winfrey and Shonda Rhimes, Gooding considers not only the image the Black woman creates, but also the shadow she casts. This volume demonstrates the historical, economic, and social consequences of Hollywood's distorted representation of Black women on screen and in real life.
Double Crossed
Despite Hollywood's recent efforts to appeal to more racially diverse audiences, mainstream movies routinely present a limited view of non-Whites generally, and Black women specifically, in stark contrast to the broadly developed spectrum of White characters. Black women characters are frequently rendered invisible, and even in films featuring their image, Black women characters too often fall prey to historically stereotypical patterns. These consistently marginalized Black female images serve to reflect and reinforce messages of racial imbalance distributed worldwide. In Double Crossed: Black Female Intersectionality in Hollywood, author Frederick W. Gooding Jr. chronicles the Black female experience through the lens of Hollywood. Gooding begins by contextualizing the origins of early Black female imagery on screen, largely restricted to the domestic mammy figure, then traces how these images have shifted over time. Through close readings of such films as Gone with the Wind, Bringing Down the House, The Princess and the Frog, and The Help, as well as case studies looking at Oprah Winfrey and Shonda Rhimes, Gooding considers not only the image the Black woman creates, but also the shadow she casts. This volume demonstrates the historical, economic, and social consequences of Hollywood's distorted representation of Black women on screen and in real life.
Transnational Cinema Solidarity
After the 1973 coup that put an end to the socialist government of Salvador Allende, most Chilean filmmakers went into exile. Dispersed all over the world, they made more than two hundred fiction films, documentaries, animations, videos, and works for television. Jos矇 Miguel Palacios builds upon extensive archival research to trace a transnational history of this radical cinema, beginning with its emergence out of global solidarity networks in the 1970s. Chronicling the dangerous efforts to smuggle film reels out of Chile, the discourses of political cinema these films inspired as they traveled between film festivals, and the prints' unfinished process of return to Chilean archives and museums over the past two decades, Transnational Cinema Solidarity offers a politicized understanding of world and transnational cinema that emphasizes geopolitical relations and cinematic alliances based on solidarity.
#MeToo TV
The #MeToo movement has heightened awareness about the prevalence of sexual violence across professional, public, and private spheres. Since the movement began, many individuals have bravely stepped forward to share their experiences within media industries that historically protected predators while silencing survivors. Television and streaming content also conveys messages about gender, sex, consent, and power that influences public consciousness. These portrayals of sexual violence warrant re-examination from the perspective of the #MeToo movement. This essay collection explores sexual violence within television and streaming media, building on the previous work, Screening #MeToo: Rape Culture in Hollywood (SUNY Press 2022). The current anthology features essays covering a diverse range of genres--from documentary and true crime to drama and comedy--across various platforms, including network television and streaming services. The contributing authors analyze representational tropes through an intersectional perspective and examine how trauma, memory, romance, and fantasy intersect the narratives presented. Prompting further exploration from readers, these perspectives serve as a foundation for discussing rape culture in American television and streaming.
Holding Television Accountable
This work discusses the impact of television show audience participation and expectations in the age of social media through reception theory, content analysis, and primary research on social media platforms. It explores how audience reception can influence creative decisions and initiatives, such as "cancel culture" and diversity efforts, by thoroughly and critically analyzing shows like Girls, The 100, Big Brother, and Southern Charm to illustrate this phenomenon. Various types of television are examined, including reality TV, network and cable TV, and streaming TV, to explore the influence of audience reception on creative ownership and accountability, thus demonstrating the power of social media in the hands of viewers.
Transnational Cinema Solidarity
After the 1973 coup that put an end to the socialist government of Salvador Allende, most Chilean filmmakers went into exile. Dispersed all over the world, they made more than two hundred fiction films, documentaries, animations, videos, and works for television. Jos矇 Miguel Palacios builds upon extensive archival research to trace a transnational history of this radical cinema, beginning with its emergence out of global solidarity networks in the 1970s. Chronicling the dangerous efforts to smuggle film reels out of Chile, the discourses of political cinema these films inspired as they traveled between film festivals, and the prints' unfinished process of return to Chilean archives and museums over the past two decades, Transnational Cinema Solidarity offers a politicized understanding of world and transnational cinema that emphasizes geopolitical relations and cinematic alliances based on solidarity.
The Cognitive Impact of Contemporary Television Series
Television serial fiction is one of the most popular cultural products around the world today, and there is much indirect evidence that its stories influence the understanding of those who watch and enjoy it. All the chapters gathered in this collection address the idea that the specific aesthetic and narrative properties of television seriality contribute to distinct ways of conveying cognitive impact in a broad sense: from content learning, to reflection on social and philosophical issues, to character engagement and emotional reactions. The Cognitive Impact of Contemporary Television Series goes through some of the thematic constants of the last decade of television seriality, such as dystopia, coming-of-age or metaphysical drama, making panoramic views and delving into specific case studies, like The Purge, The End of the F***ing World and Undone, among many others. This book will be of interest to graduate students and scholars working in television studies, as well as in film studies, cognitive media theory, media psychology, and aesthetics.
