Creative Filmmaking from the Inside Out: Five Keys to the Art of Making Inspired Movies and Television - Softcover

Dannenbaum, Jed

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0743223195 ISBN 13: 9780743223195

Verlag: Touchstone, 2003

Inhaltsangabe

Five keys to creating authentic, distinctive work, whether you are a student, professional or simply love making films on your own
For Creative Filmmaking from the Inside Out, three professors at the renowned University of Southern California School of Cinema-Television interviewed fifteen outstanding filmmakers, then distilled their insights into the "Five I's" of creativity. Learn how to:

• Uncover your unique creative voice (Introspection)
• Work from real-life observations and experience (Inquiry)
• Draw on your nonconscious wells of creativity (Intuition)
• Strengthen your creative collaborations (Interaction)
• Communicate at the deepest level with your audience (Impact)

This comprehensive approach provides practical exercises that will enrich and transform your work, whether you are looking for a story idea, lighting a set, editing a scene or selecting a music cue.
The participating filmmakers, who have collectively won or been nominated for 39 Oscars and 27 Emmys, are:
Anthony Minghella, writer-director (The English Patient); Kimberly Peirce, writer-director (Boys Don't Cry); John Lasseter, writer-director-producer (Toy Story); John Wells, writer-producer (ER); Hanif Kureishi, writer (My Beautiful Laundrette); Pamela Douglas, writer (Between Mother and Daughter); Renee Tajima-Peña, director-producer (My America...or, Honk If You Love Buddha); Ismail Merchant, producer (The Remains of the Day); Jeannine Oppewall, production designer (L.A. Confidential); Conrad L. Hall, cinematographer (American Beauty); Kathy Baker, actor (Picket Fences); Walter Murch, sound designer-editor (Apocalypse Now); Lisa Fruchtman, editor (The Right Stuff); Kate Amend, editor (Into the Arms of Strangers); and James Newton Howard, composer (The Sixth Sense).

Über diesen Titel

Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

Carroll Hodge, Jed Dannenbaum and Doe Mayer are professional filmmakers who also teach film production at the University of Southern California School of Cinema-Television. You can visit them at www.creativefilmmaking.com.

Auszug. © Genehmigter Nachdruck. Alle Rechte vorbehalten.

Introduction

This is a book about the creative process of filmmaking -- the mysterious transformation of mere glimmers of thought into coherent stories, characters, images and sounds. As filmmakers ourselves and as teachers of film and video production at the University of Southern California, we are passionate about films and fascinated by the challenges of making them well (we use the word "film" in this book to include all story-based moving image media). Inevitably, we have written a book shaped by our own tastes -- we're drawn to films that feel fresh, multilayered and authentic, that bear the distinct imprints of the people who made them, and that have a strong impact on audiences who see them. These are qualities that can be hard to pin down, but we sorely feel their absence in those films that seem to have come off an assembly line: hollow-feeling cut-and-paste pastiches of other movies and TV shows, filled with clichéd characters, cookie-cutter plots, hackneyed dialogue and imitative stylistic flourishes.

We have written this book to be appropriate for those learning filmmaking on their own as well as for students in a production class or program. We teach in a film school and see its great value in providing structure, contact with diverse tastes and approaches, a collaborative environment, a wide range of hands-on experience, faculty mentoring and many other benefits. We're also aware that film school is not for everyone and that many outstanding filmmakers never went to film school, including a majority of those interviewed for this book. We have therefore tried to make this a resource that would be informative and inspiring, whether used by an individual reader or as an assigned text in a course. (Teachers using this book in classes and workshops, as well as individual readers, may wish to refer to our website, creativefilmmaking.com, for additional suggestions.) Although we designed the book with developing filmmakers foremost in mind, the aspects of creativity it highlights and clarifies are ones that even the most experienced professionals continue to explore throughout their careers. We wrote a book that we ourselves learned a great deal from, and we believe that it will have rewards for anyone working in the field.

It's often said that no one sets out to make a bad film. So, assuming you share something of our taste and want to make films that are inspired, original and resonant, what's the foolproof, surefire formula for great filmmaking? Of course, there is no such thing. Paint-by-numbers formulas -- "put a plot point on page 'x' of the screenplay, use lens 'y' and camera move 'z' for shooting a certain kind of scene" -- cannot produce the kind of inventive, surprising filmmaking we admire. Doing good work is always a risky, unpredictable, paradoxical process even for the very best filmmakers. We used the word "mysterious" above to describe the creative process of filmmaking; so it is and so it shall remain.

