Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

A masterclass in film-making from the acclaimed director of Whisky Galore and The Ladykillers

Table of contents provided by Syndetics

• Foreword (p. ix)
• Introduction (p. xiii)
• Prologue (p. xxxv)
• Part 1 Dramatic Construction
• The Pre-Verbal Language of Cinema (p. 3)
• What is a Story? (p. 9)
• Exposition (p. 22)
• Modernist Trends (p. 27)
• A Technique for Having Ideas (p. 36)
• Slogans for the Screenwriter's Wall (p. 40)
• Exercises for the Student of Dramatic Construction (p. 44)
• When Not to Write a Shooting Script (p. 66)
• Once Upon a Time... (p. 76)
• Activity versus Action (p. 86)
• Dramatic Irony (p. 92)
• William Archer Revisited (p. 97)
• Plausibility and Willing Suspension of Disbelief (p. 111)
• Density and Subplots in Sweet Smell of Success (p. 116)
• Cutting Dialogue (p. 160)
• The Solomon Exercise (p. 165)
• The Director and the Actor (p. 179)
• Part 2 Film Grammar
• The Invisible Imaginary Ubiquitous Winged Witness (p. 197)
• How to be Meaningless (p. 200)
• Mental Geography (p. 204)
• Condensing Screen Time (p. 209)
• Drawing Lesson (p. 218)
• Point of View (p. 222)
• The Axis (p. 235)
• Shot-to-Shot Relationships (p. 251)
• Camera Coverage (p. 258)
• Camera Movement (p. 272)
• Citizen Kane (p. 280)
• Epilogue (p. 289)

Reviews provided by Syndetics

Library Journal Review

Although Mackendrick (1912-93) made most of his pictures, including the classic Sweet Smell of Success, in the 1950s, his stature has only increased in the intervening decades. In 1969, he abandoned his directorial career and became one of the first faculty members at the prestigious California Institute of the Arts, where he established himself as a demanding teacher who brilliantly conveyed what he insisted was the craft-not the art-of directing. He always maintained (perhaps disingenuously) that film directing and writing could not really be taught, only learned through self-education. This book is a compilation of Mackendrick's copious class handouts. Together, they convey his belief that talent is no substitute for a solid grounding in the essentials. The book's topics include dramatic construction (with numerous storyboarding sketches included), the uses of dramatic irony, dialog construction, and the relationship between director and actor. Few of the thousands of books about film directors have parsed their art and craft as thoroughly as this one does and, most invaluably, in the director's own words. It should be required reading for cinema school courses and is recommended for major cinema collections.-Roy Liebman, Los Angeles P.L. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.