Film Directing: Shot by Shot
by Steven D. Katz
★★★★★
If you have any interest in directing films, this book is for you
Film Directing: Shot by Shot is an in-depth study of film directing that is an invaluable resource for anyone interested in directing. There are hundreds of illustrations illuminating each concept. This book is divided into four main parts: Visualization: The Process, Elements of the Continuity Style, The Workshop, and The Moving Camera.
Visualization: The Process covers visualization, production design, storyboards, visualization tools and techniques, and the production cycle. Elements of the Continuity Style covers composing shots (spatial connections) and editing (temporal connections). The Workshop walks you through the elements: applying the basics, staging dialogue sequences, staging dialogues with three subjects, staging dialogs with four or more players, mobile stagings, depth of frame, camera angles, open and closed framings, and point of view. The Moving Camera covers the pan, the crane shot, the tracking shot, tracking shot choreography, transitions, format, shadowing, short cuts, and parting shots.
The author, Steven D. Katz is an award-winning writer, director, and producer who shares his immense expertise in taking films from concepts to the screen. This is the next best thing to taking a master-work workshop from Katz in person. The hundreds of illustrations and in-depth explanations are a gift to anyone interested in directing or in deconstructing existing films for analysis and education. The illustrations alone are worth the price of admission.
I received an Advanced Reader Copy (ARC) of this book from the publisher through Amazon.
Book description
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 illustrated with the storyboards used for the actual films. Throughout the book, various visual approaches to short scenes are shown, exposing the directing processes of our most celebrated auteurs ― including a meticulous, lavishly illustrated analysis of Steven Spielberg’s scene design for Empire of the Sun.
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