On Directing Film

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.

• Making Movies
• In the Blink of an Eye: A Perspective on Film Editing, 2nd Edition
• Rebel without a Crew: Or How a 23-Year-Old Filmmaker With $7,000 Became a Hollywood Player
• The Filmmaker's Handbook, 2013 Edition
• On Film-making: An Introduction to the Craft of the Director
• Master Shots Vol 1, 2nd edition: 100 Advanced Camera Techniques to Get An Expensive Look on your Low Budget Movie
• Directing Actors: Creating Memorable Performances for Film & Television
• Kazan on Directing
• Film Directing: Shot by Shot - 25th Anniversary Edition: Visualizing from Concept to Screen
• Something Like An Autobiography