On Directing Film
by David Mamet
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Book Summary Information
Author: David MametEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 1992-01-01
ISBN: 0140127224
Number of pages: 128
Publisher: Penguin (Non-Classics)
Book Reviews of On Directing Film
Book Review: Good place to start to get a few basic points
Summary: 4 Stars
This book represents Mamet's notes from a guest lecture course at Columbia. I began reading this after seeing Heist, which is a movie I like very much visually. I was about 2/3 through with my script at that time. I had only used a camcorder a few times - at the beach and shooting a wedding reception (both works of art :)) I watched Sparta while reading through the first few chapters of this book. Yes, Mamet definitely has his own "style," where dialogue is terse and images flow one after the other. His 'mentor' in the biz is Sidney Lumet, and I'm reading his book, Making Movies, currently. Mamet's is more a theoretical-style course as one would expect from course notes from Columbia. Lumet's is more a great director telling stories about the aspects of Hollywood movie making, chillin' with Pacino and Hepburn, taking a shot at Teamsters every 10 pages or so... Mamet's basic point is keep the plot/dialogue to a minimum and tell your story visually by combining different images in a way that it tells your story. He stresses using what I'll call a 'visual logic' to get from point A (opening shot) to point B (closing shot) - asking, what is the simplest, most logical way of getting there? There are some examples that are rather basic and may get tiresome. 1 important thing is don't TELL your audience everything - do some of it (shots)and leave the rest for the audience to fill in- this won't be random, however - the audience will fill in the rest the way you want it to through the way you've edited your shots together - logic is universal - you are not only directing actors - you are directing the audience! It is a minimalist philosophy that I happen to enjoy. I really don't need a character to narrate his previous and next action to me - that seems very stale... to each their own -
This book helped me understand the basic point of movie making even when heavily narrative - it still is all about the shots and editing them together. If you already know all of this then why are you reading? Go out and make your movie.
I have only read up to the sentence - "Go make your storyboards," as that is what I'm currently doing - mapping every little shot with camera angles/heights/zoom outlined. I've already discovered my script, perhaps like this review, is too "wordy." Anyway, the book is a quick read, cheap, and to me, worthwhile. For many, including Lumet, the magic of film is light. For Mamet, what I got is the magic is in the editing. Obviously combined, outside of story line, which is true of various mediums, lights/editing are what movie making is all about. Best of luck fellow travelers!
Summary of On Directing Film
Calling on his unique perspective as playwright, screenwriter, and director of his own critically acclaimed movies, House of Games and Things Change, David Mamet illuminates how a film comes to be. He looks at every aspect of directing?from script to cutting room?to show the many tasks directors undertake in reaching their prime objective: presenting a story that will be understood by the audience and has the power to be both surprising and inevitable at the same time.
Based on a series of classes Mamet taught at Columbia University's film school, On Directing Film will be enjoyed not only by students but by anyone interested in an overview of the craft of filmmaking.
According to David Mamet, a film director must, above all things, think visually. Most of this instructive and funny book is written in dialogue form and based on film classes Mamet taught at Columbia University. He encourages his students to tell their stories not with words, but through the juxtaposition of uninflected images. The best films, Mamet argues, are composed of simple shots. The great filmmaker understands that the burden of cinematic storytelling lies less in the individual shot than in the collective meaning that shots convey when they are edited together. Mamet borrows many of his ideas about directing, writing, and acting from Russian masters such as Konstantin Stanislavsky, Sergei M. Eisenstein, and Vsevelod Pudovkin, but he presents his material in so delightful and lively a fashion that he revitalizes it for the contemporary reader.
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