Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The best technical and creative book on blocking and shots., 17 Mar 1999
By A Customer
Unequivocally the best reference for shots and blocking. Strickly for the professional director and cinematographer; this is a highly technical book. I refer to this book during my prep for each film, and no matter how many times I have read it, I am always reminded of something dynamic and valuable. Each page has storyboard drawings that show camera position, screen direction, and sequence of cuts. Also shown are dolly moves and character movement. These diagrams are accompanied by clear and detailed commentary. The book is organized with the most basic coverage at the beginning, and each chapter thereafter presents increasing complexity of blocking. The shots presented are all from actual films, a factor that gives the material and the book an aliveness and vitality. Some of these films are complete unknowns, others are classics. Yet the source is inconsequential; what is amazing is that Mr. Arijon has essentially put into this book every possible combination of camera placement and character arrangement that has ever been done in cinema. Every director I have shown this book to has immediately gone out and gotten their own copy for reference. Anyone planning to direct or shoot a film will find this book an invaluable contribution to their ideas and creativity.
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10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A tour de force....An amateur directors Elyssium., 2 Dec 2001
This book is an extremely comprehensive, yet straight forward piece of work. As a teacher in Further education my experience tells me that no one book can be definitive in facilitating learning, however, to use a well work phrase "if you only ever buy one book on directing...buy this publication"!I have bought a number of books on the art of film making, most are jumbled and incomplete in their advice. Mr Arijon's book is superb, in most areas he profers the reader with a myriad of filming techniques accompanied with good clear diagrams. This is the only book I have read that offers clear intricate diagrams that actually help you stage shots, both simple and difficult. The advice is clear and useful. My advice for the amateur and seasoned filmaker is to have a copy of this book on your shelf along with "setting up your shots" by Jeremy Vinyard. This demonstrates camera moves which are also very important and useful to underrstanding the art of directing and editing.I am not an easy person to please. So get yourself a copy of this book and Go make a film!
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10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Totally the best filmmaking book there is, 24 Jul 2002
Whilst flawed, this is the only fully comprehensive book on how to place the camera. It gives exhaustive examples on all sorts, e.g. two person dialogue, three person conversation, four or more person , editing patterns for static dialogue scenes, screen motion, motion inside the screen, motion into and out of shot, player a moves towards player b, using master shots to cover motions on the screen, players move together, other types of motion (e.g. circular, vertical, dynamic stops), panning camera, travelling camera, cranes, zooms, action scenes, using zones of action, film punctuation. It's only flaw is that the diagrams were made by someone who sometimes prefered drawing unclothed women in totally unprovocative scenes next to clothed men. If you can get past the thing that this book is not politically correct, and you want to make films and TOTALLY want to understand camera blocking - you ABSOLUTELY cannot find a better book. This is the ONLY filmmaking book i would buy again if i lost it.
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