Screenwriting

Screenplay - The Foundations of Screenwriting by Syd Field. You can buy other screenwriting texts but what's the point. Syd covers the lot and its an easy read. Get the book, get it read and get writing.

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Lew Hunter's Screenwriting 434 - Inspirational stuff from UCLA's resident script wizard. Lew is great for encouragement and offers good advice whilst getting you to work on your script.

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Teach Yourself Screenwriting by Raymond G. Frensham. Covers the basics pretty damn efficiently allowing you to get on with the process of writing.

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The Writer's Journey : Mythic Structure for Writers explores mythic storytelling in-depth, from the Ancient Greeks and Arthurian Legend to Star Wars and Pulp Fiction. The basic story is simple 'Hero leaves home, meets mentor, overcomes obstacles, achieves goal and becomes a wiser and better person'. Its a story we've been sold time and time again (especially by Jerry Bruckheimer!) but Chris Vogler's book teaches you to tell it well. Indispensable for storytellers.

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Monster - Living off the big Screen - John Gregory Dunne - Monster tells of the 8-year trek to take the story of TV anchorwoman Jessica Savitch, through rewrite after rewrite (27 'count 'em' drafts) until it became the Robert Redford/Michelle Pfeiffer star vehicle Up Close & Personal. A witty and savage book about the perils of screenwriting in Hollywood. The tales of contractual bitching, telephone tag and producer Scott Rudin's script notes ('Cut. Change. Heat up. New line. Be hard. Stay Funny. Deliver the Moment') should earn this book the subtitle 101 Reasons not to be a screenwriter. In fact this book is the ideal antidote to all those 'anyone can write a great screenplay' workbooks, and thank god its a movie we've actually heard of!

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The Unkindest Cut by the viciously funny movie critic Joe Queenan documents his attempts to follow in the footsteps of film-makers Quentin Tarantino and Spike Lee and produce his own credit card financed indie hit. Unfortunately for every breakthrough movie there are hundreds of 'never-made-its', and 'Twelve Steps to Death' Queenan's psychiatric whodunnit black comedy (yes, really), is one of them. You've got to admire his effort and sharp-mindedness though. Here is a man who cuts his own son out of the movie and concocts Tarrytown's first international film festival just so his film can win a prize. Of course the budget quickly heads north of his target $7000 and as the shoot gets steadily worse the book just gets funnier. Put Robert Rodriguez's positive 'Rebel without a Crew' on the same bookshelf as Joe 'Captain Negativity' Queenan's account of moviemaking and you'd probably witness some sort of implosion leading to the end of the universe.

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Storyboarding

Film directing shot by shot - visualizing from concept to screen - Steven D. Katz - a pretty comprehensive yet approachable textbook that covers storyboarding in some depth. Packed full of excellent advice and some stunning sample storyboards from Ridley Scott's 'Bladerunner', Spielberg's 'Empire of the Sun' and some movie called 'Citizen Kane'.

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Setting Up Your Shots - Great Camera Moves Every Filmmaker Should Know - Jeremy Vineyard. Featuring over 100 storyboards illustrating composition, movement, perspective, transitions and camera technique this book is a great resource for film-makers thinking about shot design. Covering everything from tilts and zooms to vignettes and whip cuts. The author himself realises that the disadvantage of illustrations is that they cannot effetively show cinematic techniques so includes recommendations for each shot from noted classics such as Citizen Kane and Battleship Potemkin to recent movies such as The Corruptor and Evil Dead 2 (which should be easier to find down the video shop). Each section offer exercises encouraging readers to watch films actively, thinking about how the choice of shots affect the storytelling. Jose Cruz's illustrations make this a useful resource for storyboard artists looking to illustrate camera movements and directors looking to quickly communicate ideas about camera placement and movement to the non-technical. An interesting read that fires up your thoughts on staging scenes.

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The Art of the Matrix - From the movie that stretched the concept of the action movie beyond the four walls of reality this book showcases the vast amount of pre-production and planning that went into the design of The Matrix. Packed with over 1000 illustrations, this hefty tome contains the complete shooting script (and deleted scenes), the full B&W and colour storyboards and page after page of concept art for many of the film's outlandish elements. Used by the directors, The Wachowski Brothers who were former comic book writers themselves, to sell the movie to the studios, this archive is effectively the story in comic book form. The illustrations benefit from a detailed commentary from the artists who discuss their work, but in the words of Morpheus "No one can be told what the Matrix is. You have to see it for yourself."

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Lighting

Film Lighting - Talks with Hollywood's Cinematographers and Gaffers is an excellent read that has a variety of industry names discussing lighting techniques. Its at its best when discussing real-world examples of lighting eg. location interiors, night shoots etc. allowing the contributors to suggest way that they have solved lighting problems in the past.

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If you've read anything by Focal Press before you've probably got a good idea of what to expect. Lighting for Television and Film is a good solid textbook which covers everything in exhaustive depth from the physics of light, through lighting styles to equipment and safety. Packed with diagrams, photos and err..graphs and tables!! If you really want to know your lighting stuff then this is your book.

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The first book written about film lighting, Painting with Light is a classic text which can still teach us a lot today especially if you are working in black and white (an artform of its own) or if you're trying to recreate film noir style lighting. OK, so it has dated a bit, and in parts become unintentionally funny - but it was written half a century ago (in a world where filming 'ladies', 'steamboats' and 'criminal faces' are vital for a film). If its recommended by Martin Scorcese its good enough for me!

