Film Directing Fundamentals : From Script to Screen

Rating:
Summary: finally!
Review: Finally there's a book on directing that goes further than just telling you how much headspace to include in your framing. This book, as well as Stefan Sharff's "The Elements of Cinema", is one of those rare ones that is refreshingly to the point. It told me how to block my actors in relation to each other, the camera and the story. Proferes shows ways to make your short or feature as powerful as possible by singling out the most important moments in the story, sequence or scene. With that particular moment in mind, he hands you the tools to arrange these moments within the scenes to make them stand out visually and make them palpable to the audience.

Rating:
Summary: Can't put it down!
Review: The author intelligently and thoroughly guides you step-by-step through the directing process. I learned a lot by his scene analyses of a few popular films. Great book, very much worth it!

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Summary: director-story: an intense relationship
Review: This book taught me that making a film is an alive and organic process rather than a lab experiment in search of the perfect formula. Proferes' concepts of "spine" and "fulcrum" for example, are essential to not get lost in the midst of any film industry development process, in which so many voices tend to give an opinion. The author insists in the need of finding both the mechanisms of the text and the director's "whys" when tackling a story and being truthful to them until the very last decision of the process. His method of "detective work" on the screenplay is a very tough "bootcamp" with yourself in which no production excuses are possible: just director and story. If completed throughoutly, one will get to really know the story in hand, its nature and soul, like one gets to know a person only through intense sharing. That detective work will make pristine clear to the director what is his personal take of the material and will help detecting vital needs, including those painful rewrites. This intimate and utter intense work between director and story is the most direct translation of what it has been named so many times as "the director as an author". Proferes's approach to filmmaking is beyond trends. Timeless. His method could serve anyone that is serious about making films that talks to us directly, way beyond the actual "cool" syndrome. It just talks about drama, about what makes cry or not. And why.

Rating:
Summary: director-story: an intense relationship
Review: This book taught me that making a film is an alive and organic process rather than a lab experiment in search of the perfect formula. Proferes' concepts of "spine" and "fulcrum" for example, are essential to not get lost in the midst of any film industry development process, in which so many voices tend to give an opinion. The author insists in the need of finding both the mechanisms of the text and the director's "whys" when tackling a story and being truthful to them until the very last decision of the process. His method of "detective work" on the screenplay is a very tough "bootcamp" with yourself in which no production excuses are possible: just director and story. If completed throughoutly, one will get to really know the story in hand, its nature and soul, like one gets to know a person only through intense sharing. That detective work will make pristine clear to the director what is his personal take of the material and will help detecting vital needs, including those painful rewrites. This intimate and utter intense work between director and story is the most direct translation of what it has been named so many times as "the director as an author". Proferes's approach to filmmaking is beyond trends. Timeless. His method could serve anyone that is serious about making films that talks to us directly, way beyond the actual "cool" syndrome. It just talks about drama, about what makes cry or not. And why.

Rating:
Summary: Not what, but why...
Review: You will find many books telling you what to do and what not to do when facing the making of a film. Proferes goes far beyond that, showing us the way to find our own way: questioning our selves and questioning our work. After reading Profere's advices, your insight into your own work and motivatons should broaden and you will find how much potential lies behind the most simple idea if you look upon it with inquisitive eyes. Whenever writting or directing, you should keep this book handy. It's a "must-read" for any film maker.