Moviemakers' Master Class: Private Lessons from the World's Foremost Directors

By: Tirard, Laurent

Book Overview

From Scorsese and Lynch to Wenders and Godard, interviews with twenty of the world's greatest directors on how they make films--and why

Each great filmmaker has a secret method to his moviemaking--but each of them is different. In Moviemaker Master Class, Laurent Tirard talks to twenty of today's most important filmmakers to get to the core of each director's approach to film, exploring the filmmaker's vision as well as his technique, while allowing each man to speak in his own voice.

Martin Scorsese likes setting up each shot very precisely ahead of time--so that he has the opportunity to change it all if he sees the need. Lars Von Trier, on the other hand, refuses to think about a shot until the actual moment of filming. And Bernardo Bertolucci tries to dream his shots the night before; if that doesn't work, he roams the set alone with a viewfinder, imagining the scene before the actors and crew join him. In these interviews--which originally appeared in the French film magazine Studio and are being published here in English for the first time--enhanced by exceptional photographs of the directors at work, Laurent Tirard has succeeded in finding out what makes each filmmaker--and his films--so extraordinary, shedding light on both the process and the people behind great moviemaking.

Among the other filmmakers included are Woody Allen, Tim Burton, Joel and Ethan Coen, and John Woo.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 057121102X
• ISBN13: 9780571211029
• Release Date: October 2002
• Publisher: St. Martins Press-3PL
• Length: 240 Pages
• Weight: 0.70 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 5.5" x 8.1"

Customer Reviews

Best conversations with Directors

This is the must read book for any aspiring movie director. It encapsulates the ideas and personal perceptions on presentation of screen story. It's not a book to know nitty gitty technical details, this is a collection of interviews with many directors and their style of making movie, when they talk about it. Same questions have been asked to all directors (Very good questions, no sterio typical questions you see in movie promos). Get your copy today and enjoy it.

BEST of its kind

This book is absolutely fantastic -- both very readable to a general audience, as well as very informative to a filmmaking one. By asking basically the exact same questions to each of these twenty famous and/or award-winning Directors, he allows us to compare/contrast how each think... & it's fascinating how often these Directors think _differently_ from each other. Ie, twenty (20) different, yet equally valid, perspectives. This isn't some puff-piece or "tell me about that bitchy Actress" kind of text. Instead, Tirard asks questions targeting the Directors' creative process, from How they conceive (their work), to What they like to make & Why, and even on to For Whom they make it. Plus a very interesting filmic question: "Do you consider yourself the Author of your Films". Tirard can even be [forgiven] his "Are films Art" question... b/c he received some rather interesting answers, esp. by those whose work is considered 'Art'. Best of all, is Tirard's method -- he asks his standard [ie. excellent] questions, continues on with some very incisive follow-up... & then gets the hell out of the way (definitely unlike the "me-too" style of Bogdanovich). Refreshing. Absolutely 10 stars for a tremendous work -- This text is a MUST-HAVE for anybody who loves films... & *especially* for anybody who wants to make film. Everybody seems to have their own [strongly-held] opinion of the 'Right Way' to make films... well, this text gives twenty different "Right Ways" to make films, by some of the very best filmmakers around. I just wish they weren't all White Males... I'd've loved to hear Mira Nair's interview, or Nora Ephron's. Where's Volume 2?

A great survey of directing philosophies...

This is a fantastic book because it is a concise survey of a huge range of different directors. You get a strong sense that each director has developed a style relative to their strengths and background, and that diversity is instructive. The key goal is not learning the one way, but to develop a style that matches one's personality. There is one great exchange, where one director tries a technique that another uses and it doesn't work. I've been rereading the book, since it is as much about managing a set as creating a vision with applicability beyond movies.

Amazing

An amazing conglomeration of incredible interviews. Tirard works like a master extracting answers from the industries top directors. The responses are amazing and incredibly helpfull. A must have book!

Essential film reading!

This is an extremely enlightening book for movie lovers as well as aspiring filmmakers. It is refreshing to read about directors talking candidly about their craft with a peer. It is neither boring like some of the more technical books out there nor is it selfserving like books by lone directors. It does not hurt that most of my favorite directors are featured here. The book was recommended to me, and I would definitely recommend it to anyone who is interested in filmmaking.