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The experience of low-budget filmmaking is so bad it's good. This is the central bit of wisdom writer/producer/director Kaufman (his credits include The Toxic Avenger; Class of Nuke 'Em High; Tromeo and Juliet) gives in this riotous book. Equal parts how-to, memoir and shrewd marketing stunt, it tells young filmmakers to lower their expectations. Taking a reverse-inspirational tack, Kaufman admits indie films probably won't make you rich, famous, happy or very many friends. For emphasis, he begins with an image of him shoveling rat poop from the basement of Troma Studios and closes with a suicide dream sequence. It is to the tremendous credit of Kaufman's profane, self-deprecating, caustic but charismatic sense of humor that the book's opening, closing and everything else in between manages to make the low-budget filmmaking process seem like the most glorious and noble of life pursuits. Seven different contributors regularly interrupt Kaufman with commentary on aspects of the filmmaking process in general and Kaufman in particular. (He's both inspirational and profoundly cheap.) At one point, an argument that's been brewing between coauthor Haaga and Kaufman about whether film or digital video is better dissolves into a five-page, farcical cursing contest. Like the work he pursues, Kaufman's book is at times so bad it's good. 40 b&w photos.
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This is not another 'how-to-make-a-movie' book. This book is about how to be successful at making your movies sell in a very competitive market. This book will kick your professionalism, tool set and image quality up a notch so that you can compete in the real world of cinema. This book is geared to professional minded people who have hopefully had some prior experience in production and who understand the fundamental difference between a hobby and a career. There are no simple solutions, secret tricks, or instant remedies that will turn you into a moviemaker, but this book will help point you on the path to professionalism. Scott Billups, who lives in Los Angeles, is an award-winning director/producer who has produced, directed and written countless feature films, television programs, and commercials
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DVD is the all-in-one storage technology that is altering the landscape of home entertainment, professional video, business communications, and multimedia computing. Now is the time to learn about DVD and how to use it to its best advantage. In DVD Demystified, Second Edition, industry insider Jim Taylor paints a full, up-to-date DVD picture with a friendly technical introduction. You MUST read it if you're a multimedia developer, work with educational technology or industrial training, if you're a filmmaker or musician – or simply want to understand this fascinating technology with potentially huge worldwide impact. "This is not merely ‘a' good book to help you make sense of DVD, it is ‘the' book that you will return to over and over as you explore and come to understand this exciting new optical media format." -- Geoffrey Tully, Multimedia Technology Consultant; former Senior VP of Production, Divx Entertainment As one of the DVD industry's leading experts, Jim Taylor covers every aspect of DVD."-- Ralph LaBarge, Managing Partner, Alpha DVD DVD contains: Hybrid DVD-Video/DVD-ROM has samples from Broadcast DVD, Dolby, THX, DTS, Joe Kane Productions, Widescreen Review, and others, plus test images, WebDVD HTML files, spreadsheets, and more
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Today's film industry is a legal and financial obstacle course that all independent filmmakers must learn to master. In view of this, The Biz--a highly accessible overview of the industry's important business, legal and financial aspect--is a must-read for all filmmakers. It includes thorough explanations and discussions of: Film-industry business jargon; Raising financing; Business structuring; Securities laws; Budgeting essentials; Dealing with the guilds; Loans; Completion guarantees; The legal and financial ramifications of distribution deals; Calculating net profits; Film-industry accounting practices and contingent payments; Copyright, publicity, and trademark laws; Screen credits; Talent demands; Litigation problems; Bankruptcy; Taxation of film companies; The Internet distribution of film . . . and much more. The Biz also includes a dozen useful sample forms and agreements.
-from Amazon.com website

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Scene by Scene consists of detailed, incisive discussions in which film directors and actors analyse key scenes from their film output. Presented in a lively and accessible manner by director Mark Cousins and fully illustrated throughout with numerous film frames, this book includes some of the most important scenes from the last 40 years of film. It will appeal both to the general reader and those wishing to learn more about the craft of film-making. The approximately 35 scenes in the book illustrate the technical excellence of the director or actor in question and are flanked by a brief introduction and a bibliographical section and index. Those interviewed include some of the most famous names in film, such a s Woody Allen, Bernardo Bertolucci, Jonathan Demme, Dennis Hopper, Danid Lynch, Brian De Palma, Roman Polanski, Paul Schrader, Martin Scorsese, Lauren bacall Jeff Bridges, James Coburn, Sean Connery, Kirk Douglas, Janet Leigh, Jack Lemmon, Steve Martin, Jane Russell, Terence Stamp, Rod Steiger and Donald Sutherland.
-from Amazon.com website