The Cognitive Impact of Contemporary Television Series
Television serial fiction is one of the most popular cultural products around the world today, and there is much indirect evidence that its stories influence the understanding of those who watch and enjoy it. All the chapters gathered in this collection address the idea that the specific aesthetic and narrative properties of television seriality contribute to distinct ways of conveying cognitive impact in a broad sense: from content learning, to reflection on social and philosophical issues, to character engagement and emotional reactions. The Cognitive Impact of Contemporary Television Series goes through some of the thematic constants of the last decade of television seriality, such as dystopia, coming-of-age or metaphysical drama, making panoramic views and delving into specific case studies, like The Purge, The End of the F***ing World and Undone, among many others. This book will be of interest to graduate students and scholars working in television studies, as well as in film studies, cognitive media theory, media psychology, and aesthetics.
Women's New Cinema in Contemporary Turkey
For the first time in the history of cinema, Turkey witnesses a generation of female directors who occupy their own space within the New Cinema Movement. They claim an authority of their own and create a distinct cinema. However, recent scholarship on the cinema of Turkey predominantly conceptualises contemporary cinema in relation to the patriarchal discourse of male auteurs and recognises its female directors in a tokenistic manner. This book is the first academic work recognising this historical moment - the flourish of a women's cinema in Turkey which disrupts the dominant discourses and brings another view to look at the post-millennial cinema. This study identifies the new production methodologies used by the contemporary female directors from Turkey in relation to socio-political and cultural dynamics and conceptualises these features under the term, 'Women's New Cinema'. It also undertakes feminist textual exegesis of selected case studies in these directors' work.
Financing the British Film Industry
Financing the British Film Industry provides a comprehensive history of the financing of British film production from the origin of the industry until the end of the Second World War. It documents the growth of the film business from a cottage industry to a mature business enterprise. It considers the capitalisation of the industry and analyses the relationships between producers, banks and insurance companies. It charts the fluctuating fortunes of British film-making and the various government-backed initiatives support the production sector. James Chapman argues that the difficulties of the British film industry arose not from the extravagances of individual producers or the collapse of particular companies but from underlying economic and structural weaknesses: that the industry was too reliant on short-term finance and that the domestic market was insufficient to guarantee a profitable return for anything other than a modestly-budgeted film
Romanian and Chinese Cinemas
Drawing on what used to be the erstwhile internationalist cultural space of Communist Eurasia, the author reads socialist-era and postsocialist films made in Romania and China as promoting a common aesthetics predicated on the miserabilism of Third Cinema. The book argues that, despite indictments that socialist cultures were saturated with the oppressing ideology of socialist realism in the 1950s and various forms of indoctrination thereafter, in practice, film directors had the leverage to tackle social issues even in those works that are deemed today "propagandist." Refusing to endorse contemporary theories that seek to align the Romanian and the Chinese New Waves solely to Western cinematic practices, the author argues that China's fifth and sixth generation films as well as New Romanian Cinema are hugely indebted to socialist-era themes, as well as to the dogmatism of socialist realism. Identifying continuity rather than rupture between the socialist past and the capitalist present, the author seeks to redress an imbalance that contemporary scholars of Romanian and Chinese cinemas oftentimes ignore.
Micro-Budget Methods of Cinematic Storytelling
This accessible handbook is a practical guide to the concepts and techniques of micro-budget, cinematic storytelling. It's written to be useful and efficient, packed with lessons, examples and practices from the Author's extensive filmmaking experience and decades of teaching students all over the world.Demystifying the complex creative process involved in filmmaking, this text provides concrete, detailed and specific steps to develop innovative concepts and execute effective films with micro-budget methods. With a wide range of references, instruction, and illustrations, the reader will learn how to make the most of powerful cinematic tools under budgetary constraints. The focus on cinematic storytelling addresses the fundamentals of understanding principles in all creative practices in any genre, platform, style or duration of any narrative art. The information and lessons here are foundational, presenting a new perspective on the creative process for beginners and experienced alike.This book is the go-to resource for beginners and students entering today's industry, as well as those micro-budget and low-budget filmmakers looking for expert inspiration and insight.
Cinematic Intermediality
This edited collection proposes new directions for understanding cinematic intermediality, mapping out innovative approaches to film's relationship with some of its most influential artistic predecessors in the fields of performance, sculpture, painting, photography and dance. With essays by leading researchers and practitioners, this book investigates cinema's productive synergies and crossovers with the other arts through a broad range of avant-garde and experimental work. Mapping a trajectory from pre-cinema to the digital era, the book considers the impact of technological materiality on intermedial expression, incorporating both mainstream and experimental practice, world cinema and peripheral cinemas. Bridging the gap between theory and practice, it opens up new pathways for thinking about how intermediality, as both a creative method and an interpretative paradigm, might be explored alongside probing questions of what cinema is, has been and can be.
