Film Directing, Shot by Shot
Visualizing from Concept to Screen
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Book Presentation:
Shot by Shot is the world’s go-to directing book, now newly updated for a special 25th Anniversary edition! The first edition sold over 250,000 copies, making it one of the bestselling books on film di-recting of all time. Aspiring directors, cinematographers, editors, and producers, many of whom are now working professionals, learned the craft of visual storytelling from Shot by Shot, the most com-plete source for preplanning the look of a movie. The book contains over 800 photos and illustrations, and is by far the most comprehensive look at shot design in print, containing storyboards from movies such as Citizen Kane, Blade Runner, Dead-pool, and Moonrise Kingdom. Also introduced is the concept of A, I, and L patterns as a way to sim-plify the hundreds of staging choices facing a director in every scene. Shot by Shot uniquely blends story analysis with compositional strategies, citing examples then il-lustrated with the storyboards used for the actual films. Throughout the book, various visual ap-proaches to short scenes are shown, exposing the directing processes of our most celebrated au-teurs ― including a meticulous, lavishly illustrated analysis of Steven Spielberg’s scene design for Empire of the Sun.
About the Author:
Steven D. Katz is an award-winning writer, producer, and director. His work has appeared on Sat-urday Night Live and in many cable and theatrically released films, such as Clear and Present Dan-ger, for which he completed the first full digital previsualization of a motion picture. He has taught workshops at the American Film Institute, Sundance Film Festival, Parsons School of Design, Danish Film Institute, School for Visual Arts (in New York), and Shanghai University, among many others.
Press Reviews:
"Now that you've got a couple of shorts under your belt, why not get a little more analytic? Steven Katz's book gives a great breakdown of the fundamentals of film directing. It's not something you might want to start off by reading, but once you are ready to have your films take that next step this should be number one on your to do list. Katz breaks down film language for you so that you can learn how to speak it in your own way." - www.austinfilmfestival.com
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