"America's most distinguished film professor provides the definitive A to Z course on the intricacies of the motion picture. While you may not be able to attend UCLA and sit in Howard's class like hundreds of the top directors, screenwriters, and producers in Hollywood, you can now share the knowledge that has had a major impact on the film industry."--Back cover of trade pbk.
The Power of Movies: An Introduction to Film provides students with an engaging array of readings that explore the innovative and beloved world of motion pictures. Students learn the language of film, the technical process behind movies, how movies have influenced and shaped society and culture, and more. The collection begins by illuminating why individuals are drawn to the movies, positing that films reflect the human condition and society, provide a temporary escape from reality, act as time capsules, motivate audiences, and tap into the parts of us that love storytelling. Over the course of nine chapters, students read articles on cinematic language, film genres, screenplays, the movies as a business and industry, film directors, and visionaries that have influenced the business. Developed to provide students with a foundational understanding of the film industry and its incredible influence in popular culture, The Power of Movies is an ideal textbook for introductory courses in film appreciation, screenwriting, and the motion picture industry.
Explores five case studies in Britain, the USSR, Germany and Italy to determine whether or not propaganda films reached the audiences at which they were targeted, and where they did, whether the films made the impact on those audiences that the propagandists had expected.
How digital visual effects in film can be used to support storytelling: a guide for scriptwriters and students. Computer-generated effects are often blamed for bad Hollywood movies. Yet when a critic complains that "technology swamps storytelling" (in a review of Van Helsing, calling it "an example of everything that is wrong with Hollywood computer-generated effects movies"), it says more about the weakness of the story than the strength of the technology. In Digital Storytelling, Shilo McClean shows how digital visual effects can be a tool of storytelling in film, adding narrative power as do sound, color, and "experimental" camera angles—other innovative film technologies that were once criticized for being distractions from the story. It is time, she says, to rethink the function of digital visual effects. Effects artists say—contrary to the critics—that effects always derive from story. Digital effects are a part of production, not post-production; they are becoming part of the story development process. Digital Storytelling is grounded in filmmaking, the scriptwriting process in particular. McClean considers crucial questions about digital visual effects—whether they undermine classical storytelling structure, if they always call attention to themselves, whether their use is limited to certain genres—and looks at contemporary films (including a chapter-long analysis of Steven Spielberg's use of computer-generated effects) and contemporary film theory to find the answers. McClean argues that to consider digital visual effects as simply contributing the "wow" factor underestimates them. They are, she writes, the legitimate inheritors of film storycraft.
How is watching a movie similar to dreaming? What goes on in our minds when we become absorbed in a movie? How does looking “into” a movie screen allow us to experience the thoughts and feelings of a movie’s characters? These and related questions are at the heart of The Power of Movies, a thoughtful, invigorating, and remarkably accessible book about a phenomenon seemingly beyond reach of our understanding. Colin McGinn–“an ingenious philosopher who thinks like a laser and writes like a dream,” according to Steven Pinker–enhances our understanding of both movies and ourselves in this book of rare and refreshing insight.
Movies, stars, auteurs, and critics come together in film festivals as quintessential constellations of art, business, and glamour. Yet, how well do we understand the forces and meanings that these events embody? This work offers an overview of the history, people, films, and functions of the festival world.
In addition to featuring stunning photography documenting the sleek mid-century design of Super 8 cameras and projectors, this edition also offers a detailed history of the beloved medium--one not only embraced by suburban dads, the target audience of the format, but by the art world, punk rockers, and ultimately popular culture.ture.
Second book in the Star Child: Places of Power series.The raids happen at night. Searches by the police are regular, tearing homes apart down to the nails, the officer's intentions a mystery. This time, it's not SC they are trying to find, but someone else entirely. Nothing will stop them, even if it means traveling halfway across the globe to chase a centuries old myth of a rare power.Join SC and his friends as they discover the police's intentions and attempt to thwart their plans. But with a new villain in town, and Darian missing, can they be successful? Should they fail, the enemy will become more powerful than they can imagine. And if they succeed, they'll unearth secrets best left hidden by time.
The Power of Movies: An Introduction to Film provides students with an engaging array of readings that explore the innovative and beloved world of motion pictures.
