Language of Film: Directing

 Timely News:

• Noah Baumbach on Directing Marriage Story
• Directors Roundtable
• Searching for Ingmar Bergman (documentary)
• Remembering Milos Forman
• Andy Serkis on Directing Breathe
• HBO’s Spielberg Documentary
• Jonathan Demme
• Five Came Back (Book/Documentary)
• Ridley Scott To Be Honored by DGA
• ‘By Sidney Lumet’ Documentary
• Scorsese On Symbiotic Filmmaking
• Study: Females Directed Only 7% of Top Films in 2014
• Remembering Orson Welles on His 100th Birthday
• Director Michael Cimino’s First Interview in 13 Years
• Cecil B. DeMille; Showman of the Movies
• Mike Nichols, Celebrated Director, Dead at 83
• Experts’ advice for aspiring filmmakers
• Directing Nominees Discuss Bringing Their Ideas To Fruition
• Hitchcock’s Fans Delight
• Robert Aldrich’s versatility comes back into focus
• Brave Director Talks About the Pixar Process
• Alfred Hitchcock: from silent film director to inventor of modern horror
• Zukor Made Motion Pictures An American Industry
• Cinematic storytelling & directing the director
• Directing at the Speed of an Aircraft
• In Hitchcock’s World of Fallible Mortals
• The Art of Directing A Fight Scene

The release of some of George Cukor’s works on DVD is the occasion for this writer to focus on the director’s attention to visual composition and camera movement among other things.

In a recent issue of Entertainment Weekly magazine, Steven Spielberg tells stories from throughout his entire filmography, but in this online-only excerpt he dives deep into his early years, when he was just a “pre-teen”-looking kid from Arizona, hustling around Hollywood with a projector in a suitcase and an armload of short films.

from HitFix: Martin Scorsese’s child’s-eye adventure “Hugo” is the latest in a long line of the director’s films boasting astonishing technical artistry from a distinguished team of loyal collaborators. With the film hitting theaters, the site looks back and rounds up the finest below-the-line elements from his oeuvre, including contributions from such films as “Shutter Island,” “The Age of Innocence” and “Raging Bull.”

Recommended Resources:

Alfred Hitchcock – Masters of Cinema The American West of John Ford Analysis of art & design: Tim Burton films Ang Lee The Art of Directing (BBC)  Billy Wilder: The Writer Speaks  Burden of Dreams (Werner Herzog)  By Sidney Lumet (documentary)  Cecil B. DeMille: American Epic  Celluloid Ceilings (documentary)  Clint Eastwood   Conversations With Filmmakers (book series)  Corman’s World (DVD)  David Cronenberg & Cinema of The Extreme  David Lynch: Don’t Look At Me  Dial H for Hitchcock Directing: The Fine Art of Blocking and Composition (video)  Direction (Thinking Film)  Director in The Classroom  Director’s Use of Film Language Directors  Elements of Directing  Eyes on Cinema: Hitchcock  Fellini Says doc  Film Director (wikipedia)  Filmmakers: Behind The Scenes (series)  Francois Truffaut – The Man Who Loved Cinema  Great Directors (Senses of Cinema)  Hitchcock Wiki

Hollywood’s Best Film Directors (Reelz Channel series) Hollywood Mavericks   How-To Direct Your Film (FirstLight)  I’m Almost Not Crazy (John Cassavetes)  In The Master’s Shadow: Hitchcock’s Legacy  Ingmar Bergman doc   John Huston. The Man, the Movies, the Maverick   Kurosawa: The Last Emperor   Lesson Plan: You Know the Movie is Coming—Now What? (Read, Write Think)  Looking for Truffault  The Martin Scorsese Film School (video)  Martin Scorsese’s Favorite Films  Masters of Horror   Orson Welles: Man & Film  Peter Jackson  Quentin Tarantino Hollywood’s Boy Wonder   Roman Polanski: A Film Memoir   Sam Peckinpah: Man of Iron  Secrets of Legendary Film Directors (video)  Stanley Kubrick: The Invisible Man / A Life In Pictures  Steven Spielberg Interview Doc  Woody Allen: A Documentary  World’s 40 Best Directors (The Guardian)

 

Anatomy of A Scene: directors discuss ideas and techniques behind scenes in their films.

 

Recommended school resources:
      

General recommendations:

    

     

   

    

Shoot Like… (Michael Wiese Productions)
  

How to Analyze the Films of…. (ABDO Publishing)

 

Ambrose Video (2013)
  

Masters of Cinema
    
        
     
 

Contemporary Film Directors Series (UI Press)

Facts on File Great Filmmakers Series

Making It In Hollywood: The Directors (series, 2006)
  

 AFI’s The Directors Series (DVD)
  

Thunder’s Mouth Press Directors Series

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

DVDs

• Century of Cinema: A Personal Journey with Martin Scorsese Through American Movies  (stream)
• The Eastwood Factor
• Spielberg on Spielberg (stream)
• Stanley Kubrick: A Life in Pictures  (stream)
• A Talk With Hitchcock (1964) (stream)
• Directors: Life Behind The Cameras (pt 3 Hollywood’s Best Directors Choose Their Best Movies)

 Return to the Languages of Film homepage

Share This Page: