Making Movies

A personal guide for anyone interested in the world of making movies

A master director's take on making movies. Rather, a long conversation with a legend starting from fundamentals of an elaborate art like film making to details regarding almost every aspect of it. Written in a very lucid, candid manner, it helps the reader appreciate cinema more than ever.. P.S. As this is based largely on his experiences as a film maker, a lot of his movies are referred to. So, try to watch some of his works, before you read this

Sidney Lumet is a celebrated filmmaker whose films started in black & white era and continued up to the current era. Lumet breaks down into each chapter most aspects of filmmaking, how certain decisions are made & why there are no certain set of rules to follow as almost everything goes wrong even in the most well planned shoots. Most of the chapters offers us rare glimpses into all the Politics, Frustrations, Heartbreaks behind all the Glitz & Glamour of Film World. Chapters of Writers, Cinematographers & Actors were especially good; it was like sitting there with them. Lumet's discusses each chapter through the various films he made; we get so much knowledge because of his vast filmography. Any naive & newbie filmmaker can treasure this knowledge; such is the detailing presented to us. This book is will also definitely be enlightening for anyone who wants a walk through on how a Movie is made !

A must read for professional filmaker as well as film buffs, by a master craftsman. In a Very fecile language lumet shares his experiences, which not only gives a vision of a great director but teaches the reader.

Lumet is honest when he carefully tells you each and every step that goes in making a movie, he even goes so far as to tell the intricacies of the mind of each person in the set. He also tells you what questions should you ask when taking certain decisions. Worth every rupee.

A soulful book that captures the spirit of its author a giant in world cinema of the past century. So beautiful and inspiring . Must have for any film maker especially directors like me.

Must read for all aspiring film makers as well as film enthusiasts. Full of great anecdotes. Extremely informative and entertaining read.

Arrived in really bad condition.

Arrived on time in a very good condition! Loved the contents the author describes in the book. A great book for young, aspiring entertainers in the movie making industry.

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Es un obligado para estudiantes de cine o simples fanáticos. Bastante entretenido, te adentra en la experiencia del director en el proceso de creación de películas desde la elección del guión hasta la fecha de estreno. Muchos datos interesantes a lo largo de la narración.

This stuff is awesome it’s a must read.

"Making Movies" is one of the best books on the nuts and bolts of film-making ever. It deserves the highest rating simply because it is both well presented and full of practical insights. Lumet is brilliant on the psychology of movie-making in the old days, for instance, when each producer had the power to order cuts at will. The director who knew this would deliberately leave some weak scenes in during early screenings so that the producers could order them removed and thus later claim to have "saved" the picture – if, that is, it turned out to be a hit. That said, Lumet's overall approach is not historical but topical, from selecting a writer to making the final cut. In Chapter Three, he raises a point I often try to impress upon my students: The way you tell a story should relate somehow to what that story is about. That gets to the whole question of the importance of style, which he terms "the most misused word since love." (pg. 49) Good, practical advice can be found on every page. Here's how he can tell if something is off when watching a scene during rushes: "If my concentration breaks, something is wrong." (pg. 141) This, I might add, applies equally well to reading as to watching – if our attention drifts, there may be something wrong with the book we are reading, or the text of the speech we are delivering. Here's something that may seem counter-intuitive: The audience's perception of the length of a film depends not on the tempo of the movie itself so much as the presence or absence of changes in tempo. The fewer the changes, even if the tempo is fast, the longer the movie will seem. Most melodramas accelerate speed towards the end. Inexperienced directors adopt an up-tempo from the start, then believe they have left themselves nowhere to go except even faster, thus exhausting the audience long before the final credits. Lumet candidly confesses he doesn't know what makes a hit, and doubts that anyone really does. It is certainly not the stars alone. He talks about those he has worked with (including Paul Newman and Al Pacino) without indulging in gossip, and when he has something negative to say, he does so without naming names. One movie of his, which he refuses to identify, suffered from the limited range of one of its stars. "On the second day of shooting, I began to realize that the leading actress lacked the tenderness her part called for. She simply didn't have it in her as an actress or a person. She was superb with anger; she had humor. But if she was asked to show the simplest affection for the person playing opposite her, a falseness crept into her acting that was readily apparent, particularly since her acting was otherwise so real and true…. Since the movie was fundamentally a love story, I knew that we were in trouble." (pp. 143-144) I wonder if the movie in question might not have been "The Morning After." The only hint he provides is that the film "had three very high-powered stars in it." "Morning After" featured Jane Fonda, Jeff Bridges and Raul Julia. On the other hand, Fonda did receive an Oscar nomination for her performance here, so I can't be certain. Though most (but not all) of the examples are taken from movies he himself directed, the book is most definitely not a survey of his career. While "Murder on the Orient Express," for example, gets mentioned at least a dozen times, "Fail Safe" rates only a single one, early on. Incidentally, what he has to say about "Murder…" gives me a higher opinion of that movie than I ever had before; now I am tempted go back and take another look at it. The chapter on the "lens plot" in "12 Angry Men" – how he used differing lenses to create an increasing sense of claustrophobia – is justly famous. On the whole, Making Movies is an enlightening introduction to the craft, presented by an insider. If you are like me, you will be amazed at what you hadn't noticed in movies you thought you knew. For a longer version of this review, please go to hamiltonbeck dot wordpress dot com