Film Directing Shot by Shot: A Comprehensive Guide for Filmmakers

Dont buy this book , there are books out there for less price . And there is nothing special to know about film direction in this book , its exaggerated in my view . I have read many books on film making and most them bough here in Amazon , I honestly feel that I am ripped off with price tag.

Film Directing: Shot by Shot is a great guide for beginning directors because it goes through the process of directing a film on the ground level. This begins by thinking through what the film should look like through pre-production, and the book includes many examples of storyboards to illustrate the pre-production process. I'm a writer and not a director, and I could appreciate the breaking down of what goes into taking a story and preparing to translate it to film. The author gives some helpful guidance on taking disparate shots and turning them into seamless sequences of film that make a coherent story. With examples from popular films and anecdotal evidence, Film Direction: Shot by Shot is a great introduction to the intricacies of film directing and turning a scripted story into a visual story for an audience.

Katz has done an excellent job cataloguing an array of visual storytelling techniques in “Film Directing Shot by Shot”, covering the principles of framing, shot types, angles, movement, staging, etc… Moreover, Katz familiarizes the reader with the basic rudiments of every stage of production, ranging from screenwriting and storyboarding to editing.

Katz relies on examples from familiar directors such as Steven Spielberg and Alfred Hitchcock, utilizing their films to exemplify various filmmaking techniques. His intent with this book is to teach the viewer how to visualize a film before it is shot, so storyboards play a prominent role in the text. The book is a clear and accessible read — extremely informative, but never academic or dry — which makes it a great refresher before taking on any project.

“Film Directing Shot by Shot” will be a frequently referenced book on my shelf. I recommend it!

This is the 25th anniversary edition of this book used in colleges. It is a book written in a professional, academic tone treating the subject seriously. As the subtitle states this takes the screenplay concept to visual form using storyboards and moving the story from 2D written word into a 3D visual world. About 120 pages is about how to set up each shot with every technical detail from angles to composition and options for how to shoot different scenes such as conversations or handling a group of people interacting. Part four is about moving the camera through the action. This is a long published and well respected book that is considered to be a classic. It handles aesthetics and the importance of artistic vision on each scene moving from part to whole. I respect this book as a solid source of information and for how it takes the elements of art into consideration. Rating 5 stars = Love It.

If you're truly into making videos and a beginning director, this would be five stars - it's comprehensive, detailed, covers every topic one could imagine, while obviously just being a basic primer.

For someone like me who was curious about all the decision-making and creative choices that go into planning and directing a movie/video, it's four stars because plenty of it is over my head. But, if you were planning to use this as a guide or a starting point for your own YouTube projects or photojournalism, I think there is an enormous amount to learn.

Basically, this gives you the behind-the-scenes of how shots are created. We take it for granted that a movie is seamless, but they had to make a lot of decisions up to the finished product. You can tell the difference between something done on the fly, vs.something with a lot of thought behind it. The evidence of planning is right there on the screen, and this book will help you understand the reasons WHY directors and cinematographers make the choices they do. Very interesting!

This has been a go to book for filmmakers for many years. Today's digital systems offer immediate previews and reviews which make the task of imagining how everything is going to turn out a little easier. Young filmmakers today probably cannot imagine a time where you had to wait for film to be processed and printed to see what things really look like, and where post shoot adjustments were difficult and costly. This book was first written in those times.

Developing the discipline to see how things will play out in your mind before putting the crew and equipment to work is still a valuable skill, and essential is you are going to rise to the top of the craft.