Independent Filmmaking

Rating:
Summary: A technical guide to film making
Review: As a film student, this book is a useful guide in the art of film making. Whilst the information it presents is accurate and generally quite accurate, I found the format of the book to be particularly hard to follow. It is extremely technical and whilst it explains all the terminology it presents, it still leaves the reader feeling somewhat bedazzled by what is essentially an information overload. It is useful, but not interesting, which makes it a little more difficult to learn from and is far too technical too understand without some prior knowledge. This book will give you the technical skills to make films (albeit not the first time you read it), but if you are wanting more of a guide to becoming an independent film maker, I would highly recommend a great text by Greg Merritt called 'Film Production : The Complete Uncensored Guide to Independent Filmmaking'.

Rating:
Summary: Simple, technical, to the point.
Review: The strengths of this book, in my opinion, is the well rounded coverage of technical issues regarding film production. This is not one of those guides which convinces you that it can squeeze scriptwriting, production, casting, postproduction, distribution, and even film appreciation (by giving you a "favorite films" list at the end of the book). This book deals almost completely with technical terms and techniques, which is probably the only issue in filmmaking that can be sufficiently covered in one book. Ofcourse, you will need on hand training, but you can always get your hands on a good old 16mm soviet camera for around $150 or a super8 camera for next to nothing (I did). This books only faults: It's a bit old (1972) and visually it's a bit dull (though there are plenty of b&W pictures and charts). I enjoyed Lipton's rather intimate writing: it feels a lot more like an literal explaination than a textbook.

Rating:
Summary: Cheaper than film school!
Review: This a wonderfully written tome on every technical aspect of the filmmaking art. The fact that it's prevalent in almost every used book cut-out bin makes it all the sweeter. Lipton's style makes reading this a breeze, and it can easily serve you as a primer for every aspect of film production. It's ugly, has almost no pictures, and you'd think it'd be as dated as those jars of peaches in your grandma's cabinet, but it really does serve as a useful tool that can teach you the real ins-and-outs of the filmmaking world. Check it out, really.