IBDP Film: Books

Presents a guide to cinematography for filmmakers, providing step by step information on camera operation, choosing film stocks, measuring light, and coordinating visual and audio elements. Includes illustrations.

A guide to theory and practices in cinematography that covers concepts of filmmaking, continuity, lighting, exposure, optics, image control, bleach bypass processes, shooting special effects, and other related topics.

Internationally-renowned directing coach Weston demonstrates what constitutes a good performance, what actors want from a director, what directors do wrong, script analysis and preparation, how actors work, and shares insights into the director/actor relationship.

In the tradition of Strunk and White's The Elements of Style, this screenwriter's guide covers writing specific to the film and television industry as well as general writing advice - truly an "Essential Guide" for the screenwriting process.

Film: A Critical Introduction provides readers with the skills needed to successfully critique and analyze film and teaches strategies for translating ideas about film into written criticism and analysis. Intricate discussions of the current issues in film theory, from sound production to documentaries, keep readers’ perspectives on film fresh and informed. Part I introduces readers to the importance of film analysis, offering helpful strategies for discerning the way films produce meaning. Part II examines the fundamental elements of film, including narrative form, mise en scène, cinematography, editing, and sound, and shows how these concepts can be used to interpret films. Part III frames the debates around ideological criticism, national and transnational cinema, and genre and auteur theory that animate contemporary film scholarship.

A complete catalogue of motion picture techniques for filmmakers. It concentrates on the 'storytelling' school of filmmaking, utilizing the work of the great stylists who established the versatile vocabulary of technique that has dominated the movies
since 1915. This graphic approach includes comparisons of style by interpreting a 'model script', created for the book, in storyboard form.

Widely acknowledged as the "bible" of film and video production and used in courses around the world, this indispensable guide to making movies is now updated with the latest advances in high- definition formats. For students and teachers, the professional and the novice filmmaker, this clear and comprehensive handbook remains the reliable reference to all aspects of moviemaking.
Techniques for making narrative, documentary, corporate, experimental and feature films. Working with high-definition and standard-definition digital video formats, including DV, HD, and HDV. Extensive coverage of video editing with the latest nonlinear editing systems. Thorough grounding in lenses, lighting, sound recording, and sound editing.

In the Blink of an Eye is celebrated film editor Walter Murch's vivid, multifaceted, thought -- provoking essay on film editing. Starting with what might be the most basic editing question -- Why do cuts work? -- Murch treats the reader to a wonderful ride through the aesthetics and practical concerns of cutting film. Along the way, he offers his unique insights on such subjects as continuity and discontinuity in editing, dreaming, and reality; criteria for a good cut; the blink of the eye as an emotional cue; digital editing; and much more. In this second edition, Murch reconsiders and completely revises his popular first edition's lengthy meditation on digital editing (which accounts for a third of the book's pages) in light of the technological changes that have taken place in the six years since its publication.

An Introduction to Film Analysis combines an introduction to filmmaking technique with rigorous and comprehensive training in film interpretation. Composed in an accessible style yet conversant with the latest, most advanced critical theories and methods, this innovative textbook can be reliably used on both the undergraduate and the graduate level.
The book begins with chapters that familiarize students with the basic components of film technique. It connects technique to meaning and demonstrates, through numerous examples, how particular uses of film technique generate different meanings. Students will learn how films are made and how values are promoted, ideas communicated, and rhetorical arguments advanced through film technique. The second part of the book covers a range of interpretive methods, theories, and concerns. In each section, the author offers a sample reading of a film, followed by an "interpretive exercise" with suggestions for students to use in performing their own film interpretation.


Carefully structured, beautifully written, and illustrated throughout, An Introduction to Film Analysis provides a thorough grounding in the subject for students around the world.

Looking at Movies is the most effective, engaging, and widely adopted introduction to film analysis available. From its very first chapter, Looking at Movies provides students with all the tools they need to become perceptive viewers of film, including the most sophisticated and seamlessly integrated media resources that are rich with comprehensive analysis and assessment tools ever produced for a textbook in this market. Authoritative, accessible, and of superior value, Looking at Movies offers instructors with abundant teachable resources to help students analyze movies critically and effectively.

A masterclass on the art of directing from the Pulitzer Prize-winning (and Oscar and Tony-nominated) writer of Glengarry Glen Ross, Speed the Plow, The Verdict, and Wag the Dog

Calling on his unique perspective as playwright, screenwriter, and director of his own critically acclaimed movies like House of Games, State and Main, and Things Change, David Mamet illuminates how a film comes to be. He looks at every aspect of directing—from script to cutting room—to show the many tasks directors undertake in reaching their prime objective: presenting a story that will be understood by the audience and has the power to be both surprising and inevitable at the same time. Based on a series of classes Mamet taught at Columbia University's film school, On Directing Film will be indispensible not only to students but to anyone interested in an overview of the craft of filmmaking.

This ultimate insider's guide reveals the secrets that none dare admit, told by a show biz veteran who's proven that you can sell your script if you can save the cat!

Sometimes it seems like everybody’s writing a screenplay. But who reads those screenplays? Professional story analysts, that’s who. Screenplay Story Analysis explains exactly how to become a professional story analyst. Along with a basic how-to on writing a story analysis—or "coverage"—this book explains the techniques and thought processes involved in reading and evaluating a screenplay. Get familiar with terms, techniques, and general story elements. Master standard coverage format and content. Find guidelines for practicing coverage and getting work as a professional story analyst. With a foreword by Craig Perry, producer of American Pie, Final Destination, and other successful movies, and quotes from industry pros from top entertainment companies including ABC and Paramount Pictures, this is the essential guide for breaking into the business.

The 20th anniversary edition of one of the most popular, authoritative, and useful books on screenwriting. A standard by which other screenwriting books are measured, it has sold over 200,000 copies in its twenty-year life. Always up-to-date and reliable, it contains everything that both the budding and working screenwriter need under one cover five books in one!

The updated and revised third edition provides new insights and observations from Vogler's ongoing work on mythology's influence on stories, movies, and man himself. The previous two editons of this book have sold over 180,000 units, making this book a 'classic' for screenwriters, writers, and novelists.

Cinema Studies: The Key Concepts is an essential guide for anyone interested in film. Providing accessible coverage of a comprehensive range of genres, movements, theories and production terms, this is a must-have guide to a fascinating area of study and arguably the greatest art form of modern times.