Film Directing Shot by Shot: Visualizing from Concept to Screen

If you're expecting, that you will learn how to direct actors or get dramatic an unique performances with this book you're wrong, this book it's about visualizing, how to move the camera, why, continuity styles, storyboarding, etc, It is an excellent tool for the film & videomaker, you can use it for quick reference, if you're shooting a conversation, it explains, how you can do it without breaking the axis..If you're starting to study film, let Steven Katz, be your teacher, and make your first shorts knowing how to doing them right

I wish I had this book when I was in 6th form. If I had, the last 5 years of my life could have been very different. Unfortunately, I only got hold of this book 6 months ago, and quickly read it cover to cover.I'm not going towrite an in depth review, but I will tell you the 2 most important things that this book deals with...1) Shot composition/storyboards2) BlockingIt tells you everything they don't have time for when you take media studies in your senior high school years. It quickly gets past the basic information about shot types etc, and then takes you WAY BEYOND into a far more in depth and professional level, the kind of stuff you pay tens of thousands for in a film school.The book is that...good.If you only ever buy 1 book on filmmaking/directing, this is the one to get. I'm not kidding.

I wish I had this book before storyboarding on my first feature film years ago. While teaching storyboarding classes in Savannah and Toronto I searched online and was always dissapointed with the few and poorly written books available for Storyboarding until I found this one. Its awsome! It covers all topics of storyboarding and other relative areas in filmaking to help the storyboarder understand film terms, filmic language, and what their place is in production.

When I entered college to recieve a bachelor's degree, I wasn't quite sure what I wanted to do. I ended up choosing a degree in acting, but have since wondered if that was the wrong choice. In the last year of college, I became interested in film direction, but felt it was to late to pursue that career. Mr. Katz's book has changed my mind. In less than one week, I learned more about the technique of film direction than I ever learned in numerous film, and television classes. This book was easy to read, yet not easy in subject matter. It challenges the reader to visualize the subject matter, and to work out common problems in his/her head. It uses an extensive study of soryboarding from both classic and fictional films to easily illustrate his technique. Although Mr Katz uses a pretty set theory of film mechanics, he does challenge the reader to experiment and to create new and exciting art. This book is a must for beginners in the film industry, and I have a hunch that advanced artists could learn a lot from it too.

Film Directing Shot by Shot is a step back from the filmmaker's lens. This book is a praise of preplanning shots and putting them together in the filmmaker's head. Steven D. Katz has presented a great resource not laden with hard technical terminology limited to the professional. Katz explores the graphic design of a shot, presenting alternate examples of shot layout side by side. The author encourages seeing shots on the storyboard and how they play together, seeing the movie as static pictures before any film is spent. As he explains: "look at each sequence as a complete statement. Developing an intuitive sense of the overall perceptual effect of a sequence is one of the skills necessary for visualization." (pp 160) He offers traditional process but encourages experimental methods where appropriate. I was pointed toward the book as an art professional interested in filmmaking. Having read other film preproduction books this has been the best so far.