Grammar of the Film Language

This is one book that lives up and exceeds the description and good things people have said about it in other reviews. For a filmmaker as any stage of their development, this is would be a wise investment that you'll go back to again and again.Movies are called "movies" because they are not static, it's about movement and the incredible exploration of all the ways you can create movement and move the storyline forward using combinations of camera setups and movement combined with actor and prop movement is truly exhaustive. You'll discover many ways you'd likely never think of to strengthen scenes using these techniques.I was amazed at the thoroughness with which Daniel brought together lessons from the days of the earliest days of film production to contemporary blockbusters to show you not one, two or five but as as many of 33 ways you can set up to shoot a particular situation in your movie.If you can't go away with new insights and ways to turn pro-forma dull into moving excitement or at least interest, then you need to check into burger flipping or something... it's that good.Whenever you are planning a shot, you'll reach for this book to review ideas and be sure you're not going to create an inadvertent problem in editing. Expect this book to sit next your desk, be dog eared and have sticky notes poking out all over.Definitely recommended.

I have to say that the illustrations are odd. A significant number have scantily-clad women and naked women but there are also illustrations of naked men. It's kinda bizarre but if you look on the illustrations as artist sketchings of the nude form and focus on the information being presented, it's an invaluable guide to camera motivation and how to tell a story in a way that engages the audience.It's difficult to get this information from any source. Schools typically don't teach this stuff and I've never seen it presented to the depth available in this book. It's literally a linguistic guide to cinema, treating motion pictures as a language that the audience has learned from past movies, a language that's apparently innate within our brains. Aspiring filmmakers would be wise to absorb the principles in this book before spending a lot of time and money making movies.The principles in this book explain how camera shots and editing help tell your story. How to compose your shot to show a character's reaction to another character's action. How to reveal story points to the audience at the right time. How to convey time, space and relationships between characters and objects. Great stuff!

This book is incredibly thorough. After reading just a few chapters I see television shows and movies in a completely different way. I am more cognizant of the blocking and camera set-ups that the producers are using to get their particular shots. This is a reference book I will keep close to me. The illustrations are a little dated, and in some of the illustrations the men and the women look-alike, and the men look alike as well, so you have to concentrate to understand the relative positions of the characters as the camera views change, but other than that it is five stars.

I have been making short films since I retired a few years ago and am having the time of my life. There are a gazillion books out there relating to movie making and the film industry and this is typical, yet informative. Probably more helpful for someone just starting out in the business.

Really great for a young person with an interest in film, me and my friends have been reading and disccusing the book obsessively.

i agree with the other reviews stating that it would be a good guide for blocking actors, editing and directing the shot. but it seems to me the book contains just a bunch of examples of how the same shot could be framed in different ways, using different camera movements or different camera placements. and the rest of the information are principles I've already learned from reading free articles on videomaker.com. The pictures and the diagrams could be better. 1 the drawing style (because of all the lines) is somewhat complicated (maybe using photo's or stills from existing movies would make the images much clearer and easier to understand). 2 all the characters look alike, so it's hard to make a distinction between them. 3 as mentioned in another review the diagrams don't really relate to the corresponding image of the shot. wasn't a useful read for me.

I took a look at the french version of this great book yesterday in the university library and all of a sudden I felled in love with it. I've read many books on filmmaking but this one is DIFFERENT. It's a very good practical (sexist? yeah right!) guide to avoid the usual shooting/shot blocking pitfalls. I just can't wait to receive my order.

A thorough and useful guide to options for scene coverage and blocking. The theory is solid even if a lot of the diagrams lack accuracy. Handy to have on your shelf but an updated and revised edition would be even better.

At first this seems like a very difficult book to get through, but be patient, try to finish it, even if you do not understand some of the chapters. Trust me it will pay off. Every year I get back to this book to find something new, and don’t get me wrong - I teach filmmaking.Most of the film examples are old, however you’ll be able to find the relevant clips on YouTube.

I saw this book 27 yrs ago in hard back borrowed it as a student filmmaker.. It allowed me to see how shots are made up, how they fit and why, it contains examples from the masters like David Lean, Hitchcock, Spielberg and many many more - Seriously I cannot recommend it enough!! Don't think about it buy it!!!

It's like a textbook. If you're interested in a certain thing, you just find the perfect chapter. It's great!

This was great. Arrived very quickly and in excellent condition. Good book too.

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