The best way to learn about filmmaking is to do it. There is nothing else that can teach you as much. But in between projects, it's okay to read too. About half way through movie stunt legend Vic Armstrong’s memoir, I found myself wondering if it’d been a better book were it a biography rather than an autobiography. Yet I still enjoyed it, and Armstrong offers an angle on the movies that’s not often discussed. Marshall, the director of films such as Pretty Woman and Beaches, has written two memoirs, but I confess I’ve only read this one. It was worth it, though. The book explores his rise to prominence through his work writing, producing and directing on the liks of Happy Daysand Mork & Mindy. It then takes in his movie career (albeit, given when the book was written, stopping in the 1990s).

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Whatever course you decide to take, hopefully these tips will help you make the most of your time in any film program or even when volunteering on a film production! Editors are often the unsung heroes of the film. Walter Murch is one of the greatest editors of all time, so it's nice to hear Hollywood from his point of view. He details every step he's taken plus strategies he uses to control the edit. It's helped me learn to speak with editors and to trust them. The Reel Truth: Everything You Didn’t Know You Need to Know About Making an Independent Film by Reed Martin Not only may you find a new passion but you may also uncover a hidden talent that you weren’t even aware of. My classmate started the program thinking her main skills were as a journalist. After doing the casting process once, she discovered she had a great eye for spotting talent and really enjoyed communicating with the actors. Now, she is the go to casting director for all projects!Producing is an all-encompassing term. This is one of my favorite books on the list because it takes you through what a producer actually does on each sized film. It also gives a clear structure of how someone moved up in the ranks to become a creator that works with other creators. Turns out, there are lots of legal forms that go into making a movie. Here's a lawyer's handbook so you know just what you can and cannot do on set. It's really useful if you're shooting without permits and if you need to save money. First piece of advice: get the audiobook. Blessed reads it himself. Second piece of advice: head to the chapters on Flash Gordon, and the making of Star Wars: The Phantom Menace. Utter gold. Mark Kermode has done a trilogy of books thus far that are his broader takes on cinema (as opposed to, for his instance, his excellent BFI tome on Silent Running). I’ve enjoyed the other two – Hatchet Job and The Good, The Bad & The Multiplex– a lot. But It’s Only A Movie just about edges them for me.

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The real gift of Julie Salamon’s superb telling of the making of the movie The Bonfire Of The Vanities is that she has you absolutely rooting for it. Accepting that the movie was a notorious early 90s Hollywood bomb (eclipsed in Bruce Willis’ career soon after when the knives came out for Hudson Hawk), Salamon is a patient, diligent observer. She charts how one of the most compelling books of its time was chewed up by the Hollywood system, with director Brian De Palma desperately trying to shape a worthwhile picture at the end of it all. A lot of directors have written about directing, but I love Mamet's point of view because he comes at it as a writer. Also, his theater days give him an uncanny ability to communicate how to deal with actors.

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When I undertake creating something, I like to delve into every job on set. I want to know why certain choices are made, and I need to be able to fill every role if the budget is small. This book really taught me so much about editing. I learned much better communication with the people I work with as well. There are so many books on screenwriting out there and so few of them actually matter. If you want to read about the industry and the way to craft stories, you want to read the best advice out there. An insightful read this, and (relatively) rare in that it gives a producer’s-eye view of some very big and important movies. Michael Deeley’s stories are happy to poke at a few old wounds, and he’s a man who doesn’t pull his metaphorical punches. The late Dawn Steel was one of the first women to ever run a Hollywood movie studio, heading up Columbia Pictures in the late 1980s, before setting up Steel Pictures and making films such as Cool Runnings.

Books About Movies Every Film Lover Should Own - Flavorwire 20 Books About Movies Every Film Lover Should Own - Flavorwire

The astonishing era at Paramount Pictures in the 1970s has been richly covered in film books, but there’s room in producer and eventual Sony studio head Peter Guber for a few more tales. Why learn from one director when you can hear from dozens? Bogdonovich is spectacular as an interviewer and interviewee. He talks to some of the greatest directors of all time and you glean all the wisdom. Palace Pictures was, at one stage, the biggest force in UK cinema. At a point where the British film industry was in the doldrums, Palace – in the ’80s and ’90s – managed to get films such as The Company Of Wolvesand The Crying Gamethrough the system. Again, I'm not the best with this stuff, so I love reading and getting better. This book has the nuts and bolts of what goes into creating the looks of your favorite films but also stories of how challenges were overcome on set. It's a problem solver's dream.You don’t have to spend long with Google to find articles from people on why movies of a particular era mattered to them so much. What makes Hadley Freeman’s terrific Life Moves Pretty Fast stand out is that not only does she come up with interesting reasons as to why her films of choice worked so well, but that she’s woven that in alongside chats with some of the people behind them. You can't make a movie or short without money. So where does it come from? This book takes you through the best methods when it comes to gathering the cash you need. I love the practical ways it dictates and the ways it offers to help you find grants to maximize your income. As with many memoirs on this list, Huston’s latest book, Watch Me, talks around the movies as much as about them. Yet there are real gems in here, not least her working with her father, John Huston, on his last film. Inevitably covering Henson’s early work, experimental shorts and television breakthrough with the likes of The Muppets and Sesame Street, there’s also no shortage of material here for movie nerds to feast on.

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There have been many conversations about just how close to the mark the many stories that Peter Biskind explores in Easy Rides Raging Bulls are. But one thing is fairly certain: that by the time you get to the end of his gossip-y book, you’ll have a list of films to watch that’s comfortably in double figures (assuming you’ve not seen them before, of course). The film writing of Richard E Grant is something to be cherished, not least because he published his outstanding movie diaries – With Nails– whilst very much at his most in-demand.I’ve a real soft spot for books that go into forensic detail about the making of just one film. But even without that, David Itzkoff’s superb dissection about the making of Sidney Lumet’s classic Networkwould be a must-read. Similarly, you can also reach out to them when you need to fill a certain role. I was producing a short film and needed a cinematographer so I asked my cinematography instructor to recommend some students in his department that may be a good fit for the project. You never know unless you ask! Find Your Crew Shaking The Money Tree, 2nd Edition: How to Get Grants and Donations for Film and Video by Morrie Warshawski