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Special Effects

Secrets of Hollywood Special Effects -This really reads like a textbook for the pros. Not that good looking, but very in-depth and informative with detailed diagrams, plans and photographs. Learn do do everything from flipping a car to flying through the air. And hey, how can you not buy a book that has a section called 'Blowing Someone's Brains Out'.

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As expected from a Doring Kindersley book Special Effects in Film and Television is a well-illustrated tour of special effects with tons of clear, annotated behind-the-scenes photos which are ideal for dissecting how effects are achieved.

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OK so its not the prettiest cover in the world but Creating Special Effects for TV and Video is a good primer on everything from latex casting to car crashes. Each section is split across two pages - half explanation, half diagrams - providing invaluable advice on almost every subject.

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General

Ever dreamed of making a movie? Now you can! All you need is a camcorder, a tape and James Marsh's Film Making - All you need to know. Stop dreaming and start filming... With funny illustrations and helpful explanations, it may look like a kids' book, but it will take you step-by-step through all the stages to get your idea on tape. Learn top camcorder techniques and everything about screenplays and storyboards, writing your script, the shoot, editing tips and sound and music for your production. You can become Spielberg Jr!!

This book is currently unavailable from Amazon. Cross your fingers and hope that a local library or bookshop still have a copy.

The Videomaker Handbook is a selection of excellent articles that explain all aspects of video production in depth. Although very technical at times this is a really useful book for anyone looking to get the most out of their video camera, covering everything from scheduling your shoot, through all aspects of production to distributing your finished video. From the writers of the USA's Videomaker magazine so you know it comes from the experts.

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Film-makers on film-making

Robert Rodriguez's book 'Rebel without a Crew : How a 23-year old film-maker made a $7000 movie and became a Hollywood Player' is the director's own diary during the making of his low-budget classic 'El Mariachi'. Includes his inspiring 'Ten-Minute Film School'. I strongly recommend it.
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Liked 'Rebel without a Crew'? You'll love 'Roadracers : The Making of a Degenerate Hot Rod Flick' which continues Robert Rodriguez's film-making diary covering the production of cable movie 'Roadracers', his fights with the producers and his struggle to shoot with a full crew.

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  Alex Cox - Film Anarchist - For those that grew up in the nineties Alex Cox is best known as the quirky presenter of BBC2's 'Moviedrome', a season of bizarre and eclectic movies that inspired a generation of film fans. Each Sunday night he encouraged us to watch something a little different, and each Monday morning classrooms of bleary-eyed schoolkids would be dissecting the gory entrails.
Stephen Paul Davies' biography charts the films of this maverick director from the punk ethics of Repo Man and Sid and Nancy to Cox's love of cinema and his Spanish language samurai movie Highway Patrolman.
Written with the assistance of Cox this book is well-illustrated with stills and behind-the-scenes photos (although its a shame that they are not in colour) together with excerpts from Cox's tight one-line production diaries.
Alex Cox is an outsider who refuses to play Hollywood's game. Originally set to helm Fear & Loathing in Las Vegas Cox walked from the project after a disagreement with its subject Hunter S. Thompson and turned down an offer to direct Natural Born Killers as he was disinterested in violence for violence's sake.
Cox's films are unique genre defying views of the world that stick two fingers up at Hollywood. His work shows that film-making need not be about selling out or the scramble for money. Cox himself admits that "The film that I made that lost the most money might not be the best one, and the one that made the most money might be the worst one. There is no corollary between money and quality." A lesson every film-maker would benefit from learning.

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All I Need To Know About FILM-MAKING I Learned from THE TOXIC AVENGER is Lloyd Kaufman's true story of how he co-founded Troma Studios, home of B-movie greats The Toxic Avenger, Rabid Grannies and Class of Nuke 'Em High. It's a tale of how a maverick moviemaker ignored by Hollywood made his own movies on his own terms and created a cult. Written in Lloyd's err...'unique' style (where his writing is as manic as his films) this is the only guide to film-making with added ultraslime (including recipies!). Packed to the latex gills with a heady mix of libellous anecdotes and vital info this is a roadmap to making genre flicks that defy convention. Even if you're not a signed up Tromite there's plenty to keep you reading. Lloyd is a genuine lover of film who's addicted to making movies. This isn't a book by a wannabe film-maker, this is a guy who's been in at the deep end for the last twenty-five years (and still shows no signs of growing up!). A laugh-out-loud funny book that had the cabin crew on my flight urging me to keep quiet. Touching down in New York I knew that somewhere in this city was a film-maker passionate about pushing the boundaries. Bring on the toxic goo!

Sure the book's good but don't take my word for it, click on over to amazon to hear it from Lloyd.

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Thanks for giving your book such a long name Lloyd!

The Big Lebowski : The Making of a Coen Brothers Film - Wow! I really like this and devoured it in one sitting. Much better than the usual sycophantic 'Making Of...' books. The author really tries to dig beneath the surface of the usually monosyllabic Coen Brothers and is pretty successful. Contains an excellent section on how the Coen Brothers storyboard their movies with sample sections of script, storyboards and stills from the movie.

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Steven Spielberg: A Biography by Joseph McBride - Weighing in at about 500 pages this is Spielberg in depth. Covering everything in depth from Stevie Spielberg's Super8 beginnings through effects-fests Jaws and Jurassic Park up until his more serious recent work. McBride offers a close up of the director that has shaped modern cinema.

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