The only writing guide a film student will ever need

Writing About Movies offers students two books in one: a handy guide to the process of academic writing and a brief but thorough introduction to the basics of film form, film theory, and film analysis. Written by the director of the writing program at Dartmouth College and the authors of the leading introductory film-studies text, Writing About Movies is the only writing guide a student of film will need.

Both an introduction to film study and a practical writing guide, this brief text introduces students to major film theories as well as film terminology, enabling them to write more thoughtfully and critically. With numerous student and professional examples, this engaging and practical guide progresses from taking notes and writing first drafts to creating polished essays and comprehensive research projects. Moving from movie reviews to theoretical and critical essays, the text demonstrates how an analysis of a film can become more subtle and rigorous as part of a compositional process --

The writers of Reno 911! and several other feature films trace their haphazard experiences in the movie industry, revealing the process through which they worked on script development with executives and stars, pacified exploitative decision makers and fought to be paid for their work.

Disc 1 offers 25 short 'tutorials,' helping students see what the text describes. Disc 2 includes an anthology of 12 short films, from 5 to 30 minutes in length. Together, the DVDs offer nearly five hours of pedagogically useful moving-image content.

Historical film has been an important genre since the earliest silent films. The French Revolution, the American Civil War, the conquest of the New World, World War II--all have been repeatedly represented in film. But how do we distinguish between fictionalized spectacle and authentic historical representation? Writing History in Film sets out the narratological, semiological, rhetorical, and philosophical bases for understanding how film can function as a form of historical interpretation and representation. With case studies and an interdisciplinary approach, William Guynn examines the key issues facing film students and scholars, historians, and anyone interested in how we see our historical past.

Award-winning screenwriter Roslyn Muir offers clear and simple advice for beginners and experts alike on how to master the popular TV movie thriller and rom-com genres. Writing a TV Movie is an exceptional resource for screenwriters.

In the second decade of the twenty-first century, the movies, once America’s primary popular art form, have become an endangered species. Do the Movies Have a Future? is a rousing and witty call to arms. In these sharp and engaging essays and reviews, New Yorker movie critic David Denby weighs in on “conglomerate aesthetics,” as embodied in the frenzied, weightless action spectacles that dominate the world’s attention, and “platform agnosticism,” the notion that movies can be watched on smaller and smaller screens: laptops, tablets, even phones. At the same time, Denby reaffirms that movies are our national theater, and in this exhilarating book he celebrates such central big movies as Avatar and The Social Network as well as small but resonant triumphs like There Will Be Blood and The Tree of Life. Denby joyously celebrates what remains of the shared culture in romantic comedy, high school movies, and chick flicks; he assesses the expressive triumphs and failures of auteurs Quentin Tarantino, the Coen brothers, Pedro Almodóvar, and David Fincher. Refusing nostalgia, he mines the past for strength, examining the changing nature of stardom and the careers of Joan Crawford, Otto Preminger, and Victor Fleming, and the continuing self-invention of Clint Eastwood. And he recreates the excitement of reading two critics who embodied the film culture of their times, James Agee and Pauline Kael. Wry, passionate, and incisive, Do the Movies Have a Future? is both a feast of good writing and a challenge to fight back. It is an essential guide for movie lovers looking for ammunition and hope.

An updated edition – with completely new chapters – of the most accessible and compelling history of the cinema yet published, and complements Mark Cousins' fascinating 15-hour film documentary The Story of Film: An Odyssey. Filmmaker and author Mark Cousins shows how filmmakers are influenced both by the historical events of their times, and by each other. He demonstrates, for example, how Douglas Sirk’s Hollywood melodramas of the 1950s influenced Rainer Werner Fassbinder’s despairing visions of 1970s Germany; and how George Lucas’ Star Wars epics grew out of Akira Kurosawa’s The Hidden Fortress. The Story of Film is divided into three main epochs: Silent (1885–1928), Sound (1928–1990) and Digital (1990–Present). Films are discussed within chapters reflecting both the stylistic concerns of the film-makers and the political and social themes of the time. This edition includes new text that encompasses the further-reaching scope of world cinema today, and the huge leaps in technology that have changed cinema screens forever. Film is an international medium, so as well as covering the great American films and film-makers, The Story of Film explores cinema in Europe, Africa, Asia, Australasia and South America, and shows how cinematic ideas and techniques cross national boundaries. Avoiding jargon and obscure critical theory, the author constantly places himself in the role of the moviegoer watching a film, and asks: ‘How does a scene or a story affect us, and why?’ In so doing he gets to the heart of cinematic technique, explaining how film-makers use lighting, framing, focal length and editing to create their effects. Clearly written, and illustrated with over 400 stills, including numerous sequences explaining how scenes work, The Story of Film is essential reading for both film students and moviegoers alike.