Capturing Big Ideas for Less in Feature Film
This book is an accessible guide, directed towards filmmakers with restricted resources and shortened schedules, who want to ensure their creation of riveting, fresh, and exciting projects. Whether a film is produced under a low or high budget, this text emphasizes that a small world coupled with a big idea can serve strong themes, complex characters, and powerful stories. Award-winning screenwriter David Carren suffuses this book with his own, original Narrative Synonym Process, teaching readers how to redevelop and expand a single idea or element in a story into multiple directions. Each chapter examines case studies of successful films and screenplays that are suitable to the subject. Script to Screen entries evaluate specific scenes in well-known films in relation to their dramatic intention and budgetary costs. The end of each chapter includes a review of its basic points and a bibliography citing the companies that produced the film, or the publishers of their scripts and/or where to find them, along with an exercise to allow the reader to directly enhance their knowledge and education. Offering a variety of exercises throughout to allow the reader to directly enhance their knowledge and education, this text is an essential resource for film students, screenwriters and filmmakers who want to make strong, successful films from limited resources.
The Harry O Viewing Companion
In the golden era of 1970s TV detective shows, Harry O stood out. David Janssen, already renowned for his role in The Fugitive, played Harry Orwell, a San Diego cop who retired after being shot in the back. The chemistry between Janssen and Anthony Zerbe, who delivered an Emmy-Award winning performance as Lt. K.C. Trench, captivated viewers and contributed to the show's popularity. While Harry O was largely character-driven, it also featured compelling plots that retained the show's audience throughout its two seasons. This viewing companion to Harry O covers all episodes, providing information about cast, crew, and locations along with story analysis. Informed by archival material, including series' creator Howard Rodman's papers, it also features new interviews conducted by the authors, providing insight into the creation of the series. From the filming of the pilot episodes in 1972 to the show's cancellation in 1976, the book offers a comprehensive history of each step in the show's development.
Feminist Posthumanism in Contemporary Science Fiction Film and Media
Feminist Posthumanism in Contemporary Science Fiction Film and Media: FromAnnihilation toHigh Life and Beyond places posthumanism and feminist theory into dialogue with contemporary science fiction film and media. This essay collection is intimately invested in the debates around the posthuman and the critical posthumanities within a feminist critical-theoretical framework.In this posthumanist light, science fiction as a genre allows for new imaginings of human-technological relations, while it can also be the site of a critique of human exceptionalism and essentialism. In this way, science fiction affords unique opportunities for the scholarly investigation of the relevance and relative applicability of specific posthumanist themes and questions in a particularly rich and wide-ranging popular cultural field of production. One of the reasons for this suitability is the genre's historically longstanding relationship with the critical investigation of gender, specifically the position and relative empowerment of women. The original analyses presented here pay close attention to audiovisual style (including game mechanics), facilitating the critical interrogation of the issues and questions around posthumanism. Where typically the mention of SF in the posthumanist context calls to mind a whole set of (often clich矇d) tropes-the cyborg, technologically augmented bodies, AI subjectivities, etc.-this volume's thirteen chapters analyze specific examples of contemporary SF cinema that engage in meaningful ways with the burgeoning field of critical posthumanism, and that utilize such films to interrogate posthumanist and feminist as well as humanistic ideas.
Singing Out
Singing Out explores a broad range of singing voices and sung moments, from lavish film musical sequences, television and videogames, through to online platforms, advertising, and multimedia installation work. It illustrates the diverse ways in which the singing voice is produced and understood in different media across international contexts, taking into consideration issues such as corporeal form, age, race, reception, and gender. The act of singing emphasises issues of identity, technology, and the identifying markers of the voice itself, heightening communication, acting as an aid to memory, and inviting judgement. Singing demarcates and breaks down textual and conceptual boundaries, and offers an intensity of experience that gives it a special status on the soundtrack. Singing Out contains a range of approaches to the singing voice, offering students and researchers a variety of methodological and critical tools to understand the contemporary context and importance of singing in multimedia.
Toward a More Perfect Rebellion
Toward a More Perfect Rebellion tells the riveting story of the socially engaged filmmakers of color who studied in the Ethno-Communications Program at the University of California, Los Angeles, between 1969 and 1973. While the program is best known for training the trailblazing group of Black directors known as the L.A. Rebellion, this book also includes the radical Asian American, Chicana/o, and Native American filmmakers who collaborated alongside their Black classmates to create one of the most expansive and groundbreaking bodies of work of any US university cohort. Through extensive interviews with the filmmakers and cross-racial analysis of their collective filmography, Josslyn Jeanine Luckett sheds light on a largely untold history of media activists working outside Hollywood yet firmly rooted in Los Angeles, aiming their cameras with urgency and tenderness to capture their communities' stories of power, struggle, and improvisational brilliance.
