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    Making Movies

    Author Sidney Lumet
    Look inside
    Paperback
    $18.00 US
    Knopf | Vintage
    On sale Mar 19, 1996 | 240 Pages | 9780679756606
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    Both a professional memoir and a definitive guide to the art, craft, and business of the motion picture, Making Movies is an essential work for students of cinema.  Using as his reference point such triumphs as 12 Angry Men, Serpico, Network, The Verdict, Daniel, and Running on Empty, Lumet addresses in turn each of the primary elements that went into the making of the movie.  Murder on the Orient Express is invoked to illustrate both the craft and the magic that make up effective art direction, while Long Day's Journey Into Night demonstrates how to employ varying editing tempos to reinforce character.  The Verdict and Daniel both provide a virtual symposium on the subliminal strategies of lighting, and The Hill becomes an object lesson in how to use special lenses for stylization.

    "An invaluable book about the job of being a movie director. From the creation of the screenplay to the final previews, Mr. Lumet explains every step in the process, drawing examples from his own career with startling honesty...[and] discussing with complete frankness the technical, practical, financial, and artistic decisions a director makes.... I am sometimes asked if there is one book a film-goer could read to learn more about how movies are made and what to look for while watching them. This is the book."
    --Roger Ebert, The New York Times Book Review

    "Sidney Lumet tells all that can be told about how a film can be put together. The rest is a mystery."
    --Elia Kazan

    "Film would be a better place if every director were required to share with other romancers of film his process. It is a gift to us all that it is Sidney Lumet, one of America's greatest filmmakers, who is sharing his point of view."
    --Steven Spielberg

    "There is no question that any film student could profit mightily from the lessons provided here by Prof. Lumet."
    --Directors Guild of America Magazine

    Contents

    1. The Director: The Best Job in the World

    2. The Script: Are Writers Necessary?

    3. Style: The Most Misused Word Since Love

    4. Actors: Can an Actor Really Be Shy?

    5. The Camera: Your Best Friend

    6. Art Direction and Clothes: Does Faye Dunaway Really Have the Skirt Taken in in Sixteen Different Places?

    7. Shooting the Movie: At Last!

    8. Rushes: The Agony and the Ecstasy

    9. The Cutting Room: Alone at Last

    10. The Sound of Music: The Sound of Sound

    11. The Mix: The Only Dull Part of Moviemaking

    12. The Answer Print: Here Comes the Baby

    13. The Studio: Was It All for This?
    Sidney Lumet’s films have received more than fifty Academy Award nominations. He has been nominated by the Directors Guild of America for Best Director seven times. In addition, he has received an honorary lifetime membership in the Directors Guild of America as well as its most prestigious award, the D. W. Griffith Award. In 1993, he received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the National Arts Club. His films have been shown in retrospectives at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the American Museum of the Moving Image, the British Academy in London, and the Cinémathèque in Paris. He has also been honored by the French government as a Commander of Arts and Letters. He died in 2011. View titles by Sidney Lumet
    “Film would be a better place if every director were required to share with other romancers of film his process. It is a gift to us all that it is Sidney Lumet, one of American’s greatest filmmakers, who is sharing his point-of-view.” —Stephen Spielberg

    “Invaluable. . . . I am sometimes asked if there is one book a filmgoer could read to learn more about how movies are made and what to look for while watching them. This is the book.” —Roger Ebert, The New York Times Book Review  

    “Remarkable . . . . as dignified as the movies [Lumet] has made and yet deeply felt and very moving. . . . Anyone who truly loves movies ought to read what he has to say about them. . . . Delightfully engrossing.” —Los Angeles Times

    “The film bible from a master. It tells in meticulous detail the step-by-step process of making a movie. You feel you’re on the set. A must.” —Quincy Jones

    “Full of energy, enthusiasm and wisdom. . . . It’s all engrossing because [Lumet] speaks so fervently and opinionatedly about matters on which he has earned the right to opinions.” —The New Republic

    About

    Both a professional memoir and a definitive guide to the art, craft, and business of the motion picture, Making Movies is an essential work for students of cinema.  Using as his reference point such triumphs as 12 Angry Men, Serpico, Network, The Verdict, Daniel, and Running on Empty, Lumet addresses in turn each of the primary elements that went into the making of the movie.  Murder on the Orient Express is invoked to illustrate both the craft and the magic that make up effective art direction, while Long Day's Journey Into Night demonstrates how to employ varying editing tempos to reinforce character.  The Verdict and Daniel both provide a virtual symposium on the subliminal strategies of lighting, and The Hill becomes an object lesson in how to use special lenses for stylization.

    "An invaluable book about the job of being a movie director. From the creation of the screenplay to the final previews, Mr. Lumet explains every step in the process, drawing examples from his own career with startling honesty...[and] discussing with complete frankness the technical, practical, financial, and artistic decisions a director makes.... I am sometimes asked if there is one book a film-goer could read to learn more about how movies are made and what to look for while watching them. This is the book."
    --Roger Ebert, The New York Times Book Review

    "Sidney Lumet tells all that can be told about how a film can be put together. The rest is a mystery."
    --Elia Kazan

    "Film would be a better place if every director were required to share with other romancers of film his process. It is a gift to us all that it is Sidney Lumet, one of America's greatest filmmakers, who is sharing his point of view."
    --Steven Spielberg

    "There is no question that any film student could profit mightily from the lessons provided here by Prof. Lumet."
    --Directors Guild of America Magazine

    Contents

    1. The Director: The Best Job in the World

    2. The Script: Are Writers Necessary?

    3. Style: The Most Misused Word Since Love

    4. Actors: Can an Actor Really Be Shy?

    5. The Camera: Your Best Friend

    6. Art Direction and Clothes: Does Faye Dunaway Really Have the Skirt Taken in in Sixteen Different Places?

    7. Shooting the Movie: At Last!

    8. Rushes: The Agony and the Ecstasy

    9. The Cutting Room: Alone at Last

    10. The Sound of Music: The Sound of Sound

    11. The Mix: The Only Dull Part of Moviemaking

    12. The Answer Print: Here Comes the Baby

    13. The Studio: Was It All for This?

    Author

    Sidney Lumet’s films have received more than fifty Academy Award nominations. He has been nominated by the Directors Guild of America for Best Director seven times. In addition, he has received an honorary lifetime membership in the Directors Guild of America as well as its most prestigious award, the D. W. Griffith Award. In 1993, he received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the National Arts Club. His films have been shown in retrospectives at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the American Museum of the Moving Image, the British Academy in London, and the Cinémathèque in Paris. He has also been honored by the French government as a Commander of Arts and Letters. He died in 2011. View titles by Sidney Lumet

    Praise

    “Film would be a better place if every director were required to share with other romancers of film his process. It is a gift to us all that it is Sidney Lumet, one of American’s greatest filmmakers, who is sharing his point-of-view.” —Stephen Spielberg

    “Invaluable. . . . I am sometimes asked if there is one book a filmgoer could read to learn more about how movies are made and what to look for while watching them. This is the book.” —Roger Ebert, The New York Times Book Review  

    “Remarkable . . . . as dignified as the movies [Lumet] has made and yet deeply felt and very moving. . . . Anyone who truly loves movies ought to read what he has to say about them. . . . Delightfully engrossing.” —Los Angeles Times

    “The film bible from a master. It tells in meticulous detail the step-by-step process of making a movie. You feel you’re on the set. A must.” —Quincy Jones

    “Full of energy, enthusiasm and wisdom. . . . It’s all engrossing because [Lumet] speaks so fervently and opinionatedly about matters on which he has earned the right to opinions.” —The New Republic

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