Making Movies

Arrived on time in a very good condition! Loved the contents the author describes in the book. A great book for young, aspiring entertainers in the movie making industry.

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"Making Movies" is one of the best books on the nuts and bolts of film-making ever. It deserves the highest rating simply because it is both well presented and full of practical insights. Lumet is brilliant on the psychology of movie-making in the old days, for instance, when each producer had the power to order cuts at will. The director who knew this would deliberately leave some weak scenes in during early screenings so that the producers could order them removed and thus later claim to have "saved" the picture – if, that is, it turned out to be a hit. That said, Lumet's overall approach is not historical but topical, from selecting a writer to making the final cut. In Chapter Three, he raises a point I often try to impress upon my students: The way you tell a story should relate somehow to what that story is about. That gets to the whole question of the importance of style, which he terms "the most misused word since love." (pg. 49) Good, practical advice can be found on every page. Here's how he can tell if something is off when watching a scene during rushes: "If my concentration breaks, something is wrong." (pg. 141) This, I might add, applies equally well to reading as to watching – if our attention drifts, there may be something wrong with the book we are reading, or the text of the speech we are delivering. Here's something that may seem counter-intuitive: The audience's perception of the length of a film depends not on the tempo of the movie itself so much as the presence or absence of changes in tempo. The fewer the changes, even if the tempo is fast, the longer the movie will seem. Most melodramas accelerate speed towards the end. Inexperienced directors adopt an up-tempo from the start, then believe they have left themselves nowhere to go except even faster, thus exhausting the audience long before the final credits. Lumet candidly confesses he doesn't know what makes a hit, and doubts that anyone really does. It is certainly not the stars alone. He talks about those he has worked with (including Paul Newman and Al Pacino) without indulging in gossip, and when he has something negative to say, he does so without naming names. One movie of his, which he refuses to identify, suffered from the limited range of one of its stars. "On the second day of shooting, I began to realize that the leading actress lacked the tenderness her part called for. She simply didn't have it in her as an actress or a person. She was superb with anger; she had humor. But if she was asked to show the simplest affection for the person playing opposite her, a falseness crept into her acting that was readily apparent, particularly since her acting was otherwise so real and true…. Since the movie was fundamentally a love story, I knew that we were in trouble." (pp. 143-144) I wonder if the movie in question might not have been "The Morning After." The only hint he provides is that the film "had three very high-powered stars in it." "Morning After" featured Jane Fonda, Jeff Bridges and Raul Julia. On the other hand, Fonda did receive an Oscar nomination for her performance here, so I can't be certain. Though most (but not all) of the examples are taken from movies he himself directed, the book is most definitely not a survey of his career. While "Murder on the Orient Express," for example, gets mentioned at least a dozen times, "Fail Safe" rates only a single one, early on. Incidentally, what he has to say about "Murder…" gives me a higher opinion of that movie than I ever had before; now I am tempted go back and take another look at it. The chapter on the "lens plot" in "12 Angry Men" – how he used differing lenses to create an increasing sense of claustrophobia – is justly famous. On the whole, Making Movies is an enlightening introduction to the craft, presented by an insider. If you are like me, you will be amazed at what you hadn't noticed in movies you thought you knew. For a longer version of this review, please go to hamiltonbeck dot wordpress dot com

El servicio de Amazon cumplio con el envio, llego como siempre muy rapido. Por lo que es del contenido del libro lo recomiendo 100%. El autor tiene una manera de escribir muy agradable que hace que los detalles mas tecnicos siguen siendo muy accessible. Siempre usa sus propias pelis para ilustrar de que esta hablando y es muy completo.

Sidney Lumet comes in with decades of experience directing films: "12 Angry Men " (1957) and directed a new film or more every year even up to "Before the Devil Knows You're Dead" (2007). Lumet's experience includes working with such acclaimed award-winning actors as Katharine Hepburn, Paul Newman, Marion Brando, and Al Pacino to name a few. I'm mining a filmmaking 'rare earth's minerals' in this book. Steven Spielberg has a flattering review of this book at the back of the book. About the Book: Lumet offers a lived, humane, end-to-end account of directing as a moral, technical, and relational craft. This is cinema from pre-production to final mix—grounded in decades of practice. My Thrust: I immediateky fast-forwarded to my juiciest interests: chapter 7: Shooting the Movie: At Last - to the end chapter 13- The Studio: Was It All For This? I'll then return to pp.1-104 after chapters 7-13. I'm a trained economist. Venturing into filmmaking.