Yet what you can learn, and what we emphasize in this book, is how best to prepare yourself, and how to approach your work, so that your inherent creativity has the greatest opportunity to emerge and flourish. Creative Filmmaking from the Inside Out describes an approach that begins with preparation that is largely individual and internal -- recognizing and strengthening your own unique point of view. As you learn to rely on rather than suppress your passions, idiosyncrasies, intuitive responses, values and personal connections to the material, you will develop a more confident inner voice. You can then bring that clarity to your collaborations with fellow filmmakers, to interpreting the responses of audiences, and to wrestling with your responsibilities as a creator of powerful art, without losing your way or diluting the integrity of your intent. Whatever the results, you will have a much better internal gauge for assessing and learning from each experience as you move on to your next creative project.

We have broken down the overall process described in Creative Filmmaking from the Inside Out into five chapters, each exploring one of what we call the "Five I's": Introspection, Inquiry, Intuition, Interaction and Impact. Although we had to put the chapters in a linear order, in reality the "Five I's" are all interwoven throughout the creative process. You might intersperse working from your own point of view (introspection) and brainstorming with a colleague (interaction). You may be in the middle of research (inquiry) and have a provocative dream (intuition). You may start with an idea of what a film is really about (impact), but find that your idea changes and develops throughout the filmmaking process.

The book begins with Introspection, a consideration of how the act of looking within ourselves can help us draw on who we are and how we see the world. The chapter looks at how we might discover the specific kind of work we have a passion for and are particularly well-suited to do; the importance of seeking personal connections in the material we choose to work on; and how we can reference and draw on our own specific experiences, including the darker, more difficult aspects of our lives, weaving bits of ourselves into what we create in order to deepen our sense of connection and authorship.

In addition to working from our own experience, we need as filmmakers to be able to draw on the entire spectrum of human thought and behavior, including those facets we have not yet directly encountered. In Inquiry, we see the importance of having a broad knowledge of the other arts and diverse fields of knowledge; the value of seeking direct firsthand experience of the world of a story; and the need for research, looking deeply into a subject, a setting, a culture, or an era in a way that enriches our understanding and point of view.

Our strange, elusive communications with the nonconscious parts of our mind are often the most spontaneously creative. Intuition is neither guesswork nor supernatural insight -- it is dependable in proportion to the extent that we have prepared ourselves well through education, observation, research and life experience. We can strengthen our receptiveness to our nonconscious inventiveness by connecting more deeply to our ability to dream, daydream, and become lost in play. Intuitive creativity can even require that we turn our conscious attention entirely away from our work for a while, as part of a problem-solving process.

Film is a profoundly collaborative art, and through Interaction we can draw effectively on the ideas and responses of others. Our filmmakers show how collaboration can be an open, fluid process that allows for the integration of many voices, with the director serving as the orchestrator of these varied contributions. When "creative differences" emerge, the resultant give-and-take can enhance rather than derail the process. Much of the success of interaction depends on establishing a genuinely open creative environment, insulated as much as possible from outside commercial forces.

In the fifth chapter, we look at how we create films that have an Impact on an audience. We see how discovering the deeper layers of a film -- its "undercurrent" -- can guide us in making choices that give a film power, resonance and universality. We also see how filmmakers use test audiences as part of the creative process, gauging if a film is having its desired impact. Finally, we explore how the powerful effect of films on audiences also brings with it complex questions of responsibility for the images we create, leading us back to introspection.

At the end of each chapter we include numerous practical yet playful Limbering Up explorations to stimulate and enhance creativity. These limberings are just that -- ways to loosen up and...

Details zur Ausgabe

• Verlag: Touchstone
• Erscheinungsdatum: 2003
• Sprache: Englisch
• ISBN 10: 0743223195
• ISBN 13: 9780743223195
• Einband: Taschenbuch
• Anzahl der Seiten: 228
• Kontakt zum Hersteller: Nicht verfügbar
• Verantwortliche Person: Simon and Schuster Netherlands BV; info@simonandschuster.nl; ; Herculesplein 96; Utrecht; 3584 AA; Niederlande